Ravichandran Ashwin | Outstanding spinner, capable batter, match winner

Ravichandran Ashwin, a colossus in Indian cricket, called it quits in international cricket after a stellar career.

Ravichandran Ashwin, a colossus in Indian cricket, hung up his kit bag and called it quits in international cricket after a stellar career on Wednesday, just as the third Test between Australia and India in Brisbane petered out to a draw. This article will focus only on his Test record.

Ashwin’s retirement announcement meant that he finished as the seventh-highest wicket-taker in Tests (537 wickets) at a stellar average (runs per wicket) of 24 and a strike rate (SR, deliveries bowled per wicket) of 50.7. He also scored 3,503 runs at an average of 25.75. Only his former Indian coach Anil Kumble managed a higher wicket tally (619) and only 20 Indian batsmen scored more Test runs than him, indicating his strong all-round ability and performance in cricket’s classical version.

Sri Lanka’s M. Muralitharan (800), Australia’s Shane Warne (708), and Kumble (619) finished with more wickets than Ashwin but the Tamil Nadu player and Chennai-born spinner played fewer matches compared to the other three. With 37 five-wicket-hauls-in-an-inning and eight 10-wicket-hauls-in-a-match, Ashwin was not far behind Warne’s 37 5-fers and 10 10-fers, but this statistic was dominated by Muralitharan, who finished with 67 5-fers and 22 10-fers.

Where does Ashwin rank among the all-time best bowlers? As Chart 1 shows, Ashwin’s SR of 50.7 was the top of the pops among spinners (who picked up at least 250 wickets). No other spinner, except for Muralitharan, came close.

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Table 1 shows the spinners with 250 or more wickets, ordered on overall SR.

Ashwin’s phenomenal record in the subcontinent (India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, he did not play in Pakistan), where he picked up a whopping 433 wickets at a SR of 45.8 and an average of 21.76 (second only to Muralitharan’s 21.69), helped him register a great overall SR. This is despite a somewhat less sterling 70.8 SR in venues not friendly to spin in other countries, such as South Africa, England, Australia, New Zealand, and West Indies.