Former India opener Gautam Gambhir has stated that Ravichandran Ashwin's impact as an all-rounder in Team India is similar to that of the legend as well as the former India captain Kapil Dev.
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Former India opener Gautam Gambhir has stated that Ravichandran Ashwin‘s impact as an all-rounder in Team India is similar to that of the legend as well as the former India captain Kapil Dev. Ashwin has amassed 61 runs in India’s first innings of the first Test against Sri Lanka and then he picked up a six-wicket haul too. With this, he also surpassed Kapil Dev’s tally of 434 Test wickets as well.
Meanwhile, during a discussion on Star Sports, Gautam Gambhir was asked if R Ashwin has been second only to the veteran Kapil Dev in the all-round department for the Indian team. To which he responded: “Probably not second. I think parallel to Kapil Dev because of the sort of impact Ravichandran Ashwin has had. He has scored five Test hundreds although I don’t want to go with stats, they can be very very misleading.”
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So far, R Ashwin has smashed 2905 runs which came at an average of 27.14 in the 85 Tests he has played for the Indian team as well. Meanwhile, Kapil Dev had scored 5248 runs at an average of 31.05 in the 131 Tests he had played for Team India, including eight tons as well.
Meanwhile, Gambhir has applauded R Ashwin’s spell in the Melbourne Test of India’s last tour of Australia as well. He said: “Ravichandran Ashwin’s spell in Melbourne, I have said this openly and I will say it again – that is the best spell I have seen in my entire career by an off-spinner across decades, across generations. It was a spell on the first day when he got Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and Matthew Wade out.”
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The player-turned-commentator has also shared that Ashwin’s spell was praiseworthy as it came on the first day of the Test and that too with the Kookaburra ball as well.
Gautam Gambhir concluded: “The way Ashwin bowled on the first day, I don’t think any other off-spinner has created such an impact in Australian conditions and that too with the Kookaburra ball. If you ask any finger spinner, they would have hated playing with the Kookaburra ball because neither does it have that seam nor does it get that much bounce.”
