Last Updated: July 18, 2023, 2:56 PM IST
India lead the two-match series 1-0. (AP Photo)
Ravichandran Ashwin showed his class in the series opening Test between India and West Indies in Dominica, finishing with 12 wickets.
India have made a blistering start to their third ICC World Test Championship cycle, leaving behind the disappointment of another runners-up finish last month.
After a break that lasted nearly a month, a rarity in Indian cricket, the Rohit Sharma-led side routed West Indies in Dominica for an innings and 141-run win in the first Test last week.
There were two standout performers for India in the contest that helped them wrap up the proceedings inside three days’ time. Debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal announced himself to the world with a century and made 171 off 387.
With the ball, spinners ruled the roost, especially the wily Ravichandran Ashwin who ran through the Windies batting order like a hot knife through butter.
The vastly experienced Ashwin finished with excellent match figures of 12/131, his eighth 10-wicket haul of Test career and thus drew level with India’s most prolific Test bowler Anil Kumble.
Ashwin has now 34 five-wicket hauls in Test cricket and needs one more fifer to equal Kumble’s 35.
“Ashwin plays with the batsmen’s mind,” Kumble, a JioCinema expert, said. “It is not just about the skills you have. It is also the ability to transfer pressure onto the batter which you could see in every batter that faced R Ashwin, you could see that in their body language.”
Ashwin also achieved a rare feat after he dismissed Tagenarine Chanderpaul on Day 1 of the first Test. He became the first Indian bowler to dismiss a father-son duo in Test cricket having earlier accounted for Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Tagenarine’s father, 12 years back.
Kumble was impressed with how the 36-year-old planned the dismissals of Windies left-handers, especially that of Tagenarine.
“He (Ashwin) bowled wide off the crease with the ball coming into the left-hander. Once the left-hander thought the balls will come in is when Ashwin bowled that beautiful delivery to Chanderpaul which just drifted in and left him and took the off stump,” he said.
