Ravichandran Ashwin

Ashwin in February 2013.
Personal information
Full name	Ravichandran Ashwin
Born	(1986-09-17) 17 September 1986 Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Nickname	Ash
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm off spin
Role	All-rounder
International information
National side	India
Test debut (cap 271)	November 6, 2011 v West Indies
Last Test	August 15, 2013 v England
ODI debut (cap 185)	february 5, 2010 v Sri Lanka
Last ODI	August 26, 2014 v England
ODI shirt no.	99
T20I debut (cap 30)	June 12, 2010 v Zimbabwe
Last T20I	September 7, 2014 v England
Domestic team information
Years	Team
2006/07–present	Tamil Nadu
2010–present	Chennai Super Kings
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI T20I FC Matches 21 80 25 56 Runs scored 894 593 55 2,064 Batting average 38.86 17.44 27.50 36.85 100s/50s 2/3 0/1 0/0 3/10 Top score 124 65 17* 124 Balls bowled 6330 4319 576 14,824 Wickets 107 108 25 241 Bowling average 28.65 32.65 27.80 28.36 5 wickets in innings 9 0 0 20 10 wickets in match 2 n/a n/a 5 Best bowling 7/103 3/24 4/11 7/103 Catches/stumpings 7/0 23/0 5/– 22/–
Source: ESPNcricinfo, August 29, 2014

In this Indian name, the name Ravichandran is a patronymic, and the person should be referred to by the given name, Ashwin.

Ravichandran Ashwin (born 17 September 1986) is an Indian international cricketer who is currently ranked as the number two Test all-rounder in the World. He is a right-handed batsman and right-arm off-break bowler. He plays for Tamil Nadu in domestic cricket and the Chennai Super Kings in Indian Premier League. He is the fastest Indian bowler to take 50 wickets & 100 wickets in Test cricket.

He is the only bowler of recent times apart from Ajantha Mendis of Sri Lanka to bowl the carrom ball. His bowling has a lot of variation. He has been India's highest wicket taker since his debut with 245 wickets in all forms of the game.

He is a very handy lower-order batsman as well. He possesses a compact and correct batting technique and good temperament which has seen him score two centuries and three half-centuries in his Test career so far.

Early years and personal life

Ashwin is born in an Hindu Brahmin family. He lives in West Mambalam, Chennai. He did his schooling from Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan and St. Bede's. He attended SSN College of Engineering and graduated with a B.Tech in Information Technology.

On 13 November 2011, Ashwin married his childhood friend Prithi Narayanan. Ashwin’s father Ravichandran played competitive cricket in Tamil Nadu.

Domestic career

Ashwin is an all-rounder for Tamil Nadu and has taken 6/64 against Vidarbha in first-class cricket. He made his debut against Andhra Pradesh in Twenty20 cricket.He plays first-class cricket for Tamil Nadu and has played in the Duleep Trophy for South Zone. He was nicknamed "Dada" during his U-19 days while touring Dharmasala.

He played for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Cricket League. He became the highest wicket taker of the 2010 Champions League Twenty20 tournament for Chennai Super Kings in the tournament with 13 wickets and was adjudged as the player of the tournament and also got the Golden Wicket.

International career

He made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka in June 2010. He scored 38 runs in a losing game. Later, in that month he was selected in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 squad to represent India along with the spinners Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla. He played 2 matches for India in that series. He made his World Cup debut in March 2011 against the West Indies with bowling figures of 10-0-41-2. He played his second world cup match against Australia in the second quarter final at Sardar Patel Stadium with figures of 10-1-52-2.

In November 2011, he made his Test debut earning his test cap from Sachin Tendulkar along with Umesh Yadav against West Indies, with figures of 27–4–81–3 in the 1st innings and 21.3–5–47–6 in the 2nd innings.

Ashwin was awarded the Man of the Series for his performances with both ball and bat. In the third Test, he scored his maiden international century, helping India to a draw. Ashwin was given the Dilip Sardesai award for becoming the Man of the Series in his debut Test series and a cheque for 5 lakh.

Ashwin subsequently toured Australia for India's four-Test series in 2011/12. He played in three of the Tests being left out of the side for the third Test on the pace-friendly WACA Ground taking nine wickets at an average of 62.77.

Ashwin took 18 wickets at average of 13.11 in two test matches against New Zealand and become Man of the Series. In 1st Test, his match figures of 12/85 at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium was the best by an Indian spinner against NZ bettering S. Venkataraghavan's 47 year old record set on 19 March 1965 with match figures of 12/152 at Feroz Shah Kotla.

Ashwin's figures of 12/85 is the second best performance against New Zealand in a test match behind West Indies Courtney Walsh's performance in Wellington in February 1995. Ashwin's best bowling figures are 7/103 runs at MA Chidambaram Stadium. In 2nd Test, in Second innings he took 5 wickets for 69 runs.

Ashwin's superb bowling show brought him in the league of top 20 in ICC's Test Rankings. He achieved his career best test ranking of 18 after the series against New Zealand and 9th in the all-rounder rankings. In the England tour of India in 2012, he took 3/80 in the 1st innings in the 1st test at Sardar Patel Stadium to help his side win. Ashwin became the fastest Indian to record 50 wickets in Test matches as he overhauled the milestone in his ninth game. He achieved it when he dismissed the England opener Nick Compton in November 2012, the second day of the first Test at Sardar Patel Stadium. The previous record holder was the legendary Anil Kumble who had reached the milestone in his tenth Test. In the 2nd test at Wankhede Stadium, he scored 68 in the 1st innings and took 2/145 in the 1st innings opening the bowling however his side lost the test by 10 wickets. In the 3rd test at Eden Gardens, he scored 21 and 91 not out and took 3/183 and 2/31 but his efforts were not enough as the visitors needed just 41 to win in the 2nd innings, and they won easily by 7 wickets.

In December 2012, Ashwin completed 500 runs in his 11th Test cricket match when batting against England scoring 91 not out.

With this he shares the record of becoming the fastest player along with Australia’s Jack Gregory and England’s Ian Botham, who also took 11 Tests to reach the mark of completing the all-round double of 500 runs and 50 wickets. Incidentally the quickest Indian to reach 500 runs and 50 wickets before Ashwin was Salim Durani, who did so in his 14th Test, followed by Vinoo Mankad in 15 tests and Kapil Dev in 16. Ashwin played his first home test in this tour in Chennai. In the Chepauk Test, in the first innings, he recorded his career best of 7/103. In the second innings, he ended with 5/95 and ended the match with figures of 12/198.

In the second innings of the second test in Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, he registered yet another five wicket haul with figure 5/63. In the final test at Feroz Shah Kotla, he scalped his fourth five-wicket haul of the series.

He finished the series with a tally of 29 wickets. He also won the Man of the Series award for his excellent bowling. Ashwin has become the 3rd Indian off-spinner to take 25-plus wickets in a series after Harbhajan Singh’s 32 & EAS Prasanna’s 26.

Ashwin has surpassed former India captain Anil Kumble as the leading wicket-taker for India in a four-Test series. Ashwin claimed his 28th wicket of Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2012/13 at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. The previous record of 27 had been achieved by Kumble against Australia too, during the 2004/05 edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. In 2013, Ashwin continued his good all-round form against West Indies in this Test. He has now hit a hundred and taken five wickets for the match against them in consecutive Tests. He had hit a hundred and taken nine wickets the last time India played against West Indies at Wankhede Stadium in 2011. Only four other India players have hit a hundred and taken five or more wickets for the match. Ashwin's the only one to do it twice.

The 280-run partnership between Rohit Sharma and Ashwin was India's highest in Tests for the seventh wicket, beating the unbeaten 259-run partnership between VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni against South Africa at the same venue in 2010. This was also the second-highest partnership for India against West Indies for any wicket in Tests. After a poor performance against South Africa in the 1st Test in India's tour of South Africa 2013-14, Ashwin was dropped for the 2nd test and didn't play in any of the tests on the New Zealand tour. He was also not selected for the 1st test against England.

Bowling Style

Ashwin is a tall off-spinner who primarily relies on the bounce of the pitch to get his wickets, much like his predecessors Harbhajan Singh and S Venkatraghavan. But, unlike the other two, he is willing to flight the ball thereby giving it more chance to spin and dip on the batsman. In addition to his stock delivery the off-break, he has good control over his arm-ball and the carrom ball the latter of which he uses frequently in the shorter formats. In IPL 2013 he was seen bowling leg-break and googly as well. However, in an interview he has stated that he refrains from bowling the doosra as it requires him to bend and straighten his arm which he finds difficult to do.

The short test batting career of R Ashwin, updated till the 2nd Test Match of Australia vs India 2011–12.

Test Centuries

No.	Score	Match	Opponent	Venue	City	Year	Result
1	103	3	West Indies	Wankhede Stadium	Delhi	2011	Drawn
2	124	17	West Indies	Eden Gardens	Kolkata	2013	Won

ODI Half-Centuries

No.	Score	Match	Opponent	Venue	City	Year	Result
1	65	73	New Zealand	Eden Park	Auckland	2014	Tied

Test Five-wicket Hauls

No.	Figures	Match	Opponent	Venue	City	Year	Result
1	6/47	1	West Indies	Feroz Shah Kotla	Delhi	2011	Won
2	5/156	3	West Indies	Wankhede Stadium	Delhi	2011	Drawn
3	6/31	7	New Zealand	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium	Hyederabad	2012	Won
4	6/31	7	New Zealand	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium	Hyederabad	2012	Won
5	7/103	13	Australia	M.A. Chidambaram Stadium	Chennai	2013	Won
6	5/95	13	Australia	M.A. Chidambaram Stadium	Chennai	2013	Won
7	6/63	14	Australia	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium	Hyederabad	2012	Won
8	5/57	16	West Indies	Feroz Shah Kotla	Delhi	2013	Won

Test Ten-wicket Hauls

No.	Figures	Match	Opponent	Venue	City	Year	Result
1	10/85	7	New Zealand	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium	Hyederabad	2012	Won
2	12/198	13	Australia	M.A. Chidambaram Stadium	Chennai	2013	Won

Achievements

• Ravichandran Ashwin became the fastest Indian bowler to reach 100 test wickets as he got to the milestone in his 18th Test match. The previous record holder was legendary Indian spinner Erapalli Prasanna who got there in his 20th test. Ashwin also became the 5th fastest bowler in the world to reach 100 Test wickets after G.Lohmann (Eng in 16 matches), CTB Turner (Aus in 17 matches), S.F.Barnes (Eng in 17 matches) & C.Grimmett (Aus in 17 matches).
• Ravichandran Ashwin became the first Indian cricketer to score a century and take five wickets in same test match on 2 separate instances. He achieved this feat for the first time in his third Test when he made 103 and took 5/156 in the first innings. Again he repeated the feat in the Kolkata test against West Indies in November 2013 where he took 2/52 in the 1st innings and 3/46 in the 2nd innings and scored 124 in India's 1st innings. Other Indians to have done this feat once are Vinoo Mankad in 1952 and Polly Umrigar in 1962. This feat had only been achieved 26 times previously in world cricket, the last occasion being by Jacques Kallis in 2002.
• He is also the third Indian cricketer to be awarded the Man of the Match (MoM) on debut. Other Indians to have done this are Narendra Hirwani, Pravin Amre and R.P. Singh, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, with Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan debuting after Ashwin. Ashwin registered the 2nd best bowling on debut by an Indian bowler with 9/128 performance, behind Hirwani’s 16-wicket world record debut performance.
• Ashwin became the fastest Indian to record 50 wickets in Test matches as he overhauled the milestone in his ninth game. He achieved it when he dismissed the England opener Nick Compton on 16 November 2012, the second day of the first Test at Ahmedabad. The previous record holder was the legendary Anil Kumble, who had reached the milestone in his tenth Test.
• On 8 December 2012, Ashwin completed 500 runs in his 11th Test cricket match when batting against England scoring 91*. With this he shares the record of becoming the fastest player along with Australia’s Jack Gregory and England’s Ian Botham, who also took 11 Tests to reach the mark of completing the all-round double of 500 runs and 50 wickets. Incidentally the quickest Indian to reach 500 runs and 50 wickets before Ashwin was Salim Durani, who did so in his 14th Test, followed by Vinoo Mankad in 15 tests and Kapil Dev in 16.
• Ashwin has surpassed former India captain Anil Kumble as the leading wicket-taker for India in a four-Test series. Ashwin claimed his 28th wicket of Border-Gavaskar Trophy (2012–13) at the Feroz Shah Kotla, New Delhi. The previous record of 27 had been achieved by Kumble against Australia too, during the 2004–05 edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
• Ashwin & Rohit Sharma together put on a record 7th partnership(280 Runs) for India in the first test against West Indies

Awards

• Arjuna Award 2014

See also

• List of India Test cricketers who have taken five wickets on debut

External links

• Ravichandran Ashwin Profile at Cricinfo
• R Ashwin's profile page on Wisden
• Ravichandran Ashwin Profile and latest news at Sportskeeda
• Ravichandran Ashwin ready with his mystery ball
• Ravichandran Ashwin on Twitter