Ian Chappell reckons Ravi Ashwin as a better spinner than Nathan Lyon.
Former Australian Cricketer Ian Chappell described Indian senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin as one of the greatest modern-day bowlers playing Cricket currently while former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has expressed his “problems” being called Ashwin as the all-time great.
Manjrekar feels that despite having so many wickets under his hat in Test format, Ashwin never picked a fifer in SENA countries. Moreover, the former cricketer stated that his likes have been matched by Ravindra Jadeja in the last couple of years who is constantly picking wickets for India in all three formats.
“When people start talking about him as being one of the all-time greats of the game then I have a few problems,” Manjrekar said on the ESPNcricinfo programme ‘Runorder’.
“One basic problem I have with Ashwin is that when you look at SENA countries, Ashwin doesn’t have a single five-wicket haul there.
“And the other thing when you talk about him running through sides on Indian pitches that are suited to his kind of bowling is that in the last four years, Jadeja has matched him with wicket-taking abilities.
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The 55 years old cricketer put forth the stats of Ashwin and Axar Patel in recent India vs England Test series wherein the latter scalped more wickets than the former.
“Then, interestingly, in the last series against England, Axar Patel got more wickets than Ashwin on similar pitches. So that is my problem with accepting Ashwin as a real all-time great,” Manjrekar concluded.
Ian Chappell, a brilliant Australian skipper, not convinced with what Manjrekar observed, cited Joel Garner, former West Indies bowler as an example.
Chappell argued, how many test fifers Garner owns in his test career? Not many, if you look at his records, he is definitely one of the all-time great bowlers.
“I would like to make a couple of points there — if you look at Joel Garner, I mean how many five-wicket hauls Joel Garner has? Not many, when you consider how good he was and his record. And why, because he was performing with three other very, very fine players,” Chappell pointed out as Manjrekar listened.
“And I think, particularly of late, I find that the Indian attack has been so strong that the wickets are being shared around more.
“And the other point I would make is because of Ashwin’s reputation I think the England players probably concentrated more on keeping Ashwin out and with Axar Patel, well, let’s be blunt about it, they didn’t have a bloody clue,” Chappell added.
Ian Chappell’s top 5 current best Test bowlers:
Keeping Ravichandran Ashwin in the list of his top 5 current best bowlers, the former skipper picked two other Indians – Mohammad Shami, Ishant Sharma- along with the likes of Pat Cummins and Kagiso Rabada.
Chappell rated Ashwin ahead of Australian spinner Nathan Lyon.
“I think Ashwin is a better bowler than Nathan Lyon. Have a look at Nathan Lyon’s strike rate, you are in the 70s and I am going back to 2018.
“Nathan Lyon, to me, I think runs get scored through the onside when he is bowling to the right-handers and that really just shouldn’t happen. Yes, he is a fine bowler but I think Ashwin is a better bowler.”
The 77-years old Aussie seems impressed with Ishant Sharma’s stats since 2018. The pacer has picked up 77 wickets in 22 test games he has played since 2018.
“Ishant’s record in the last I think I went back to the start of 2018 and looking at some stats and his record is extremely good,” Chappell said.
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