India skipper Rohit Sharma had words of praise for Ravichandran Ashwin who will play his 100th Test when India take on England in the fifth Test in Dharamsala starting from Thursday. “It’s a big achievement for any player to play 100 Tests. It’s a big milestone.
“R. Ashwin for us is a big match-winner for us. Whatever he has done for the team in all these years, any praise is less because if you look at his performances in the last 5-7 years, every series he has contributed big. So players like these are rare,” Rohit said at the pre-match press conference in Dharamsala on Wednesday.
“I want to congratulate him for his 100 Test landmark, of course to get near it as the toss hasn’t happened. It feels good to reap rewards of your hard work. As a captain, I have seen him since U-19, U-17 days. He batted at that time, was an opener and then he started bowling. And I used to bowl and then became a batsman, so it became up and down for us but it has been good for Indian cricket,” added Rohit.
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Ashwin recently became the ninth bowler overall and only the second Indian after Anil Kumble to reach 500 Test wickets. “As a cricketer he has evolved in his game and he has a lot of intelligence and if you get a player like this in the team then you don’t have to think too much. if you give the ball to him then he drives the game.
“How to bowl, what field to set and what to do, I am talking about the planning during the game. Apart from that what you see on the field is a result of a lot of off field stuff and the work done on one’s bowling. I have often seen him bowling with just one stump before a match – one hour 45 minutes before a game. Bowling at one stump a day before a Test,” added Rohit.
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Rohit termed Ashwin as a big team player. “This is cricket’s basics, like we bat in the net for an hour or two, similarly bowlers also prepare bowling on one stump. I have seen him regularly bowl at one stump and this has been a process for him. And the biggest thing is that he is a big team player and we saw that in the Rajkot Test when it was a difficult situation for him but he called and said ‘I want to come back and do something for the team’. You see this rarely and when you have players like this then your head is held high,” continued the 36-year-old.
India have already clinched the series with a five-wicket win in the fourth Test in Ranchi that helped them take an unassailable 3-1 lead. Apart from Ashwin, England’s Jonny Bairstow will also be playing his 100th Test match.