Ravichandran Ashwin

Ravichandran Ashwin is an Indian cricketer who represents the country in international cricket. On the domestic level, Ashwin plays first-class cricket for Tamil Nadu. He also plays for the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL). A wily spinner who is better known to play the game of chess with batters rather than cricket.

Born on 17 September 1986 in Chennai, Ashwin is one of India's ace spin bowlers and bowls right-arm off-break. Ashwin is most popular for his ability to spin the ball both ways. Ashwin is also known for his carrom ball and leg spinners. This not only makes him one of the best spinners in India, but one of the best in the world.

He practiced the sudoku ball, which is a finger-flicked tennis-ball leg break, and took to international cricket, starting off from the streets of Chennai. His inspiration to play cricket came from one of the most versatile spinners in Sri Lanka, Ajantha Mendis, and his carrom ball.

At the age of just 21, this young lad saw Mendis in a game at Chennai and got back home with a new found inspiration and belief. Today, Ashwin has close to 450 Test wickets to his name and is the 2nd highest wicket-taker for India in Test match history.

Ravichandran Ashwin - Along the years

Ravichandran Ashwin Records

1. Ashwin is the fastest Indian bowler and the third-fastest in the world to reach 200 Test wickets after Pakistani spinner Yasir Shah and Australian spinner Clarrie Grimmett.
2. Ashwin is the fastest Indian bowler and the 6th fastest in the world to reach 100 Test wickets from 18 matches.
3. First Indian cricketer to score a century and take five wickets in the same Test match on two separate instances.
4. Ashwin is the third Indian cricketer to be awarded the Man of the Match (MoM) on debut.
5. Ashwin registered the second-best match bowling figures on debut by an Indian bowler with 9/128.
6. Leading wicket-taker for India in a four-Test series (28 wickets).
7. Fastest Indian and 8th overall to record 50 wickets in Test matches
8. Fastest bowler to reach 250 Test wickets (45 matches)
9. Fastest bowler to reach 300 Test wickets (54 matches)
10. Joint-Fastest bowler to reach 350 Test wickets (66 matches)
11. 2nd Fastest to reach 400 Test wickets (77).
12. 2nd Fastest to reach 450 Test wickets (89).
13. 9th highest number of wickets in Test career and second as an Indian.
14. Joint-Sixth most five-wicket hauls in a Test inning (32)
15. 6th most Ten-wickets-in-a-match in Test career (7)
16. 9th most wickets taken in the form of lbw (106)
17. 11th most wickets taken in the form of bowled (94)
18. Scored 1000 runs and took 100 wickets in Tests
19. Has scored 250 runs and took 20 wickets in a Test series
20. Second Indian bowler to take 300 Test wickets at home.
21. Most wickets of left-handed batsmen in Tests (more than 230)
22. Took the highest number of wickets in the inaugural World Test Championship (71)
23. India's highest in Tests for the seventh wicket - a 280-run partnership between Rohit Sharma and Ashwin in 2013. It was also the second-highest partnership for
24. 7th worst economy rate as a bowler in a T20 inning (20.50)
25. 9th on the list of wickets taken with the same fielder in T20is
26. First Indian to take 50 T20I wickets.
27. 2nd Most Player-of-the-Series Award in Test (10) and 8th Most Player of the Series Awards (11) Across Formats.
28. Fastest to 20th five-wicket haul (39 Tests)
29. Highest wicket-taker for India in a single domestic season (64).
30. Fastest bowler to take 25 fifers.
31. Most number of wickets by a bowler in a home season (79).
32. 25th Most wickets in a calendar year (97)
33. 17th Most Wickets in Career (697)

Ravichandran Ashwin Awards and Accolades

1. Arjuna Award: 2014
2. ICC Test Team of the Year: 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017
3. BCCI's Dilip Sardesai Award for India's best cricketer: 2010–11, 2015–16
4. BCCI's Polly Umrigar Award for international cricketer of the year: 2012–13
5. ICC Test Player of the Year: 2016
6. ICC Cricketer of the Year: 2016
7. CEAT International Cricketer of the Year: 2016–17
8. ICC Men’s Player of the Month for February 2021
9. Named in ICC Men's Test Team for the year 2021

Ravichandran Ashwin Career

Ravichandran Ashwin Domestic Career

Ashwin actually was an opening batsman. He used to open the innings for India under 17's but was replaced by Rohit Sharma due to lack of form. He played as a specialist bowler for Tamil Nadu cricket team and South Zone. Although Ashwin started his career as a fast bowler, he soon changed into a spin bowler.

Also see - Dinesh Karthik Biography

Ravichandran Ashwin IPL Career

Ashwin began his IPL career with the Chennai Super Kings in 2009. With CSK he went on to win two consecutive IPL titles in 2010 and 2011.But in 2016, following Chennai Super Kings' ban for two years Ashwin was drafted to Rising Pune Supergiants. Ashwin played the 2016 season but missed the 2017 season due to sports hernia. For the 2018 edition of IPL, Ashwin was bought by Kings XI Punjab for ? 7.6 crores and was appointed its captain. One of the most controversial incidents in Ashwin's IPL career was the mankading of Jos Buttler in IPL 2019.

In the 2020 auction, the Delhi Capitals signed him and Ash took a total of 13 wickets in the season, 4th highest for a DC bowler. He was retained the next year but had an off-season and only managed to pick up 7 wickets in the 13 matches he played.

Rajasthan Royals bought Ashwin in the 2022 Mega Auction for 5 crore rupees. In the 19th over of Rajasthan’s innings against Lucknow Super Giants, Ashwin tactically retired out after scoring 28 runs, making him only the fourth player in T20 cricket history to ever do so.

Shahid Afridi, Sonam Tobgay, and Sunzamal Islam are the other three players on the list. Although he was average with the ball, taking 12 wickets in 7 games, Ash scored 191 runs for the pink-n-blue team as well. In 184 IPL matches, Ashwin has scored a total of 647 runs with a fifty to his name. He has 157 IPL career wickets with one 4-wicket-haul.

Ravichandran Ashwin International Career

Ravichandran Ashwin ODI Career

Ashwin's impressive performance in the 2010 Indian Premier League, earned him a spot in the squad that was going to tour Zimbabwe in May–June 2010. He finally made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka cricket team on 5 June 2010. Ashwin scored a 32–ball 38 and took 2/50 on his debut match. Ashwin again got selected coming October in the three-match home ODI series against Australia, where he proved his worth becoming taking one wicket from nine overs giving away only 34 runs.

But soon the effectiveness of Ashwin was under question as he managed a depressing average of over 62.00. Following a string of unimpressive performances, Ashwin redeemed himself finally at the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy final in England by taking 2 wickets giving away only 15 runs in four overs in what was a 20-overs-a-side final. Ashwin has since been a fairly regular part of the Indian ODI squad.

He ended up as the joint 5th highest wicket-taker in the tournament with 8 scalps. He was later included in the “Team of the Tournament” by Cricinfo.

He went through a low phase during his tour to South Africa and later in New Zealand as well. He found it difficult to trap the batsmen in his spin and struggled across all formats.

However, he returned to form during the 2014 Asia cup and the ICC T20 World Cup in Bangladesh. He picked up 9 wickets in four games in the Asia Cup and ended up as the joint third-highest-wicket-taker in the Asia Cup.

Ashwin was selected for the 2015 ICC World Cup and was also named as bench for the “Team of the Tournament” by Cricbuzz. He took 13 wickets in 8 matches of the championship.

From there on, Ashwin faced some serious competition as young bowlers came into the picture and Ash found it difficult to maintain his place in the ODI line-up. He played just 2 games in 2016 and 9 matches the next year where he had an ordinary show with the ball.

Since then, Ashwin went without playing a single ODI game until 2022 when he played 2 matches against South Africa at their home. He picked up a wicket for 53 runs in the first and went wicket-less in the next game.

Ravichandran Ashwin Test Career

Ashwin made his Test debut on November 6, 2011, against the West Indies cricket team in the first match of the series at Delhi. Ashwin bowled exceptionally well, taking 3/81 in the first innings and 6/47 in the second and was awarded the man of the match. Ashwin became the third Indian player to win the award on Test debut. In the same series, Ashwin became the third Indian to score a century as well as take a five-wicket haul in the same match.

Ashwin was thus awarded the man of the series for his all-round performance. In late 2012, Ashwin became the fastest Indian to 50 wickets in Test cricket in the series against England.

Ashwin's Test career shaped as we see it today since Australia's four-Test tour of India in February–March 2013 in which he took 29 wickets, which was the most by an Indian bowler in a four-match Test series. He registered his best career figures of 7/103 in the first Test in Bengaluru back then and was awarded Player of the Series.

Ashwin had a terrific year in 2016 where he tormented the best batters in India's home series. He picked up 17 wickets in four games against West Indies at 23.18, 27 wickets against New Zealand in three Tests at 17.78, and finished the year with 28 scalps against England in 5 Tests at 30.25.

Ashwin started 2017 with six wickets against Bangladesh in the only Test in Hyderabad. He followed it with 21 more wickets against Australia in the 2017 Border Gavaskar Trophy, which India won by 2-1. The year ended for the off-spinner with 12 dismissals against Sri Lanka in three Tests.

Ashwin had a decent time in overseas conditions in 2018 as he managed to bag 11 wickets against England in England from four Tests and played only in the Adelaide Test against Australia in the 2018-19 Border Gavaskar Trophy, where he picked six wickets in the game.

Ashwin claimed 15 dismissals against South Africa in the three-Test home series in 2019. He had a good matchup against Steve Smith in the 2020-21 Border Gavaskar Trophy as he picked up 12 wickets in three Tests before injury forced him to miss the final Test in Brisbane.

Ashwin was the highest wicket-taker in the India-England 2021 home series with 32 wickets in four games at an average of 14.72. However, he was benched throughout the 2021-22 away Test series in England as India preferred to play Ravindra Jadeja ahead of him to have an extra batting option.

Ashwin finished as the leading wicket-taker of the 2023 Border Gavaskar Trophy with 25 scalps in four games. He became the second Indian bowler and ninth bowler overall to claim 450 Test wickets. Ashwin was the second fastest to reach the milestone in 89 matches only behind Muttiah Muralitharan in 80 Tests.

The off-spinner holds the record of the fastest bowler to reach 200 (45 matches) and 300 (54 matches) Test wickets along with the feat of being joint-fastest to pick 350 (66 matches) Test scalps. Ashwin is also the second-fastest bowler in Test cricket to achieve 400 (77 matches) and 450 Test wickets (89 matches).

Ravichandran Ashwin T20 International Career

Ashwin made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe in Harare. He took 1/22 in four overs. This performance of his, earned Ashwin a selection for the tri-series against New Zealand cricket team and hosts Sri Lanka. But unfortunately, Ashwin did not get a chance as Pragyan Ojha and Ravindra Jadeja being preferred over him throughout the series.

Ashwin got his place in the team back as India went to Bangladesh for the 2014 Asia Cup and the 2014 ICC World Twenty20. Ashwin played an essential role in India's success in these tournaments. Because of his brilliant performances, Ashwin was named in the 'Team of the Tournament' for the 2014 T20 World Cup by both ICC and Cricinfo.

Ashwin was selected for the 2016 ICC T20 World Cup at home where he had an ordinary run as he picked up only 4 wickets in the 5 games. Since then, he faced difficulties to get T20 opportunities for India as Jadeja, Chahal, and Kuldeep were preferred over him.

He has played a total of just 6 T20 games between 2017-2021 for India, with 9 wickets to his name. He was a surprise pick for India in the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup where he took six wickets in three matches after missing games against Pakistan and New Zealand. He played a couple of games against New Zealand at home just after the T20 World Cup.

Ashwin made his return to India's T20I side after seven months when he was picked for the five-match series against West Indies in August 2022. Ashwin picked three wickets in as many games at an economy rate of 6.67. Ashwin played for India in the 2022 Asia Cup in UAE as well as the T20 World Cup in 2022. He claimed just six dismissals with an economy rate of 8.16 in the showpiece event after featuring in India's all six games.

Ravichandran Ashwin World Cup

Ashwin earned a place in the 15-member ICC World Cup squad along with Harbhajan and Piyush Chawla. Although Ashwin played only two matches in the World Cup he did leave his mark. Ashwin made his World Cup debut in March 2011 against the West Indies. He finished with the bowling figures of 2/41 in 10 overs. Ashwin helped in India's tournament victory but he did not feature in either the semi-final or the final.

In the 2015 ICC World Cup, Ashwin took 13 wickets in 8 matches with the best bowling performance of 4/25 against the U.A.E. In the semi-final game against Australia, he went for 60 runs and picked up a wicket in a losing affair for India.

He was excluded from the 2019 ICC World Cup in England and Wales after Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal were picked as the two spinners for the tournament.

Ravichandran Ashwin Family

Ashwin was born on 17 September 1986 in Tamil Nadu. He lived in West Mambalam, Chennai. Ashwin's father Ravichandran played cricket at the club level as a fast bowler. Ashwin married his childhood friend Prithi Narayanan on 13 November 2011. The couple gave birth to their first daughter Akhira on 11 July 2015, and then their second daughter Aadhya was born in December 2016.