With Ravichandran Ashwin, India’s spin spearhead, galvanizing massive assimilation from cricket circles, for his exemplary match winning performances in the World Cup, and impressing one and all with his guile, immaculate accuracy and pace variations, former Indian pace spearhead Javagal Srinath has gone on to compare Ashwin to the legendary Anil Kumble, one of the greatest tweakers and deceivers the world has ever produced.
Although Srinath mentioned that Ashwin had an off- game as he was taken to the cleaners against the Zimbabwean team, with Brendan Taylor conjuring a memorable innings, he would still remain an important member of the side. Srinath, who has been the joint leading wicket taker for India in world cups with a tally of 44 wickets, along with Zaheer Khan, iterated that Ashwin has been one of the very few spinners commanding reverence from all opposition and also exalted the fact that Dhoni utilised him as a wicket taking option, bringing him on in the first ten overs of the game, and not as someone who could contain the opposition.
Srinath also exclaimed joy in the fact that India had started winning crunch games and also expressed faith in the team that had put up a brilliant performance in the world cup till date to subjugate Bangladesh and traverse through the hurdle unscathed, also stating the massive difference in the morale with the team that lost at Port O’ Spain in the West Indies in the 2007 world cup, as they took on the eastern tigers of the subcontinent, in MCG on Thursday.