Heaping lavish praise on Rangana Herath, India’s spin spearhead Ravichandran Ashwin has said the veteran Sri Lankan spinner is one of his role models.
Herath has been the lynchpin of Sri Lanka’s bowling since the retirement of the legendary Muttiah Muralitharan and recently played an integral role in the Islanders’ monumental Test series win against Pakistan at the United Arabia Emirates. The left-arm spinner, who has retired from limited-overs cricket to prolong his Test career, took 17 wickets in the two-Test series and became the first left-arm bowler to reach the 400-wicket in the longest format of the game as Pakistan suffered their first series defeat at UAE since shifting base in 2009.
Herath has been shouldering the responsibility of leading Sri Lanka’s attack brilliantly and has managed to impress Ashwin who himself has been leading India’s attack with utmost aplomb and is looking primed to create his legacy.
“Rangana Herath is one of my role models. I think he is a fabulous bowler. He just overcomes limitations every single day,” Ashwin told Gulf News.
Ashwin further admitted that age takes a toll on the body before lauding the 39-year old Sri Lankan for his age-defying performances and also mentioned his performance in the first Test at Abu Dhabi when his 6-wicket haul helped Sri Lanka to defend a modest 135.
“Age does wear the body out over a period of time. As far as Herath is concerned, he just keeps proving that he is a champion cricketer and he can use pressure to his good advantage. That is exactly what he did on the final day of the first Test,” Ashwin said.
Ashwin further spoke on the ‘rest’ that he is being given by the team from limited-overs duties in recent times.
“[As a player] and making decisions are definitely not something that I can comment on because I am not the one that is in charge and I am not the one who is responsible for making these decisions. So very clearly, as far as I am concerned, every day is about being better than what you have been previously. I am definitely focused on developing every single day and becoming a better cricketer because that is the only thing that will last,” he said.
“Tomorrow, if I am given an opportunity, I should be the best I can be and probably even the better than the best that I can be,” he added.