Ravichandran Ashwin, an Indian off-spinner has claimed that the next generation of bowlers will find it hard to take 1000 international wickets as Shane Warne did. In an ode to Shane Warne, who passed away on Friday, Ravichandran Ashwin spoke on his YouTube channel.
As the calendar gets busier, breaking records seems to get harder for contemporary cricketers. As a case in point, while being felicitated for his 100th Test last week, Virat Kohli had mentioned that he was proud to have lasted so long in this day and age.
Ravichandran Ashwin: Not Many Can Achieve Shane Warne’s Stellar Feat Of Taking 1000 International Wickets
Considered one of the greatest bowlers of all time, Shane Warne had retired from international cricket in 2007 with a whopping 708 wickets in 145 Test matches and 293 wickets in 194 ODIs.
“Shane Warne was a colourful character and he redefined the term bowling. He has taken more than 1000 international wickets. Not many can achieve this rare feat. In fact, the next generation of bowlers can forget to even think about getting 1000 international wickets,” Ashwin said.
“The volume of Test cricket will come down drastically. And also because there are so many leagues, workload management will take center stage,” he said.
Ravichandran Ashwin (AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Ravichandran Ashwin went past Kapil Dev’s tally of 434 Test wickets and has 648 international wickets across three formats. Shane Warne had 1001 international wickets in two formats while Muttiah Muralitharan has 1347 wickets across three formats and Anil Kumble has 956 international wickets. Pacers Glenn McGrath, James Anderson and Wasim Akram are the only other bowlers to have taken over 900 international wickets.
“I see Warne as a flag bearer for carrying the spin aspect of bowling on the front in the world cricketing map,” Ashwin said.
“Warne brought spin as an attacking commodity to this cricketing world. Even when there wasn’t much happening on the surface, he used to take wickets just with his sheer intimidating presence,” Ashwin said.
“I used to see people who master their art with some admiration and Shane Warne was one such gem. He was one of those bowlers I will pay to watch,” he added.
Shane Warne was a part of Australia’s World Cup-winning team in 1999 and secured himself the Player of the Match award in the summit clash of the multi-team event against Pakistan.
Ravichandran Ashwin Reveals Shane Warne Achieved Success For Strong Shoulders
Ravichandran Ashwin also spoke about how a traumatic childhood accident in which he broke both legs helped the late leg spinner Shane Warne master one of the most difficult crafts in the game.
“I was talking to Rahul Dravid, who was extremely sad. For a spinner, your shoulder and upper-half of the body has to be extremely strong because you have to use many rotations to spin the ball,” Ashwin said.
“Because for a spinner to master your craft, you should keep bowling in the nets. More so, if you are a leg-spinner. He had strong shoulders and that was his massive advantage.”
Ravichandran Ashwin said Rahul Dravid asked Shane Warne how he had such strong shoulders.
“There is a sport called Aussies Rules Football. It is a sport like rugby. It seems Warne wanted to play the sport but was not built for it since people who play it are tall and well-built blokes. So, they used to bully Warne and it seems he broke both his legs while playing. He couldn’t walk and was on bed rest. For 3-4 weeks he walked or rather floated using his bare hands and that made his shoulders strong and there was no looking back,” Ashwin said.
While thanking his fans, Ravichandran Ashwin revealed he had taken up medium-pace in hope of becoming the next pace-bowling allrounder after Kapil Dev.
“In 1994, batting was my fascination. Sachin Tendulkar was just emerging into the scene and Kapil Dev, himself was a terrific striker of the ball. In fact, I used to bowl medium pace on my dad’s advice back then so that I can try to be the next Kapil paaji. From then to become an off-spinner and to represent India for so many years…I never thought I would play for India,” Ashwin said.
The seasoned off-spinner, playing in his 85th Test, went past the legendary Kapil Dev’s 434 Test scalps in 131 matches to become India’s second most successful bowler in the longest format. The legendary spinner Anil Kumble tops the list with 619 scalps which he claimed in 132 Test matches.