Ashwin is galloping towards legendary status: Sunil Gavaskar

Ravichandran Ashwin crossed a landmark milestone whilst helping himself to an impressive 10-wicket haul. While all this is good, former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar has become one of the many who has heaped praise on the Indian bowler.

Gavaskar, who himself is a legend in the doldrums of Indian cricket went on to claim that Ashwin was well on his way towards legendary status as well as stardom.

“Ashwin is galloping towards legendary status. He is already showing himself to be a great bowler and cricketer. The way he is batting and bowling, he will be a legend when he finishes his career,” Gavaskar told NDTV on Monday.

Speaking about the attitude shown by Ashwin in recent times, Gavaskar brought out the names of the former spinners of India’s recent past. Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble are arguably a few of the spinning gems among the Indian cricket folklore.

“The opposition has been different when Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh played and when the four great spinners played. But Ashwin has got a huge heart and is a keen student of the game who is looking to get better every single day. He will certainly leave a mark on the game with both bat and ball.”

However, in spite of this, Gavaskar added that Ravindra Jadeja deserved the man-of-the-match award for his efforts with both bat and ball. “Jadeja deserved the Man of the Match award. It is good to have three-four people in contention for the award as it means most of the players in the team have done well,” he said.

Finally, the former Indian skipper went ahead and spoke about the importance of having a coach such as Anil Kumble. “His inputs must have been invaluable at the end of Day 1 when it was just one wicket down for New Zealand.

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“The manner in which India struck back the next day in the first innings and got New Zealand dismissed for not too many, he must have told them what line and length to bowl and that made a big difference,” the former batsman said in his interview.

“This is where somebody who has played a lot of cricket, who has been a part of a winning team and who has been captain, can make a huge difference and we are beginning to see it. It’s early days as far as Kumble is concerned but the beginning has been very good and impressive,” he added.