Ravi Ashwin, Rangana Herath the best spinners: Muttiah Muralitharan

Legendary off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan recently quoted India’s Ravichandran Ashwin and Sri Lanka’s Rangana Herath as the two best spinners in the world cricket at the moment. Muralitharan, who is a country mile ahead of other bowlers in leading wicket takers list in Tests, said there are different players doing really well, but at the moment it is the Asian pair of Ashwin and Herath who are dominating the world cricket.

“At the moment it’s (India’s Ravichandran) Ashwin and (Sri Lankan) Rangana Herath,” Muralitharan told cricket.com.au in Hyderabad. He admitted that Ashwin has performed better than Herath in the last calendar year. He quoted, “Both together match each other. Ashwin has performed better than Rangana Herath last year. I think those two bowlers are at the top at the moment.”

Interestingly, in the past two years, Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon has picked up the most wickets in Tests with 83 wickets, ahead of Herath (80), Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah (76) and Ashwin (72). However, Lyon took his victims in 21 Tests while Herath (16 matches), Ashwin (13) and Shah (12) all had considerably lesser opportunities in which they took their wickets.

Ravi Ashwin has the best strike-rate among all spinners in the last couple of years with a strike rate of 43.1 and has also taken 7 five-wicket hauls and 2 ten-wicket hauls. Rangana Herath recently announced his retirement from the limited-overs in a bid to prolong his Test career. The 38-year old wily spinner will have a big role to play when Sri Lanka tours England and Australia later this year.

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