Ravichandran Ashwin takes his second fifer in three games for Nottinghamshire

He is more in the reckoning in Tests now but with over 340 wickets in the longer format, even his performance on foreign soil often comes under the scanner. But 32-year-old Ravichandran Ashwin continues to be a competitor and he recently produced two back-to-back stellar performances in the County Championship Division One for his side Nottinghamshire. On Saturday, the off-spinner grabbed 6 for 69 in 33 overs to bowl out opponents Surrey for 240 runs.

In the previous game against Somerset in Taunton, Ashwin took eight wickets in the game with a fifer in the second innings though his side lost the game by 122 runs. Surrey won the toss and elected to bat first but Ashwin struck by packing both the openers – Ryan Patel and Rory Burns – early. Surrey then rebuilt their innings to reach 126 for 2 before Ashwin struck again and their innings then fell to conclude at 240. All the 10 wickets of the Surrey innings went to the spinners. Liam Patterson-White took 3 for 62.

Ashwin’s performance just in the wake of India’s sudden exit from the cricket World Cup 2019 is significant. Even though the Indian bowling attack has been almost flawless in the tournament this summer, yet the famed pair of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal could not really hunt wickets the way the Men in Blue would have liked.

The Kul-Cha pair was eventually broken to make space for Ravindra Jadeja who did well in the two games that he has played. Could Ashwin’s performance in England revive the chances of his old partnership with Jadeja to flourish again?

Ashwin, who played in two World Cups in 2011 and 2015, didn’t appear in the blue since playing the West Indies in July 2017. As India went to England to play in the World Cup, Ashwin chose to play in County Cricket and joined Nottinghamshire. The Kings XI Punjab captain is expected to play six of their last seven games of the season.

His latest six-wicket burst has taken his tally of scalps to 17 in only three outings now. His first game on this stint was against Essex in Nottingham though he had an ordinary outing on that occasion by claiming three wickets for 162 runs. He also played a couple of good knocks with the bat in the previous two teams with his 41 against Somerset coming at No.4.

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Ashwin has played in 111 ODIs since making debut in the format in 2010 and has taken 150 wickets at an average of nearly 33.