Shane Warne brought spin as an attacking commodity to this cricketing world: R Ashwin

Australian spin legend Shane Warne breathed his last at his hotel room in Thailand on March 4. He died due to a suspected heart attack aged 52. Tributes started pouring in for the spin legend from all parts of the world including the fans as well as the members of the cricketing fraternity after his untimely demise.

Meanwhile, Ravichandran Ashwin has come forward and given a heartwarming tribute to Warne by saying that the late leg-spinner made the art of spin bowling an ‘attacking commodity’ in world cricket. Apart from being the second-highest wicket-taker in Tests with 708 scalps to his name, the Melbourne cricketer is also the second bowler after Muttiah Muralitharan to register 1000 international wickets.

Shane Warne redefined bowling: Ravichandran Ashwin

“Shane Warne was a colorful character, he redefined bowling, he has taken more than 1000 international wickets, not many can achieve this rare feat”, said Ashwin while interacting on his official Youtube channel.

“Shane Warne brought spin as an attacking commodity to this cricketing world. Everyone will talk about Warne’s delivery to Mike Gatting, but my favorite is Warne’s delivery to Andrew Strauss in 2005 Ashes,” he added.

The champion leg-spinner had bamboozled Strauss in the second Ashes Test at Edgbaston in 2005 with a dream delivery. The English opener decided to block a ball that was pitched way outside off stump with his legs. However, it turned square and came back in sharply to hit the middle stump. If that was not all, Andrew Strauss also went on to become Shane’s 700th red-ball victim during the 2006/07 Ashes Test match at the Boxing Day Test at MCG.

Ashwin, on the other hand, surpassed the legendary all-rounder Kapil Dev’s feat of 434 Test wickets in the recently-concluded Mohali Test match against Sri Lanka. Thus, he is now the second-highest wicket-taker for India in the longest format behind spin legend Anil Kumble who has bagged 619 wickets.

The Tamil Nadu cricketer would once again be hoping to make the ball do the talking in the second and final game at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru that will be played under lights from March 12.