Ravichandran Ashwin once again proved why he is highly-rated in that Indian test team as he scored an outstanding fifty in the second day of the second test against Sri Lanka which helped post a mammoth total of 622 in their first innings.
India lost both the Centurions from Day 1 early in the morning quickly and they needed someone to take the score to over 500 when Ashwin came into the crease. He played an impressive inning of 54 runs, hitting Herath over his head for a six to bring up his 11th Test fifty in style. He also completed his 2000 Test runs with that loft over Rangana Herath’s head.
This was the 10th fifty-plus score for Ashwin batting at 6 or lower since 2015. Only England Ben Stokes (13times) and Jonny Bairstow (11 times) have managed to score more than the Indian all-rounder. This proves how important batsman he is in that Indian middle-order.
Ashwin became the 4rth fastest player in the world to make the double 200 test wickets and 2000 test runs after Ian Botham (42 matches) and Imran Khan and Kapil Dev (both 50 matches).
The Tamil Nadu all-rounder is also the quickest to take 250 wickets leaving behind legends like Denis Lillee.