While the art of wrist spin has taꦇken over white-ball cricket, finger spinners such as Ravichandran Ashwin, Nathan Lyon, and Keshav Maharaj have continued to dominate in the classical format of the game.
India’s wily off-spinner Ashwin, in a recent interview, recalled his feat of dismissing Sri Lankan matador Kumar Sangakkara 🔯four times in 23 deliveries, in the latter’s farewell 🧜Test series back in 2015.
“I was really, really lucky because I was in the form of my life. The ball was coming out like a dream, I didn’t have to think about anything. I felt like my entire a🅰ction and rhythm was in motion,” Ashwin told Pakistani journalist Mazher Arshad.
In Test cricket, Ashwin has had the wood over left-handers, possessing an e⛦xceptional average, and a decent strike-rate and wickets tally.
“I also felt that he got some really good balls, I was in a good phase. I was bowling like a dream to left-handers. I fel🤪t like whenever I saw any le🐈ft-hander I could see who he was,” Ashwin added.
A modern-legend of the game, Sangakkara upset several spinners during his prime, namely Harbhajan Singh, Sunil Narine, Saeed Ajmal and Lyon.
Moreover, it was the guile of Ashwin, ෴which helped ♏him scalp Sanga’s wicket four times during his farewell series.
“And I loved bowling in Sri Lanka. Because Sri Lanka pitches are not big on the spin, but they have a good bounce and speed to carry an edge to the slips. So, I really enjoyed bowling in that phase of my career. It was about the right time in the right place. Sangakkara was about to finish his career, and I was about to take off my career. So, I found my🀅self at the right time of my career agains𒊎t Sanga,” Ashwin signed off.
