Ravichandran Ashwin, the world’s number one all-rounder achieved yet another feat of scoring his fourth century at St. Lucia and joined select band of India’s GR Vishwanath and Mohinder Amarnath in touching the mark in 8 matches against the West Indies. His promotion to number 6 spot helped Team India to win the first test at Antigua as he hit his first century in West Indies and claimed 7 wickets in the second innings to become the man of the match. Again, he captured 5 wickets in an innings for the 18th time in test cricket. And now in the third test he hit a century when the chips were down for Team India. His stand with W. Saha produced 213 runs and saved the side from disaster. Saha scored his first century and matched Ashwin stroke by stroke. After the retirement of MS Dhoni from test cricket, the wicket keeper batsman got his appointed place in the side. Ashwin got the promotion in batting as Virat Kohli did assess his potential as a top order batsman instead of keeping him at number 10 and wasting his talent. It was indeed a historical stand as they beat the stand of Sardesai and Solkar in the 1971 tour of the Caribbean Island. Both Ashwin and Saha are assets to the side and their potential came out with flying colours under difficult conditions.
Nickhil Mani
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
