Former India batsman VVS Laxman praised off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin for giving one of his best performances against Australia in the last Test match. The Tamil Nadu bowler restricted the Aussie’s from getting decent numbers by taking three wickets in the first innings and two in the second.
India defeated the host by 8-wickets in the last Test match. Ashwin on the other hand handled the bowling attack throughout the series with great ease. The off-spinner so far has taken 10 wickets with an economy rate of 2.08.
Highly impressed with Ashwin’s game, Laxman stated in the last column on Times of India, that this is the best version of Ravi Ashwin’s overseas game.
“Ravichandran Ashwin seems to have the measure of Smith at the moment and backed up his performance in Adelaide with another lovely display of off-spin in Melbourne. It’s the best I have seen Ashwin bowl overseas, and that’s saying something given the peaks he has scaled,” Laxman wrote in his column on Times of India.
Beside Ashwin, laxman also praised Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj who made their Test debut in Melbourne.
He wrote, “I was heartened by the approach as well as the performances of debutants Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj. It also reiterates India’s burgeoning bench strength; even without their best batsman and their most experienced pacer on tour, Mohammad Shami, not to mention the absence of Ishant and Rohit Sharma, India didn’t appear seriously handicapped.”