"Ravichandran Ashwin was absolutely stellar in the game of accuracy and patience" - Aakash Chopra on spinner becoming No. 1 ranked Test bowler

Aakash Chopra has lauded Ravichandran Ashwin for bowling a patient and accurate spell on a placid surface in the final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.

Ashwin registered figures of 6/91 in Australia's first innings of the fourth Test at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The spell helped him regain the top spot in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test bowler rankings.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra heaped praise on Ashwin for his stellar performance in the Test series against Australia, saying:

"Ravichandran Ashwin is the No. 1 Test bowler in the world again. He picked up 25 wickets in this series, in which the best performance came in the last match. Ravichandran Ashwin was absolutely stellar in the game of accuracy and patience."

The former Indian opener highlighted that the wily off-spinner was keen to bowl even on an unhelpful track, elaborating:

"He said a very good thing that when you see a road-like pitch, the first thing and the only thing that matters is that you want to bowl on that. The passion to ask the captain to give you the ball, that separates you because you generally turn your head away after seeing such a pitch."

Only 21 wickets fell across the five days of the Ahmedabad Test. Ashwin accounted for seven of those dismissals, with no other bowler from either side picking up more than three wickets.

"Ravichandran Ashwin varied his pace" - Aakash Chopra

Ravichandran Ashwin has picked up 32 five-wicket hauls in Test cricket. [P/C: BCCI]

Aakash Chopra praised Ravichandran Ashwin for not resorting to too many variations, observing:

"Ravichandran Ashwin varied his pace. There used to be a lot of criticism earlier that he used to try too many variations - leg-spin, off-spin, carrom ball - but nothing of that sort. He said that it is important to bowl consistently at one spot - almost bore the opposition out."

The cricketer-turned-commentator concluded by pointing out that the Tamil Nadu off-spinner is one of the greatest match-winners in Indian Test history, stating:

"In the history of Indian Test cricket, if we talk about one of the best match-winners, this bowler's name is present on that list, because not many people have the number of Player of the Match and Player of the Series awards that he has."

Ravichandran Ashwin tops the list 🤩

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Ashwin has snared 474 wickets at an average of 23.92 in 92 Tests. He is only behind Anil Kumble, who has 619 Test wickets to his name, among Indian bowlers.