Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja: The deadliest spin bowling duo in Test cricket

The Indian spinners have terrorised batsmen for nearly half a decade (Image courtesy: NDTV Sports)

Bowlers hunt in pairs, it’s said. In Test cricket, right since the beginning, we’ve grown up on stories of fearsome and successful bowling pairs like Hall and Griffith, Trueman and Statham, Lillee and Thomson, Botham and Willis, Wasim and Waqar, McGrath and Gillespie, Walsh and Ambrose, and more recently, Broad and Anderson, Steyn and Morkel, even Boult and Southee.

This term "hunting in pairs" is used more for fast bowlers than spinners as we saw with the above examples, may be because the term “hunt” exudes some ferocity and aggression which we associate with pacers, but this can fairly easily be used for spinners too. We’ve seen how Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh combined to form a hugely successful bowling-duo for India in Test matches, aggregating 501 wickets between them in the 99 innings they bowled together.

Following in their footsteps, a current spin bowling pair that is combining together to bring great results for the Indian team in Test Cricket is that of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.

As individuals, they are like chalk and cheese. While Ashwin looks the more meticulous kind, someone who would take great pride in planning about how to get a batsman out and then feeling a sense of satisfaction when it comes off, Jadeja seems the more “rough around the edges” kind of a character.

Ashwin always seems inclined towards experimenting to try and add something new to his bowling armory, whereas Jadeja seems content to stick to what he knows best; bowling stump-to-stump, which combined with his natural variations works for him more often than not.

Also Read: SK Play of the day: Ravichandran Ashwin uses his reflexes to send Kiwi batsman packing

Together, though, they have been the biggest assets for the Indian Test captains, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli, especially when it comes to winning Test matches at home.

Sample these numbers

India’s overall stats in Test matches Ashwin and Jadeja have played together

Matches	Won	Lost	Draw	Tied	Win %
13	10	1	2	0	76.92

As we see, they have played 13 matches together since Jadeja’s debut in December 2012, and out of those, Team India has won 10, drawn 2 and lost just 1! This is an incredible statistic that in almost 4 years, India has lost just one Test in which both these spinners were in the playing XI.

Of the two drawn Tests, one was that rain-affected Test in Bangalore against South Africa, which saw no play for 4 days, in a series of 4 Tests where India won the other 3 convincingly.

The only loss came against England in August 2014 when Stuart Broad rolled over the Indian batting lineup for 152 on the first morning with figures of 6 for 25.

Their bowling stats in Test matches they have played together:

Bowler	Matches	Innings	Wickets	Average	Strike Rate	5-fors	10-fors
Ravichandran Ashwin	13	24	80	19.27	46.9	9	3
Ravindra Jadeja	13	24	64	16.87	51.2	4	0

In 13 Test matches where these 2 spinners have bowled together, they have picked 144 wickets between them, with 13 five-fors and 3 ten-fors; that is, more than 11 wickets per Test.

What is even more astonishing is that in these 13 Test matches, there have been 10 bowlers (pacers and spinners combined) who have played alongside Ashwin and Jadeja, and they have collectively picked up 83 wickets, as compared to 144 by these 2. This can be seen in the table below:

Bowler	Matches	Innings	Wickets	5-fors	10-fors
Bhuvneshwar Kumar	7	12	21	2	0
Ishant Sharma	9	17	14	0	0
Mohammad Shami	3	6	11	0	0
Pragyan Ojha	3	6	8	0	0
Amit Mishra	2	4	7	0	0
Umesh Yadav	3	6	6	0	0
Varun Aaron	3	4	5	0	0
Harbhajan Singh	2	4	5	0	0
Piyush Chawla	1	2	4	0	0
Pankaj Singh	1	1	2	0	0

The only bowler to have picked up a 5 wicket haul, other than Ashwin and Jadeja in the matches where these 2 have been in the playing XI, has been Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has picked up 2 recently; in the 2^nd Test against New Zealand and one in the series in the West Indies not too long ago. These numbers clearly show the impact this deadly spin-duo has had on the fortunes of the Indian Test team in the last 4 years.

Also Read: 5 variations in Ravichandran Ashwin's bowling

Now, let’s have a look at their numbers when compared with some other spin bowling pairs in the world in the last 4 years; from 10 Dec 2012 which is around the time when Ravindra Jadeja made his Test debut.

I've taken a spin bowling pair each from Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Pakistan, England and Bangladesh here as these are the Test playing nations that have fielded 2 front line spinners quite consistently in their lineup.

1.) Rangana Herath and Dilruwan Perera:

Sri Lanka’s record in matches they played together:

Matches	Won	Lost	Draw	Tied	Win %
11	7	3	1	9	63.63