Stats: Ravichandran Ashwin equals Indian record for most Man of the Series awards
Ravichandran Ashwin equalled the Indian record for most Man of the Series awards in Tests, after picking up his fifth award after the Delhi Test, which India won by 337 runs to seal a 3-0 win over No.1 ranked South Africa.
Ashwin joined Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar, who also have five Man of the Series awards, as the Indians with the most such awards. What makes his achievement all the more impressive is the fact that he has picked up the awards in just 12 series, while it took Sehwag 39 series and Sachin 74 series to get to their milestones.
Not only does he have more Man of the Series awards (5) than Man of the Match awards in Tests, but he has picked up the Man of the Series award five times in India’s last 6 Test series wins, which only highlight his importance to the national side.
Here is a list of the players with the most Man of the Series awards for India in Tests.
|
Player |
Matches |
Series |
Awards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ravichandran Ashwin | 32 | 12 | 5 |
| Virender Sehwag | 104 | 39 | 5 |
|
Sachin Tendulkar |
200 | 74 | 5 |
| Kapil Dev | 131 | 38 | 4 |
| Harbhajan Singh | 103 | 47 | 4 |
| Anil Kumble | 132 | 51 | 4 |
| Rahul Dravid | 164 | 60 | 4 |
| Mohammad Azharuddin | 99 | 37 | 3 |
| Zaheer Khan | 92 | 41 | 3 |
| Sourav Ganguly | 113 | 45 | 3 |
The off-spinner picked up 31 wickets in the four-match series – his career-best in Tests – beating the 29 wickets he had taken against Australia in Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2012/13. What makes this record all the more impressive was that he only bowled seven innings in this series, whereas he bowled in 8 innings against Australia.
In the list of all-time most Man of the Series Awards, Ashwin is currently in 11th place. Although 10 players have won the award more times than the 29-year-old, he only needs six more to go top of the list.
Muttiah Muralitharan, the all-time leading wicket-taker in Tests, leads the pack with 11 awards and is also the only player to have won more than 10 such awards. In second place is South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis with nine, while three players have picked up 8 each.
Here is a list of the players with the most Man of the Series awards in Tests.
|
Player |
Matches |
Series |
Awards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Muttiah Muralitharan | 133 | 61 | 11 |
| Jacques Kallis | 166 | 61 | 9 |
|
Imran Khan |
88 | 28 | 8 |
| Sir Richard Hadlee | 86 | 33 | 8 |
| Shane Warne | 145 | 46 | 8 |
| Wasim Akram | 104 | 43 | 7 |
| Shivnarine Chanderpaul | 164 | 60 | 7 |
| Malcolm Marshall | 81 | 21 | 6 |
| Curtly Ambrose | 98 | 27 | 6 |
| Steve Waugh | 168 | 54 | 6 |
| Ravichandran Ashwin | 32 | 12 | 5 |