Ashwin off the track

Nagpur, November 23

Exactly two years ago, on November 23 of 2015, a South African staff member came back after a look at the wicket and, with raised eyebrows and a shocked expression, said: “It’s a sandpit!” It indeed was — very, very dry, it spun from the first hour. India picked up only one pacer, Ishant Sharma, in the XI. The spinners took all 20 South African wickets. Ravichandran Ashwin shared the new ball with Ishant in both innings, picked up 12 wickets and was Man of the Match.

Times change. This is no sandpit this time around; Ashwin must be wondering where his next wicket would come from. Can Ashwin be faster than Dennis Lillee, that was the key question before the Kolkata Test. Not in bowling speed, of course, but in the race to 300 wickets. Lillee holds the record, getting his 300th wicket in his 56th Test. Ashwin had 292 in 52 before Kolkata. Eight wickets in this series would make him the fastest to 300 wickets in the history of Test cricket.

But the unthinkable happened in Kolkata: Ashwin went wicketless, for the first time in India. It had happened to him three times in the past — in Sydney, Johannesburg and Manchester. Kolkata, greenish, damp and overcast, was more Manchester than Kolkata of old. The man who used to take five wickets in an innings for fun in India seemed superfluous to India’s needs in Kolkata. Kohli said the spinners would come into play third day onward. Ashwin could yet get that record. — TNS