Ravichandran Ashwin

Ashwin was born on 17 September 1986 in a Tamil family. He lives in West Mambalam, Chennai. He did his schooling from Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan and St. Bede's. He attended SSN College of Engineering and graduated with a BTech in Information Technology. His father Ravichandran played cricket at the club level as a fast bowler. It is to be noted that Ashwin's mother Chitra advised him to take up spin bowling as she felt unconvinced by her son's long run up.

2000–2010: Early career

Ashwin plays as an all-rounder for Tamil Nadu cricket team and South Zone. He played for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League. He was the highest wicket-taker of the 2010 Champions League Twenty20 tournament for Chennai Super Kings in the tournament with 13 wickets and was adjudged as the player of the tournament.

2010–present: International career

On the back of his impressive performance in the 2010 Indian Premier League, Ashwin was selected in a second-string squad that toured Zimbabwe in May–June 2010. He made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka on 5 June 2010, scoring a 32–ball 38 and taking 2/50 in that match which India lost to crash out of the tri-series. His T20I debut came a week later, against Zimbabwe at Harare where he took 1/22 in four overs in an Indian win. Ashwin was selected for the tri-series against New Zealand and hosts Sri Lanka, but did not get a game with Pragyan Ojha and Ravindra Jadeja being preferred over him throughout the series. In October, the selectors decided to rest first-choice players in the three-match home ODI series against Australia, enabling Ashwin to get selected in the team again. Ashwin was the most economical bowler in the only match played in the series in which he took 1/34 in nine overs while India registered a five-wicket victory.

Ashwin played in all five matches of the home series against New Zealand in November–December 2010. India completed a 5–0 whitewash and Ashwin ended up as the leading wicket-taker of the series with 11 wickets at an average of 21.90. At the conclusion of the series, Ashwin earned the praise of captain Gautam Gambhir, who called him "the find" of the series and hailed his bowling during the powerplay overs. Despite this success, Ashwin failed to make it to the playing eleven in any of the five ODIs on the South African tour, with the inclusion of lead spinner Harbhajan Singh in the team. However, Ashwin did manage to find a place in the 15-member World Cup squad that was announced during the series, with Harbhajan and Piyush Chawla being the other two specialist spinners in the squad. He played only two matches in the World Cup and made his World Cup debut in March 2011 against the West Indies with bowling figures of 2/41 in 10 overs. He bowled his full quota in the quarterfinal against Australia at Ahmedabad and picked 2/52. India went on to win the tournament, but Ashwin did not feature in either the semi-final or the final.

Ashwin after scoring his maiden century against West Indies at Wankhede stadium, Mumbai

Ashwin replaced vice-captain Harbhajan for the fourth and fifth ODIs of India's tour of West Indies in June–July 2011, but picked just one wicket. Ashwin was retained in the limited-overs squad for the England tour. He emerged as India's best bowler of the series, which India lost 3–0, taking six wickets at an average of 25.16. England toured India in October 2011 and were whitewashed in the ODI series 5–0. With 10 scalps at 20.20, Ashwin was as the second highest wicket-taker of the series, only behind teammate Jadeja.

In November 2011, West Indies toured India for three Tests and five ODIs. Ashwin's recent ODI success saw him being included in the Test squad for the first time. Ashwin and Ojha were the only two specialist spinners in the squad, with Harbhajan being omitted owing to his indifferent form during the England tour. Ashwin made his Test debut in the first match at Delhi, earning his cap from Sachin Tendulkar. Ashwin took 3/81 in the first innings and 6/47 in the second, helping India win the match. He was awarded the man of the match and became the third Indian player to win the award on Test debut. He picked four wickets in the second Test at Kolkata where India registered an innings victory. In the third Test at Mumbai, he took 5/156 while West Indies made a total of 590 and scored his maiden international century in India's first innings (103 runs from 118 balls) to take India's total to 482. Ashwin thus became the third Indian to score a century and take a five-wicket haul in the same Test and the first since 1962. West Indies were bowled out for 134 in their second innings as Ojha and Ashwin shared all ten wickets between them, with Ashwin picking 4/34. The match ended in a draw with the scores level, after Ashwin took a single and was dismissed run out attempting a second run off the last ball of the match. He was awarded the man of the match as well as man of the series for his all-round performance. Ashwin featured in four matches of the subsequent ODI series and took four wickets at 49.00.

Ashwin was ineffective on India's 2011/12 tour of Australia. He played in three Tests on the tour taking nine wickets at an average of more than 62. He also featured in the subsequent triangular CB series against Australia and Sri Lanka and took seven wickets in as many matches at 43.42. In March 2012, he took five wickets in three matches of the 2012 Asia Cup in Bangladesh. He had a quiet tour of Sri Lanka in July–August 2012 taking five wickets at 39.40 in the five-match ODI series and 1/22 in the one-off T20I.

Ashwin returned to form during the two-match home Test series against New Zealand. In the first Test at Hyderabad, he claimed 6/31 and 6/54 helping India seal an innings victory and was named man of the match. His match figures of 12/85 bettered S. Venkataraghavan's 12/152 for the best figures by an Indian bowler against New Zealand in Tests. In the second match at Bangalore his efforts of 5/69 in the second innings helped India win the match and the series 2–0. He was awarded man of the series for his tally of 18 wickets at 13.11 average. Ashwin played four matches in the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka and took five wickets at an economy rate of 6 and average of 19.

During the first Test of England's tour of India in late 2012, Ashwin became the fastest Indian to record 50 wickets in Test cricket as he overhauled the milestone in his ninth game. India eventually lost the series 2–1 in which he struggled with the ball managing to take only 14 wickets in the four Tests at an average of 52.64. However, he scored 243 runs, averaging 60.75 per innings, including two fifties and finished as India's second best batsman of the series. In the three-match ODI series against Pakistan and the five-match ODI series against England, he took three wickets at 43.33 and seven wickets at 35.71 respectively.

While playing for India Cements at the BCCI Corporate Trophy in February 2013, Ashwin worked with former Tamil Nadu spinner and childhood coach Sunil Subramaniam to make changes to his bowling ahead of the four-match Test series against Australia. Subramaniam and Ashwin spent a few hours every day for a week at the nets in Nagpur. Among the changes made was shortening Ashwin's bowling stride.

Ashwin was highly successful on Australia's four-Test tour of India in February–March 2013. In the first Test at Chennai, his home ground, he took 7/103 and 5/95 leading India to a comfortable eight-wicket victory. He had a haul of 5/63 in the second innings of the second Test at Hyderabad where India registered an innings win. He took a total of four wickets in the Mohali Test where India sealed the series with a six-wicket victory. In the last match at Delhi, he took 5/57 and 2/55 in another Indian win which completed a 4–0 whitewash of Australia. During the match, Ashwin surpassed former India captain Anil Kumble's tally of 27 wickets for most wickets by an Indian bowler in a four-Test series. Ashwin finished the series as the leading wicket-taker with a tally of 29 wickets at 20.10 and won the Man of the Series award. It was the first time India won four or more Tests in a series and the first time Australia were whitewashed since 1969–70. Ashwin also became the third Indian off-spinner to take 25-plus wickets in a series after E. A. S. Prasanna and Harbhajan Singh.

Ashwin was a member of the Indian team that won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy in England. His figures of 2/15 in four overs in the 20-overs-a-side final helped India restrict England to 124/8 and win the match by five runs. He had a total of eight wickets from five matches at an average of 22.62, conceding 4.41 runs per over, and ended as the joint-fifth highest wicket-taker of the tournament. With nine wickets in six matches, Ashwin finished as the leading wicket-taker of the home ODI series against Australia in October–November 2013 which India won 3–2.

On India's tour of South Africa, Ashwin had a difficult time with the ball. He picked only one wicket across three ODIs and went wicketless in his 42 overs in the first Test at Johannesburg, following which, he lost his spot in the team to Jadeja for the second Test. In early 2014, Ashwin's overseas struggles continued during the New Zealand tour where he managed to bag a solitary wicket in the five-match ODI series which India lost 4–0. However, in the third ODI, coming in to bat with India at 146/5 in pursuit of 315, he scored his maiden ODI fifty of 65 runs from 46 balls. He shared a 38-run partnership with Dhoni and an 85-run seventh wicket stands with Jadeja, as the match eventually ended in a tie. In the two-match Test series that followed, Jadeja was preferred over Ashwin as the lone spinner in the playing eleven.

Ashwin was back among the wickets when India went to Bangladesh for the 2014 Asia Cup and the 2014 ICC World Twenty20. He took nine wickets in four matches of the Asia Cup and finished as the joint-third highest wicket-taker of the tournament. He played a vital role in India's unbeaten run to the World Twenty20 final. His tally of 11 wickets in six matches at an average of 11.27 and economy rate of 5.35 put him joint-third on the list of most wickets in the tournament.

Ashwin was part of the Indian team that toured England in 2014. He played his first match of the Test series only in the fourth game in which he scored 40 and 46 not out but went wicketless in an innings defeat for India. He took three wickets in the last match, which was another innings defeat. India and Ashwin found more success in the ODI series followed. With India winning the series 3–1, Ashwin took seven wickets from four matches at an average of 24.85 and economy rate of less than 4.5. India whitewashed Sri Lanka in a five-match ODI series in November 2014 in which Ashwin had 6 wickets to his name at 33.33.

Debutant leg-spinner Karn Sharma was chosen over Ashwin for the first Test of India's tour of Australia in December 2014. After Sharma's indifferent debut, Ashwin returned to the playing eleven as the lone spinner and took a total of 12 wickets at an average of 48.66 in the remaining three matches.

Ashwin was selected to represent India for the second consecutive ODI World cup to be held in Australia-New Zealand in 2015.

In the 2015 three-match series against Sri Lanka, he dismissed Kumar Sangakkara, who was retiring following the second Test, four consecutive times in his final four innings. At the end of the series, he finished with 21 wickets and in the process broke the record for most wickets by an Indian bowler in a series against Sri Lanka. He was awarded the Man of the Series.

In November 2015, Ashwin was a star performer through Freedom Trophy Test series against South Africa in India. On course of the series, he became the fastest Indian to reach 150 wickets in Test cricket. In the third Test in Nagpur, he picked up 12 wickets for 98 runs to hand South Africa their first away series loss in nine years. His career-best figures of 7/66 in the second innings bowled the visitors out for 185 and gave India a 2–0 series win.

In New Zealand's tour of India in 2016, Ashwin took 27 wickets in 3 Tests, including a career-best of 7 for 59 in an innings.

In December 2016, the International Cricket Council named Ashwin the ICC Cricketer of the Year and the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year for 2016. In the process, he became the third Indian to win the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the ICC Cricketer of the Year after Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, and also the second cricketer ever after Dravid to win the two awards in the same year.

Ashwin produces a lot of variations of the ball and flights the ball thereby giving it more chance to spin and dip on the batsman. In addition to his normal off-breaks, he produces an arm ball and the carrom ball, the latter of which he uses frequently in the shorter formats. In IPL 2013, he bowled leg-breaks and googly as well. However, in an interview, he has stated that he refrains from bowling the doosra as it requires him to bend and straighten his arm which he finds difficult to do.

Ashwin's childhood coach Sunil Subramaniam recalls Ashwin's early days at the TNCA Academy:

[...] what struck me was his intelligence. His use of angles, length and width of the crease. Also, guessing what a batsman was likely to do. And the kind of field placing that he is comfortable with. Those are the factors that struck me immediately – that this guy not only loves bowling, he also has a fair idea of what spin actually is. For somebody who started out at 18 or 19, I thought that was a big thing [...] Here is a guy who knew what the ball is supposed to do, where this guy is expected to play and what are the plans to keep that guy in check and put pressure on that guy. He was pretty clear at 18 itself.

On 13 November 2011, Ashwin married his childhood friend Prithi Narayanan. On 11 July 2015 the couple became parents of a baby girl and named her Akhira.

Tamil Nadu State Election Commission roped Ashwin to catch the attention of citizens to create electoral awareness in which Ashwin advises voters to check whether their names are in the electoral roll and the outcome of the result is a huge hit.

Batting

Test centuries

Ravichandran Ashwin's Test centuries
#	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year	Result
1	103	3	West Indies	Mumbai, India	Wankhede Stadium	2011	Drawn
2	124	17	West Indies	Kolkata, India	Eden Gardens	2013	Won
3	113	33	West Indies	Antigua, Antigua and Barbuda	Sir Vivian Richards Stadium	2016	Won
4	118	35	West Indies	Gros Islet, Saint Lucia	Darren Sammy Cricket Stadium	2016	Won

Bowling

Test 5-wicket hauls

Test 10-wicket hauls

No.	Figures	Match	Opponent	Venue	City	Year	Result
1	10/85	7	New Zealand	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium	Hyderabad	2012	Won
2	12/198	13	Australia	M. A. Chidambaram Stadium	Chennai	2013	Won
3	10/160	26	Sri Lanka	Galle International Stadium	Galle	2015	Lost
4	10/98	31	South Africa	Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium	Nagpur	2015	Won
5	10/225	37	New Zealand	Green Park Stadium	Kanpur	2016	Won
6	13/140	39	New Zealand	Holkar Stadium	Indore	2016	Won
7	12/167	43	England	Wankhede Stadium	Mumbai	2016	Won

Ashwin is ranked number two among bowlers and all-rounders in Test cricket as of 2017. In his 37th Test match, Ashwin became the fastest Indian bowler and the second fastest in the world to reach 200 Test wickets after Australian spinner Clarrie Grimmett (36 matches). Ashwin was also the fastest Indian bowler and 5th fastest in the world to reach 100 Test wickets, getting to the milestone in his 18th Test match.

Ashwin became the first Indian cricketer to score a century and take five wickets in same Test match on two separate instances. He achieved this double for the first time in his third Test against West Indies in 2011 when he made 103 and took 5/156 in the first innings. He repeated the same feat in the Kolkata Test against West Indies in November 2013 where he took 2/52 in the 1st innings and 3/46 in the 2nd innings and scored 124 in India's 1st innings. This feat had only been achieved 26 times previously in world cricket, the last occasion being by Jacques Kallis in 2002. Ashwin also scored a hundred and took nine wickets when India played against West Indies at the Wankhede Stadium in 2011. Only four other India players have hit a hundred and taken five or more wickets in a match. Ashwin is the only one to do it twice.

In December 2012, Ashwin completed 500 runs in his 11th Test match. With this, he shares the record of becoming the fastest player along with Australia's Jack Gregory and England's Ian Botham, who also took 11 Tests to reach the mark of completing the all-round double of 500 runs and 50 wickets.

Ashwin is also the third Indian cricketer to be awarded the Man of the Match (MoM) on debut. Other Indians to have done this before him were Narendra Hirwani, Pravin Amre, R.P. Singh. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan achieved this feat after Ashwin. Ashwin registered the second best bowling on debut by an Indian bowler with 9/128, behind Hirwani's 16-wicket world record debut performance. Ashwin became the fastest Indian to record 50 wickets in Test matches as he overhauled the milestone in his ninth game. He achieved it when he dismissed the England opener Nick Compton on 16 November 2012 during the second day of the first Test at Ahmedabad. The previous record holder was the legendary Anil Kumble, who had reached the milestone in his tenth Test. On 8 December 2012, Ashwin completed 500 runs in his 11th Test cricket match when batting against England scoring 91*. With this he shares the record of becoming the fastest player along with Australia's Jack Gregory and England's Ian Botham, who also took 11 Tests to reach the mark of completing the all-round double of 500 runs and 50 wickets. Incidentally, the quickest Indian to reach 500 runs and 50 wickets before Ashwin was Salim Durani who did so in his 14th Test.

In 2013, Ashwin surpassed former India captain Anil Kumble as the leading wicket-taker for India in a four-Test series. Ashwin claimed his 28th wicket of Border-Gavaskar Trophy (2012–13) at the Feroz Shah Kotla, New Delhi. The previous record of 27 had been achieved by Kumble against Australia too, during the 2004–05 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

The 280-run partnership between Rohit Sharma and Ashwin in 2013 was India's highest in Tests for the seventh wicket, beating the unbroken 259-run partnership between VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni against South Africa at the same venue in 2010. This was also the second-highest partnership for India against West Indies for any wicket in Tests.

In 2016, Ravichandran Ashwin became first Indian to take 50 T20I wickets. He is the highest wicket-taker in Twenty20 International cricket for India with 52 wickets.

On 23 August 2016, Ashwin grabbed his sixth Man-of-the-Series Award, surpassing the tie by Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, and in only his 13th Test series, and 8th series where he played every Test.

On 10 October 2016, Ashwin took his 20th five wicket haul, making him the third fastest to reach the landmark.

On 27 November 2016, he completed a double of 500 runs and 50 wickets in 2016. He is the second all-rounder from India to achieve this in a single calendar year. Ashwin is highest Test wicket taker in year 2016 with 72 scalps.

On 12 February 2017, with the dismissal of Mushfiqur Rahim, Ashwin became the fastest to reach 250 test wickets.

In India's 2016-17 home season, Ashwin took 64 wickets in 13 Tests, becoming the highest wicket taker for India in a single domestic season, surpassing Kapil Dev's record of 63 wickets in 10 Tests during the 1979-80 season.

During the home test series against Australia,he became the fastest bowler to take 25 fifers in test history in terms of matches(47) and in terms of innings(89). He along with Ravindra Jadeja became the first pair of spinners to be jointly ranked number 1 bowler in ICC Test Rankings history

In the 4th and final Test match against Australia national cricket team at Dharamshala Cricket Stadium, March 2017, Ashwin dismissed Steve Smith (cricketer, born 1989) and took his wickets' tally to 79. This is the most number of wickets by a bowler in a home season surpassing Dale Steyn's record of 78 in 2007-08.

• Arjuna Award, 2014
• ICC Test Team of the Year: 2013
• BCCI's Polly Umrigar Award for international cricketer of the year: 2012–13
• ICC Test Cricketer of the Year 2016
• ICC Cricketer of the Year 2016

Test cricket

Man of the Match awards

S No	Series	Season	Match Performance	Result
1	1st Test – West Indies in India	2011/12	1st innings: 27–4–81–3 2nd innings: 21.3–5–47–6	India won by 5 wickets.
2	3rd Test – West Indies in India	2011/12	1st innings: 52.1–6–156–5; 103 (118 balls, 15x4, 2x6) 2nd innings: 15.2–0–34–4	Match drawn.
3	1st Test – New Zealand in India	2012	1st innings: 16.3–5–31–6 2nd innings: 26.5–9–54–6	India won by an innings and 115 runs.
4	3rd Test – South Africa in India	2015/16	1st innings: 16.1–6–32–5 2nd innings: 29.5–7–66–7	India won by 124 runs.
5	1st Test – India in West Indies	2016	1st innings: 113 (253 balls, 12x4); 17–5–43–0 2nd innings: 25–8–83–7	India won by an innings and 92 runs.
6	3rd Test – India in West Indies	2016	1st innings: 118 (297 balls, 6x4, 1x6); 26–7–52–2 2nd innings; 1 (3 balls); 12–2–28–1	India won by 237 runs.
7	3rd Test – New Zealand in India	2016	1st innings: DNB; 27.2–5–81–6, 2 run-outs 2nd innings: DNB; 13.5–1–59–7	India won by 321 runs.

Player of the Series awards

S No	Series	Season	Series Performance	Result
1	West Indies in India Test series	2011/12	170–22–504–22 with 2 five-wicket hauls. 121 runs with 1 century (3 matches)	India won the series 2–0.
2	New Zealand in India Test series	2012	89.2–20–236–18 with 3 five-wicket hauls. 69 runs (2 matches)	India won the series 2–0.
3	Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series	2012/13	241.2–74–583–29 with 4 five-wicket hauls. 20 runs (4 matches)	India won the series 4–0.
4	India in Sri Lanka Test series	2015/16	115–20–380–21 with 2 five-wicket hauls. 94 runs with 1 fifty (3 matches)	India won the series 2–1.
5	The Freedom Trophy Test series	2015/16	164.4–56–345–31 with 4 five-wicket hauls. 101 runs with 1 fifty (4 matches)	India won the series 3–0.
6	India in West Indies Test series	2016	131–29–394–17 with 2 five-wicket hauls. 235 runs with 2 centuries (4 matches)	India won the series 2–0.
7	New Zealand in India Test series	2016–17	176.3–28–480–27 with 3 five-wicket hauls & 2 ten-wicket hauls. 71 runs (3 Innings) 4 catches and 2 run-outs. (3 matches)	India won the series 3–0.

One-Day International cricket

Man of the Match awards

S No	Opponent	Venue	Date	Match Performance	Result
1	Sri Lanka	WACA Ground, Perth	8 February 2012	10–1–32–3 ; 30* (38 balls, 3x4)	India won by 4 wickets.
2	England	Trent Bridge, Nottingham	30 August 2014	10–0–39–3	India won by 6 wickets.
3	UAE	WACA Ground, Perth	28 February 2015	10–1–25–4	India won by 9 wickets.

Twenty20 International cricket

Man of the Match awards

#	Series	Date	Opponent	Match Performance	Result
1	2014 ICC World Twenty20	28 March 2014	Bangladesh	4–0–15–2 ; DNB	India won by 8 wickets.
2	2014 ICC World Twenty20	30 March 2014	Australia	3.2–0–11–4 ; DNB	India won by 73 runs.
3	Sri Lanka in India	14 February 2016	Sri Lanka	4–1–8–4 ; DNB	India won by 9 wickets.
4	2016 ICC World Twenty20	23 March 2016	Bangladesh	5* (2 balls, 1x4, 0x6) ;4–0–20–2	India won by 1 run.

Player of the Series Awards

#	Series	Season	Series Performance	Result
1	Sri Lanka in India	2015/16	Bowling: 11–1–35–9, Ave – 3.88, Econ – 3.18 Batting: 31 runs (3 matches)	India won the series 2–1.