Ravichandran Ashwin

India's five-match home Test series against England in early 2024, turned out to be a landmark one for Ravichandran Ashwin. The offspinner registered double milestones in the series, by claiming 500 wickets in Tests and becoming the 14th Indian player to play 100 Tests for the country. The record to 500 wickets happened in 98 Tests, fastest by any Indian bowler, as Ashwin joined another Indian spin legend Anil Kumble to take 500 wickets in Test cricket.

Once the likes of Muttiah Muralitharan, Harbhajan Singh and Graeme Swann were on their way out, Ashwin and Australia's Nathan Lyon have taken the legacy of off-spin bowling forward. Both are masters of their craft and are fierce competitors too, in a race to prove who is the best.

The passion for the game started on the streets of Chennai where Ashwin grew up playing tennis-ball cricket and the tricks that he picked helped him to bowl a carrom-ball and the doosra in international cricket. His interest for cricket piqued, Ashwin's parents encouraged him to play the sport professionally but not at the cost of his studies. He pursued his engineering degree in a college on the outskirts of Chennai while he hitchhiked lorry rides after classes to reach for cricket training.

Ashwin's nerd-like approach to his craft and to experiment has made him a match-winner for India and a star offspinner. His hunger to excel is evident in the progression of his career graph, armed with a thinking mind he has added the doosra, carrom-ball and an effective arm-ball to his repertoire.

He started off in limited-overs cricket and India were on the lookout for its next spinner, with Kumble having retired and Harbhajan Singh almost on his way out. In his debut Test against the West Indies at Delhi in 2011, Ashwin took nine wickets and was also the Player of the Match.

Ashwin was a World Cup winner before he made his Test debut. Though part of the 2011 World Cup squad, he played two matches including the quarterfinal. However, in the 2015 edition of the tournament played in Australia and New Zealand, he took 13 wickets from eight matches until India's exit in the semifinal. In the 2014 Twenty20 World Cup, Ashwin bagged 11 wickets and returned best figures of 4 for 11 against Australia.

With 36 five-wicket hauls and counting, more than 100 wickets apiece against Australia and England, Ashwin enjoyed a purple patch during India's 2016-17 home season, where he took 82 wickets against four different oppositions.

Ashwin would be probably the first instance of a player making it big in international cricket through the IPL route. He was picked by Chennai Super Kings in 2009, spent six seasons there and won two titles. He was MS Dhoni's go-to bowler when CSK needed a breakthrough or put brakes to the scoring rate. Since his IPL debut, Ashwin has been part of five IPL teams and has captained Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) in the 2018 and 2019 editions.

With five Test hundreds and solid technique, Ashwin is no mug with the bat either and can be trusted out in the middle when the chips are down, which he proved by forging a dogged stand with Hanuma Vihari against the Aussie bowlers to secure a historic draw in Sydney in 2021.