Key Takeaways:
Ravichandran Ashwin is one of India's greatest modern-day Test bowlers.
He has taken 537 wickets in 106 Tests.
Ashwin has 37 five-wicket hauls and 8 ten-wicket match hauls.
His best Test performances include dominant spells against West Indies, New Zealand, South Africa, and Australia.
We are back with another best bowling Performances article but this time it is with a different twist as we will talk about one of the best modern day test match Bowlers in Ravichandran Ashwin. Ravichandran Ashwin has played test cricket for India for over a decade. We will talk about his records in test cricket below.
Ravichandran Ashwin played test cricket from 2011 to 2024. He has played 106 Test Matches and has taken 537 Test wickets at a very good average of 24.0. He has taken 37 Five wicket hauls In a test innings and 8 Times in a test match he has taken 10 wickets or more which is outstanding and will make this list difficult to make. So, with that being said let’s see the Top 5 Best bowling performances of Ravichandran Ashwin in Test cricket.
What are Ravichandran Ashwin’s best bowling performances in Test cricket?
Ravichandran Ashwin’s best Test performances include match-winning spells such as 6/31 and 6/54 vs New Zealand (2012), 5/32 and 7/66 vs South Africa (2015), and his career-best 6/81 and 7/59 vs New Zealand (2016). These highlight his impact as one of India's finest Test bowlers.
Top 5 Best Bowling Performances of Ravichandran Ashwin in Test Cricket
3/81 and 6/47 vs West Indies (2011)
This was the first test match in the career of Ravichandran Ashwin and he started with a big bang against West Indies and took 9 wickets in his first test match and so this has to be featured on this list. In the first innings he bowled very well by taking 3 wickets and giving away 81 runs and he impressed one and all but his magic happened in the third innings of this test match where he tire through the West Indies batting order and picked up his first 5 wicket haul in his second bowling Innings and gave away just 47 runs. He instantly made a very good impression and was in it for the long haul.
6/31 and 6/54 vs New Zealand (2012)
This was the first time Ravichandran Ashwin took more than 10 wickets in a test match and he took 12, 6 wickets in each Innings and decimated New Zealand by an innings and 115 runs. Ravichandran Ashwin Bowled so well in the first batting innings of New Zealand as he bowled 16.3 overs and only giving away 31 runs took 6 wickets and broke the back of the New Zealand batting and then again when New Zealand were following on Ravichandran Ashwin took 6 wickets again in the third innings and this time he made sure that India wins this match easily. He was having quite the great start to his test career.
5/32 and 7/66 vs South Africa (2015)
This time the year was 2015 and the opponents were South Africa but this didn’t affect the quality of performance by Ashwin. He had played test cricket for 4 years and everyone knew how good he was. India were all out for 215 in the first innings but when South Africa came out to bat Ravichandran Ashwin absolutely destroyed their batting as he took 5 wickets for just 32 runs in 16.1 overs and South Africa were bundled out for 79 runs and then in the all important 4th innings Ashwin was unplayable as he kept on picking Wickets and he Bowled one of his best ever spells as he got 7 wickets for 66 runs in 29.5 overs and India won the match by 124 runs in a low scoring match.
6/81 and 7/59 vs New Zealand (2016)
This is the best ever bowling performance by Ravichandran Ashwin in test cricket and he took 13 wickets in this test match against New Zealand. India has posted a score of 557 in the first innings and Ravichandran Ashwin bamboozled the New Zealand batters in the first batting innings of theirs and took 6 wickets for 81 runs but his career best bowling performance in a test innings came in the second batting innings of New Zealand where he took 7/59 runs in just under 14 overs and did all the damage and won the match for India by 324 runs.
3/57 and 3/92 vs Australia (2018)
I wanted to include one overseas test bowling performance in this list and this is one of the best in the career of Ravichandran Ashwin. This was a close test match vs Australia in 2018 and Ravichandran Ashwin took 3 wickets in the first batting innings of Australia by giving away only 57 runs in 34 overs and in the 4th Innings where everything was on the line he again stepped up for India and took 3 wickets for 92 runs in 52.5 overs in a marathon spell and India won the match by 31 runs and he had a big role to play in that win.