Ravichandran Ashwin’s impressive performance with both bat and ball in the two-match India vs Bangladesh Test 2024 series won him the Player of the Series award.
The all-rounder had a tally of 11 wickets and 114 runs from the two matches that saw him win the coveted award for the 11th time in his Test career. That put Ashwin level with Sri Lankan legendary off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who also had 11 Player of the Series awards in the longer format of the game.
Ashwin, who plays for the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League, shone with the ball in the second Test with a match haul of 5/95 to power India to a seven-wicket win in the second Test on Tuesday.
Even though rain played spoilsport on the first three days at Green Park Stadium in Kanpur, the Indian cricket team had the last laugh with the team wrapping up the match and the series in the post-lunch session. Yashasvi Jaiswal scored his second fifty of the match and top-scored yet again with 51 to see India through.
After picking up 2/45 in the first innings, the off-spinner joined the act again in the second innings with figures of 3/50 to help the team to a 2-0 clean sweep. Ashwin’s exploits in the second Test helped him move to the top of the wicket-takers list in the 2023-25 World Test Championship cycle.
Ashwin has picked up 53 wickets from 10 matches at an average of 21.18 and an impressive strike rate of 37.30 in the current WTC cycle. Josh Hazlewood is second on the list with 51 wickets.
In the process, the 38-year-old Ashwin also moved past former India pacer Zaheer Khan to become the highest wicket-taker for India against Bangladesh in Tests. Starting the series with 23 wickets compared to Zaheer’s 31 scalps, Ashwin now has 34 wickets against the neighbours in the longer format of the game.
Ashwin’s gritty century (113 off 133 balls) in the first innings of the first match had saved India from a tough position of 144/6. And his five-wicket haul (6/88) in the second innings won him the Player of the Match. That fifer also took him past Nathan Lyon for most five-wicket hauls (11) in the history of the WTC.
India continue on top of the WTC 2023-25 cycle and will play New Zealand in a three-match Test series at home later in October.
