Southampton: Ravichandran Ashwin will soon overtake Harbhajan Singh in most Test wickets and become India's most successful off-spinner. But former Indian batsman Sanjay Manjrekar believes that Ashwin cannot be counted as "one of the all-time greats".
"When people start talking about him as being one of the all-time greats of the game then I have a few problems," Manjrekar said to ESPNcricinfo.
Manjrekar pointed out that Ashwin hasn't been bowling well against South Africa, England, New Zealand, and Australia. He said, "One basic problem I have with Ashwin is that when you look at SENA countries, Ashwin doesn't have a single five-wicket haul there. And the other thing when you talk about him running through sides on Indian pitches that are suited to his kind of bowling is that in the last four years, Jadeja has matched him with wicket-taking abilities."
Manjrekar also tweeted about it:
"Then, interestingly, in the last series against England, Axar Patel got more wickets than Ashwin on similar pitches. So that is my problem with accepting Ashwin as a real all-time great," Manjrekar concluded.
But, Australian legendary batsman, Ian Chappell had an opposite view of what Manjrekar said.
"I would like to make a couple of points there — if you look at Joel Garner, I mean how many five-wicket hauls Joel Garner has? Not many, when you consider how good he was and his record. And why, because he was performing with three other very, very fine players," Chappell pointed out as Manjrekar listened.
He also said that the Indian bowling attack has been performing well as a collective team and thus the wickets get distributed.
As Manjrekar said that Axar got more wickets than Ashwin in the Test against England, Chappell replied saying, "And the other point I would make is because of Ashwin's reputation I think the England players probably concentrated more on keeping Ashwin out and with Axar Patel, well, let's be blunt about it, they didn't have a bloody clue," Chappell added.
Where do you stand on this Chappell Vs Manjrekar debate? Do you think Ashwin is one of the Greatest Of All Time Bowler? Do let us know in the comments.