‘West Indies batters were scared of him’: Anil Kumble hails Ravi Ashwin’s performance in Dominica Test

Ravi Ashwin was unplayable for the West Indies batters as he picked a total of 12 wickets in the first test.

Former India captain and coach Anil Kumble hailed Ravi Ashwin after his haul of 12 wickets which fired India to an innings and 141-run win against West Indies in the first Test of the two-match series in Dominica.

West Indies stood no chance against the wily spinner on a turning track in Roseau as they were bundled out for 150 in the first innings after captain Kraigg Brathwaite won the toss and chose to bat first.

Debutant Alick Athanaze top-scored with 47 while Ravi Ashwin picked 5/60 in the first innings.

In reply, India posted 421/5d with debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal making 171, Rohit Sharma making 103, and Virat Kohli scoring 76 runs. This was enough for the Indian team bowlers to run riot on the opposition batters and they were out for 130 runs, with Ashwin taking 7/71 in the second innings with a match haul of 12/131.

This led to Anil Kumble hailing the veteran spinner’s effort which is the best by any Indian in West Indies.

“Ashwin plays with the batsmen’s mind. It is not just about the skills you have. It is also the ability to transfer pressure onto the batter which you could see in every batter that faced R Ashwin, you could see that in their body language,” JioCinema expert Kumble remarked.

However, Yashasvi Jaiswal’s debut century earned him the Player of the Match award.

Anil Kumble praised Ravichandran Ashwin for setting up Tagenarine Chanderpaul beautifully before his dismissal

Apart from this, India’s leading wicket-taker in Tests and ODIs, Anil Kumble lauded Ashwin for how he set up West Indies’ opener Tagenarine Chanderpaul up by going wide of the crease after reading the pitch beautifully and getting his wicket.

He also observed Ashwin’s optimal use of the crease against the home team’s left-handers.

“He bowled wide off the crease with the ball coming into the left-hander. Once the left-hander thought the balls would come in is when Ashwin bowled that beautiful delivery to Chanderpaul which just drifted in and left him and took the off stump,” he said.

Ashwin is now just 14 short of the 500-wicket mark as he currently has 486 wickets in 93 Test matches. He is behind only Kumble, who has 619 wickets to his name in Tests.