With Ashwin's marvel, India gets Rohit Sharma as opener after months of struggle

Ashwin is the fastest bowler to reach 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300 and now eyeing for the 350 test wickets scalp in just 66 matches

It was not a long time ago when India's ace spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was left out because of his out-of-form game. But as India took on South Africa for the first test match at Vishakhapatnam, Ashwin charmed everyone with his impressive seven-wicket haul here on Friday.

Why it's important to bring the Ashwin issue into the limelight is because, during the West Indies tour, the ace spinner was not placed in the playing XI despite being nominated for ICC Cricketer of the Year and ICC Test Cricketer of the Year in 2016 which wasn’t that long ago. Senior players like Sunil Gavaskar also expressed their disappointment with this decision of the skipper, coach and team management.

Ashwin is a player who already has many records under his cap and right now there is no one in the team who can match up to his records. He is the fastest bowler to claim those so-called milestones. He is the fastest bowler to reach 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300 and now eyeing for the 350 test wickets scalp in just 66 matches.

During the Test match against South Africa, Ashwin grabbed those seven wickets in the first innings at an economy of 3.1 and claimed one wicket in the second innings. And Ravindra Jadeja also perfectly complemented Ashwin and supported him in every way.

There were speculations that why Ashwin was not included in the team for so long, but no one wants to talk about it. There had been many instances when many players of the Indian cricket team were silently kept aside without giving out any explanation. Right from Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, the players were kept out of the playing XI without a valid explanation. But in the case of Ashwin, he has proved his worth with the last test match.

Rohit Sharma slams it right

We know what he can do with the white ball, but during this test, we saw a different and soothing glimpse of what Rohit Sharma can do with the red ball as well. He has now become the first batsman to smash hundreds in both the innings on debut as an opener.

In the first innings, Rohit Sharma scored 176 off 244 balls in which he hit 23 fours and 6 sixes and in the second innings he scored 127 runs off 149 balls with 10 fours and 7 sixes. Which means he has hit 33 fours and 13 sixes in two innings. By smashing 13 sixes in one match, Rohit Sharma has now become the only Indian batsman to hit most sixes in a test match.

With this match, the 32-year-old has also surpassed Rahul Dravid for most consecutive 50 plus scores by an Indian batsman at home ground.  Dravid has six 50 plus scores under his name that he smashed in between 1997 and 1998. Rohit’s last test scores are 176, 127, 50*, 65, 102*, 51* and 82.  Not just this, he also became the only Indian batsman to get stumped out in both innings of the Test match.

The critics were not sure about Rohit’s future in Test as they were not sure whether he will be able to prove himself in tests looking at his previous performances. But he simply left everyone in awe as his bat did the talking. Rohit Sharma loves to take up challenges and knows how to deal with all the negativity and criticism and turn everything into positive.

The Indian limited-overs vice-captain has already dominated the ODI cricket and is an established batsman. But for him coming out for the first-class cricket as an opener for the World Test Championship was like a dream come true and he made sure that he is living up to the dream and everyone’s expectations. He quickly adjusted at the crease and looked really comfortable with the pitch conditions.

Now India looks more confident than ever with a strong opener for the test team and on the other hand, Ashwin is back to his zone and is making sure that he gets a fixed spot in the team as an ace senior spinner who cannot be replaced by anyone.

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