Ashwin and Jadeja ranked no 1 and 2 test bowlers.

[mohammad16]

Is this a joke? Or is the standard of spin bowling that terrible these days? I don't remember these guys having any success outside of dustbowls in India. Jadeja might just be the most talentless bowler of all times to reach top 2 in world rankings.

 

[Black_Warrior]

Ashwin has wickets in Sri Lanka and West Indies

He has struggled in England and Australia but he has only toured there once. Give him a few more series. Cricketers, learn, improve and get better. Problem with these "standard of spin bowling/fast bowling/batting these days" arguments is that they are comparing the peak of a subjective previous standard with a current bowler who hasn't even played 50 test matches.

Currently we have 3 absolutely outstanding spin bowlers in test cricket with a few more like SOK and Mehedi Hasan with tremendous potential

If anything, the standard of spin bowling is pretty damn high now if you ask me.

 

[mohammad16]

Ashwin has wickets in Sri Lanka and West Indies

He has struggled in England and Australia but he has only toured there once. Give him a few more series. Cricketers, learn, improve and get better. Problem with these "standard of spin bowling/fast bowling/batting these days" arguments is that they are comparing the peak of a subjective previous standard with a current bowler who hasn't even played 50 test matches.

Currently we have 3 absolutely outstanding spin bowlers in test cricket with a few more like SOK and Mehedi Hasan with tremendous potential

If anything, the standard of spin bowling is pretty damn high now if you ask me.

Ashwin is already like 30. I have seen nothing from him really that would suggest he would be a success in England or Australia. He is a decent bowler but because he is dominating in India he is putting up all time great statistics, which is very misleading.

Unfortunately I do not see how the standard of spin bowling is high. It is severely lacking. If you have one dimensional no talent bowlers like Jadeja ranked number 2 in the world, that would be considered an absolute joke in most eras.

 

[Burgey]

I did find it astonishing when they flashed up the stats the other day which showed he'd taken over 200 of his then 260 odd test wickets in India. Did he miss tours through injury or something, because he seems to have been around for ages.

And yeah, I think Jadeja is prettymuch a stock standard bowler, but in fairness his method works brilliantly at home.

 

[CricAddict]

Ashwin is already like 30. I have seen nothing from him really that would demonstrate he would be a success in England or Australia. He is a decent bowler but because he is dominating in India he is putting up all time great statistics, which is very misleading.

Unfortunately I do not see how the standard of spin bowling is high. It is severely lacking. If you have one dimensional no talent bowlers like Jadeja ranked number 2 in the world, that would be considered an absolute joke in most eras.

How do you measure talent of a spin bowler? What is the criteria? Only the current India-Australia series has dustbowls. All the previous series did not. Also a Mishra, Jayant, Rashid or Moeen don't take wickets in these pitches. Only the genuinely good spin bowlers take the bulk of the wickets.

 

[CricAddict]

I did find it astonishing when they flashed up the stats the other day which showed he'd taken over 200 of his then 260 odd test wickets in India. Did he miss tours through injury or something, because he seems to have been around for ages.

In overseas tests, there is space for only one spinner. So only one of Ashwin or Jadeja plays. And as we all know, Ashwin hasn't bowled that well overseas so far. That explains the low number of wickets.

 

[Black_Warrior]

Ashwin is already like 30. I have seen nothing from him really that would suggest he would be a success in England or Australia. He is a decent bowler but because he is dominating in India he is putting up all time great statistics, which is very misleading.

Unfortunately I do not see how the standard of spin bowling is high. It is severely lacking. If you have one dimensional no talent bowlers like Jadeja ranked number 2 in the world, that would be considered an absolute joke in most eras.

You are focusing too much on the rankings. Rankings change a lot and it is heavily influenced by a biased cricket calender that allows bigger teams to play close to 15 test matches a year and smaller teams are lucky to get half of that.

I don't want to get too much into the rankings because of that.

But Ashwin is a great spin bowler irrespective of the factors above. Greatness is a subjective term in sport and different people here have different factors but for me the second innings was a great example of why he is a great bowler.

He had not taken a lot of wickets in this series where his team is trailing 0-1 and Australia were comfortably placed chasing 180. This is what I have seen great bowlers do. They are able to maintain their self belief and mental strength even when the chips are down and then deliver at the time when no one else could have delivered. It was a collective effort and Ishant, Umesh and Jadeja contributed, but they were not going to take a 6fer on that day. It had to be Ashwin.

A bit like this when another great spin bowler put his hand up at a crucial point after getting smashed for 167 runs in the first innings

2nd Test: Australia v England at Adelaide, Dec 1-5, 2006 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

This is what I have seen Herath do. This is what I have seen Yasir do and this is what I have seen Ashwin do. We have 3 world class spin bowlers at one point in cricket history.

 

[Black_Warrior]

I did find it astonishing when they flashed up the stats the other day which showed he'd taken over 200 of his then 260 odd test wickets in India. Did he miss tours through injury or something, because he seems to have been around for ages.

And yeah, I think Jadeja is prettymuch a stock standard bowler, but in fairness his method works brilliantly at home.

He has only played 47 tests though and for someone who debuted in 2011 and given India's cricket calender, that means he has missed a lot

I know around 2013-14 overseas season, India played 3 seamers and 1 spinner and preferred Jadeja over him.

India also don't tour Pakistan, and only toured Sri Lanka once since 2010 so he wouldn't get a lot of games in the rest of the subcontinent either.

 

[honestbharani]

He played in the 2011 Oz series, and we hardly toured in 2012. In 2013, he did not go so well in RSA esp. in a 4th inning where he was expected to get the wickets. They dropped him for Jaddu and he missed a number of straight overseas tests since that. Came back into the side off and on till he again became a regular in the first XI irrespective of where we are playing post the 2015 WC. And we have only toured SL and WI since.

 

[stephen]

The real question is how long until Hazlewood overtakes them both?

 

[Burgey]

Three weeks.

 

[honestbharani]

overtakes them to the airport?

 

[stephen]

You raise a good point hb. As long as Ashwin and Jadeja don't play tests outside of India they'll likely keep their artificially high rankings.

 

[honestbharani]

Lol.. y the salt mate? I am not calling them the best around even. But they have done what they have done in these conditions and others of their ilk have been nowhere near and they deserve the ranking. I still think Haze and Starc are better all conditions bowlers but if I gotta test match to win on day 5 on a track helping spinners, I would choose these two over anyone else in cricket today. No one has achieved the kind of consistent match winning numbers these two have, even in conditions that suit them.



EDIT: Except the real TPC and I guess Yasir to an extent.

 

[stephen]

It's incredible. Ashwin has played 30 home tests and 17 away tests, while Jadeja has played 20 home and 8 away.

Ashwin has a reasonable away average though. I still think Haze will be #1 soon enough.

 

[Daemon]

Herath
Ashwin
Yasir
Jadeja
Lyon
SOK
Maharaj
Hasan
Fizz
Shakib


So many decent spinners around today. Too bad England have none.

 

[Burgey]

Fizz isn't a spinner is he? I haven't watched him or taken much interest because Bangladesh, but I thought that's why people like ***** were excited, because they actually had a bowler who can't be timed with a sundial.

 

[Daemon]

Fizz isn't a spinner is he? I haven't watched him or taken much interest because Bangladesh, but I thought that's why people like ***** were excited, because they actually had a bowler who can't be timed with a sundial.

Bowls left arm spin at 135-140kph

 

[viriya]

Jadeja is overrated in the official ratings and Ashwin is somewhat underrated.

 

[cnerd123]

Jadeja is overrated in the official ratings and Ashwin is somewhat underrated.

He's number one man.