Anil Kumble hails Ravichandran Ashwin, says West Indies batters were scared of veteran off-spinner

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Former India captain and coach Anil Kumble has hailed Ravichandran Ashwin after his 10-wicket haul which fired India to an innings and 141-run win against West Indies in the Dominica Test.

The 36-year-old's match figures of 12/131 (5/60 in first innings and 7/71 in second innings) helped him secure his 8th Ten-wicket match haul, becoming the joint-most for an Indian, alongside Anil Kumble. He is also just one 5-wicket haul in Tests behind Kumble’s tally of 35.

His dozen coupled with debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 171 enabled India to wrap the proceedings by the third evening. India’s highest wicket-taker in Tests and JioCinema expert Anil Kumble praised the off-spinners' massive effort, the best for any Indian in the 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.

The former India captain and coach also praised Ashwin’s ability to read the pitch and bowl accordingly. He also observed Ashwin’s optimal use of the crease against the home team’s left-handers, especially the way he got opener Tagenarine Chanderpaul.

“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.

The Tamil Nadu cricketer is now 14 wickets short of 500 Test scalps. He has played 93 Test matches for India and picked 486 wickets at an average of 23.61. Only Kumble (619) has more Test wickets than Ashwin among Indian bowlers.