Mumbai, March 2: With yet another superlative performance against England in the third Test in the ongoing series, senior India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin once again proved why he's one of the biggest match-winners for Team India in the longer version of the game.
After literally owning the second Test with bat and ball, R Ashwin continued his stellar show in the pink-ball Test held at the refurbished Motera Stadium. The offie grabbed seven wickets in the Day-Night Test which belonged to the spinners as 28 of 30 dismissals in the game were made by tweakers.
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After restricting the much-vaunted England batting line-up for 112 in the first innings, Ashwin and Axar Patel wreaked havoc with the new ball as the entire English side folded for 81 runs in the second innings. The Tamil Nadu spinner - who entered the 400 wickets club in the previous game - received a lot of praise from former India batsman VVS Laxman.
Laxman praised Ashwin on his feat in the previous Test and spoke on how intelligent the spinner is as he does his homework well before stepping on the field.
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Speaking exclusively on Star Sports' show CRICKET CONNECTED, Laxman said: "I think he's a very intelligent person! When you're playing at the highest level, then it's not only about your skill, it's about your preparation, your planning and execution is so critical. So, he works out what are the weaknesses of the batsman. He plans those dismissals and that's why I think he is reinventing himself.
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"We saw recently in the Australia series how he troubled, someone as great as Steve Smith and that's another thing that makes Ashwin or any champion player special, that he wants to be the best and compete against the best."
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Ashwin became the fastest Indian bowler to take 400 Test wickets as he took just 77 matches to reach the milestone. He's the second quickest in the world after Sri Lankan spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan - who owns the record of claiming 400 Test scalps in just 72 matches.