Ahmedabad: India had multiple heroes who put their hands up at crucial junctures to help the team come from behind and thrash England 3-1.
Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Axar Patel, Rishabh Pant all played their parts admirably. But one man stood above all with his consistency and brilliance throughout the series. He was none other than Ravichandran Ashwin, who bagged 32 wickets and scored 181 runs including a century.
Though Pant was adjudged Man-of-the-Match in the final Test for his breathtaking 101 on the second day, it was Ashwin who received the Man-of-the-Series award.
Since making his Test debut in November 2011, it was the eighth time that Ashwin had won the Man-of-the-Series accolade – putting him on a par with legendary bowlers Imran Khan (Pakistan), Richard Hadlee (New Zealand) and Shane Warne (Australia).
Only two cricketers are ahead of him – Sri Lankan offie Muthiah Muralitharan (11 MoS awards) and South Africa’s Jacques Kallis (9).
As for Indians, Ashwin is top of the list, with swashbuckling opener Virender Sehwag second with 5 MoS awards.
In another significant feat, Ashwin became only the fifth cricketer in Test history to achieve the double of taking 30 or more wickets and scoring a century in the same series.
That’s not all. Ashwin became the first Indian bowler to bag 30 or more wickets in a series twice.
Ashwin, who became the quickest Indian bowler to capture 400 Test wickets in the third match of this series, has so far played 78 matches across 30 series. His tally stands at 409 wickets and 2,656 runs.
ASHWIN’S MAN-OF-THE-SERIES AWARDS
* Vs West Indies (2011-12)
* Vs New Zealand (2012-13)
* Vs Australia (2012-2013)
* Vs Sri Lanka (2015-16)
* Vs South Africa (2015-16)
* Vs West Indies (2016-17)
* Vs New Zealand (2016-17)
* Vs England (2020-21)
