A Milestone For Ashwin

Ravichandran Ashwin has dismissed 192 left-handers in Test cricket. That’s more than any other bowler in Test history. A majority of Ashwin’s 375 Test wickets have been leftys. This is probably the more interesting figure as no other bowler comes close on this question.

Some of this is because the share of total Test innings played by leftys has been rising. Bowlers in earlier eras just didn’t have as many leftys to bowl at. Essentially, the average number of left-handers in a Test top six doubled - from 1 in the 20th century, to 2 in the 21st.

Ashwin also bowls significantly better to leftys than he does to rightys. Part of this has to do with his preference for a more negative line against the rightys. Part of this is because he spins the ball away from the lefty, and so leftys find it more difficult to score against him than rightys do. To hit against the off-spin, a righty usually moves outside the line of off-stump, taking LBW out of the equation. To hit against the off-spin a lefty has to sweep from the stumps, bringing that extra mode of dismissal into play and increasing the risk.

Ashwin has bowled 45.6% of his deliveries to leftys. His bowling partner Ravindra Jadeja has bowled only 32% of his deliveries to leftys. His great Australian contemporary Nathan Lyon has bowled about 31% of his deliveries to leftys.

The amount of bowling Ashwin does to leftys is a testimony to the way India have used him during his career. Most of his bowling to leftys happens early in the innings. 57% of all deliveries Ashwin has bowled to leftys in his career have been bowled within the first 45 overs of the innings. 18% have been bowled during the first hour of the innings.

Among the batsmen he has bowled to most often, Michael Clarke, (until this series) Steve Smith and Joe Root had probably played him best of all.