When you follow (or have been part of) a particular sport, it is natural to have opinions about the players and the game. In a recent discussion, former Australian skipper Ian Chappell, former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra and Sanjay Manjrekar were talking about off-spinner R Ashwin and whether or not he can be considered an “all-time great”.
HT quoted Sanjay Manjrekar saying,
“When people start talking about him as being one of the all-time greats of the game then I have a few problems. One basic problem I have with Ashwin is that when you look at SENA countries, Ashwin doesn’t have a single five-wicket haul there.”
‘All- time great’ is the highest praise & acknowledgement given to a cricketer. Cricketers like Don Bradman, Sobers, Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Virat etc are all time greats in my book. With due respect, Ashwin not quite there as an all-time great yet. 🙏#AllTimeGreatExplained😉
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) June 6, 2021
He added,
“And the other thing when you talk about him running through sides on Indian pitches that are suited to his kind of bowling is that in the last four years, Jadeja has matched him with wicket-taking abilities. Then, interestingly, in the last series against England, Axar Patel got more wickets than Ashwin on similar pitches. So that is my problem with accepting Ashwin as a real all-time great.”
News18 reports that R Ashwin responded with a dialogue from the Tamil movie ‘Anniyan’ (released in Hindi as Aparichit: The Stranger) which translates to ‘don’t say that, my heart is aching’.
😂😂😂🤩🤩 https://t.co/PFJavMfdIE pic.twitter.com/RbWnO9wYti
— Mask up and take your vaccine🙏🙏🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) June 7, 2021
Here is the response he got to it:
Also Chaari, my heart aches to see simple, straightforward, cricketing assessments kick up a fuss these days😂😂😂 https://t.co/7r7SNqpQq3
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) June 8, 2021
What do you think of this assessment? Should R Ashwin be considered an “all-time great” owing to his performance?