Ashwin vs Harbhajan: Gautam Gambhir picks India’s best off-spinner

Ravichandran Ashwin is having a sensational time against England with both bat and ball. The Tamil Nadu off-spinner became only the fourth Indian bowler to get to 400 Test wickets, the second-fastest to the landmark in the recently concluded third Test in Ahmedabad. Apart from this, Ashwin scored a hundred in the second Test in Chennai which turned out decisive in India’s victory. He the leading wicket-taker in the series so far and is also third on the list of highest run-scorers.

Also read: IND vs ENG: India’s Possible Playing 11 for 4th Test

Ashwin or Harbhajan, Gambhir picks India’s best off-spinner

Former India opener Gautam Gambhir was recently asked to pick India’s best off-spinner between R Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh. Although he picked Harbhajan as a better off-spinner, Gambhir also emphasized certain areas where R Ashwin is better of the two.

“It’s difficult to compare eras, but at the moment I would feel that with everything around, I would still rate Harbhajan better when he was at his peak. And Ashwin at the moment is probably the best off-spinner in the world but if I have to compare with Harbhajan Singh, with the kind of wickets he played on with no DRS,”

“At the same time, Harbhajan had that advantage of bowling a doosra. He [Ashwin] doesn’t have that option because doosra is not allowed by a finger spinner. Despite that, the amount of variations Ashwin has, it’s a tough one but at the moment, I would still give it to Harbhajan Singh. If I talk from the overall package point of view, Ashwin is probably a better package than Harbhajan purely from a bowler’s point of view,” Gambhir further added.

Also read: IND vs ENG: England’s Possible Playing 11 for 4th Test

Ashwin eight wickets shy of a new milestone

The premium off-spinner is eight wickets away from becoming the fourth-highest wicket-taker for India across all formats. Ashwin has 603 international wickets so far (401 in Tests, 150 in One-day Internationals, and 52 in T20 Internationals), and is just seven short of Zaheer Khan’s 610 (311 Test, 282 ODI, and 17 T20Is).

The fourth Test between India and England will start on Thursday.

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