Ravichandran Ashwin worked his magic in the second Test, and proceeded to do the same on social media, lending a helping hand to his fellow spinner Ajaz Patel.
Ravichandran Ashwin worked his magic with the ball in hand in the second Test to spin a web around the New Zealand batters as India coasted to a mammoth 372-run win to seal a 1-0 series victory over the visitors. However, another spinner — New Zealand’s Ajaz Patel — grabbed eyeballs by taking all 10 wickets in India’s first innings. Ajaz Patel was the talk of the town, becoming only the third player in Test cricket history to achieve the feat. But as the dust settled on Ajaz Patel’s heroics, many realised that Ajaz Patel’s Twitter account, surprisingly, wasn’t verified. In stepped Ashwin to lend his fellow spinner a helping hand.
The India off-spinner tweeted to ‘The Verified blue badge source’ page, saying taking 10 wickets in an innings “definitely deserves” a blue tick.
Not many tend to disagree with Ashwin, and Twitter wasn’t going to be among the few who do. Soon enough, Ajaz Patel’s Twitter account had the enviable ‘blue tick’.
Ashwin, on his part, didn’t forget to thank the social media platform for heeding his advise.
Ashwin was almost unplayable at times in the second Test, taking a total of eight wickets in the match with New Zealanders enduring a nightmare in Mumbai. While Ashwin played a starring role for India, Ajaz Patel’s heroics went in vain as New Zealand batters crumbled against India’s spin threat.
Ajaz, who took all 10 wickets in the first innings, picked up another four in the second innings to end with match figures of 14 wickets for 225 runs. This incidentally were the best figures in the history of Test cricket for any bowler against India, beating the Ian Botham’s previous best of 13 wickets for 106 runs.
Ashwin too had a record of his own. The 34-year-old surpassed the likes of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh in taking 50 or more Test wickets in a calendar year for the most number of times (4).
During the first Test in Kanpur last month, Ashwin went past Harbhajan to become India’s third-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket.
