Know Ravichandran Ashwin, no. 1 all-rounder to receive Arjuna Award

New Delhi: Ravichandran Ashwin, born on 17th September 1986, after being conferred as the best all-rounder in test cricket, he will now be awarded the prestigious Arjuna Award on 67th Independence Day.He has captivated the Indian audiences with his bowling exploits in the shorter form of the game, but ever since his Test debut against West Indies in 2011, Ashwin has surprised one and all with his ability pick up quality wickets and also sustain the pressure of filling in the boots of Harbhajan Singh, who has found it tough to get back into national colours.R Ashwin is a tall offspinner who took the soduku ball, a finger-flicked tennis-ball legbreak, from the streets of Chennai and used it effectively in international cricket on a bigger, harder cricket ball. The carrom ball, an arm ball just as good, his control over his offbreaks, and a sharp brain made Ashwin a quintessential limited-overs spinner, but in Test cricket he followed a brief period of struggle, against England in 2012-13, with a return to classical offspin basics and began using the variations sparingly. Ashwin's success was what India desperately needed at a time when Anil Kumble had retired and Harbhajan Singh was on the wane.In his career of 4 years so far, he had many big achievement in his name. Take a glimpse of his success story:Ashwin is one of the rare players who came into the public's reckoning through the IPL and yet was good enough to hold his own in bigger forms of cricket. For his IPL franchise, he opened the bowling, bowled at death, came on when wickets were required, and was the Man of the Series in the 2010 Champions League played in South Africa.His success in T20 cricket earned him a call-up to the national side, ODI firsts and inevitably the Tests in 2011-12. He was a part of the winning squad in the 2011 World Cup, but rarely got a chance ahead of Harbhajan. The senior offspinner, though, soon provided him with more opportunities and Ashwin kept on building a phenomenal body of work.He took nine wickets in his maiden Test, the second-highest by an Indian debutant after Narendra Hirwani's 16, and won the Man-of-the-Match award. He became the first Indian cricketer to score a century and take five wickets in same test match on 2 separate instances. He achieved this feat for the first time in his third Test when he made 103 and took 5/156 in the first innings. Again he repeated the feat in the Kolkata test against West Indies in November 2013 where he took 2/52 in the 1st innings and 3/46 in the 2nd innings and scored 124 in India's 1st innings. Other Indians to have done this feat once are Vinoo Mankad in 1952 and Polly Umrigar in 1962. This feat had only been achieved 26 times previously in world cricket, the last occasion being by Jacques Kallis in 2002.It only got better: he registered nine five-fors in his first 16 Tests and was a genuine threat to Erapalli Prasanna's Indian record of the march to 100 wickets in 20 Tests.He was also given the Dilip Sardesai award for becoming the Man of the Series in his debut Test series against West Indies.Ashwin became the fastest Indian to record 50 wickets in Test matches as he overhauled the milestone in his ninth game. He achieved it when he dismissed the England opener Nick Compton on 16 November 2012, the second day of the first Test at Ahmedabad. The previous record holder was the legendary Anil Kumble, who had reached the milestone in his tenth Test. Later he achieved another feat of becoming the fastest bowler in 80 years to complete 100 wickets in his 19th Test last November against the West Indies at the Wankhede Stadium here, the farewell game of Sachin Tendulkar.On 8 December 2012, Ashwin completed 500 runs in his 11th Test cricket match when batting against England scoring unbeaten 91. With this he shares the record of becoming the fastest player along with Australia's Jack Gregory and England's Ian Botham, who also took 11 Tests to reach the mark of completing the all-round double of 500 runs and 50 wickets. Incidentally the quickest Indian to reach 500 runs and 50 wickets before Ashwin was Salim Durani, who did so in his 14th Test, followed by Vinoo Mankad in 15 tests and Kapil Dev in 16.Ashwin also surpassed former India captain Anil Kumble as the leading wicket-taker for India in a four-Test series. Ashwin claimed his 28th wicket of Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2012/13 at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. The previous record of 27 had been achieved by Kumble against Australia too, during the 2004/05 edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. In 2013, Ashwin continued his good all-round form against West Indies in this Test. He has now hit a hundred and taken five wickets for the match against them in consecutive Tests. He had hit a hundred and taken nine wickets the last time India played against West Indies at Wankhede Stadium in 2011. Only four other India players have hit a hundred and taken five or more wickets for the match. Ashwin's the only one to do it twice.The 280-run partnership between Rohit Sharma (177) and Ashwin (124) against West Indies in November 2013 was India's highest in Tests for the seventh wicket, beating the unbeaten 259-run partnership between VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni against South Africa at the same venue in 2010. This was also the second-highest partnership for India against West Indies for any wicket in Tests. After a poor performance against South Africa in the 1st Test in India's tour of South Africa 2013-14, Ashwin was dropped for the 2nd test and didn't play in any of the tests on the New Zealand tour. He was also not selected for the first three tests against England in the ongoing tour.The fact is that he makes valuable contributions down the order makes almost a certainty for every match and he already 2 Test hundreds (both against West Indies) apart from a few fifties. His batting was flawless even in Australia, where the top-order could never really get going. Same thing happened in the ongoing England tour where he made his comeback in 4th test at Old Trafford where he scored 40 and 46 not out but going wicketless across 14 overs bowled. Though India lost the match but two days after he was ranked as no. 1 all-rounder in test cricket in ICC test player rankings followed by the Protea Veron Philander. On the very next day of becoming the best all-rounder, he is nominated for the prestigious Arjuna Award for his outstanding contribution in Indian cricket. A lot will be depended on him in the 5th test from Friday, 15th August in order to level the series at 2-2.