Marathon Ashwin eclipses Test record

If India’s master spinner Ravichandran Ashwin appeared fatigued on day two of the second Test it might be because he’s bowled a lot of balls this season.

A hell of a lot of balls.

In fact, as it stands at stumps on day two in Bengaluru, Ashwin has bowled 3,701 balls in the 2016-17 season, the most by any bowler in a single season in Test history.

Ashwin’s 41 overs in Australia’s first innings of the second Test saw him leapfrog India’s most successful spin bowler, current national head coach and former record holder Anil Kumble, who bowled 3,673 balls in the 2004-05 season.

It’s a remarkable feat by the 30-year-old, who in 11 matches this season has bowled an average of 29.2 overs per innings and captured 69 wickets against New Zealand, England, Bangladesh and Australia since September last year.

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Of the 2019.2 overs India has bowled in Tests this season, Ashwin is responsible for 616.5 (31 per cent) of them while his spin twin Ravindra Jadeja has bowled 578.1 overs (29 per cent). 

Ashwin said before the four-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy series that he’d been bowling at only “60-70 per cent” of his potential because of a Sports Hernia injury.

Now, the gruelling international schedule has been compounded with 41 overs for a return of 1-75 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, and keeping India’s bowlers in the field for long stints is a strategy the Australians, according to opening batsman Matthew Renshaw.

“The plan this morning was to try and bat as long as possible and wear the Indian bowlers down,” said Renshaw, who scored a resilient 60 from 196 balls.

“They’ve come off a long summer and they’ve played a lot of Tests. 

“We know if we can get them to (bowl) a high amount of overs we’ll be in a good position.”

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While Ashwin and his fellow bowlers will have more bowling to do on day three as they hunt the final four Australian wickets, India No.3 Cheteshwar Pujara says the hosts are not feeling the affects of fatigue despite the heavy workload. 

“We have got enough breaks in between (the Test series),” Pujara said on Sunday. “I do not think it was a long season. 

“We enjoyed this particular season because we won so many matches apart from the last game where we lost the game (against Australia in Pune). 

“This team is strong. I definitely feel we’ll come back strong in this particular Test match and the series. 

“We are still together, we are still enjoying this game and the kind of success we had in the last year and the start of this year, apart from the last Test match, we played some really good cricket.”

Most balls in a single Test season by a bowler:

R Ashwin: 3,701 in 21 innings, 2016-17

A Kumble: 3,673 in 22 innings, 2004-05

M Mankad: 3,662 in 15 innings, 1952-53

D Doshi: 3,515 in 25 innings, 1979-80

R Jadeja: 3,469 in 21 innings, 2016-17