R Ashwin Explains Contrasting Fortunes Against Ricky Ponting and Kumar Sangakkara

R Ashwin is one of the most successful bowlers in Test cricket, with 365 wickets from just 71 Tests already to his name.

However, one batsman he didn't have too much success against was Ricky Ponting. The Australian legend clashed with Ashwin in four Tests down under in 2011-12, and scored 148 runs from 256 deliveries without being dismissed.

Ashwin explained that the sample size was too less to come to conclusions.

"I think the sample size is very less. I think I might have played very little against Ricky Ponting. In the Adelaide Test, he was dropped twice, I remember it very clearly. In the Sydney Test, he made some runs, I bowled very less against him in Melbourne. But in Adelaide and Sydney, I bowled longer to him," Ashwin told Pakistan journalist Mazher Arshad in an interview uploaded on YouTube.

"Ricky Ponting is a great batsman, I was a newcomer at the time. I really take pride when someone plays me really well, I try to counter them as period goes on. That’s international cricket. You adapt. When you do well, you learn, when you don’t do well, you learn harder.

"For me, I always thought Ricky Ponting was a fine, fine batsman. I also thought he wanted to go out on a high, he didn’t have any pressure at that point of time when we went to Australia. I was still new into my art, I was still learning my game,” he further said.

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"I don’t see anyone as someone who is the best batsman in the world, or very difficult to bowl at. Yes, you will have good days and bad days. If someone plays you well, you have to learn and get better."

Ashwin, however, had great success against another legend in the fag end of his career: the India offspinner dismissed Kumar Sangakkara four times for just 23 runs in the 2015 series in Sri Lanka.

"When it came to Sanga, I think I was really lucky because I was in one of the best forms of my life," Ashwin explained. "Ball was coming out like a dream, I didn't have to think about anything. My action and rhythm was like poetry in motion. He got some really good balls. I was bowling like a dream to left handers. When I saw a left hander, I didn't see who he was. I liked bowling in Sri Lanka, the pitches don't spin big but they have enough bounce and speed to carry edges to slip.

"They say right time at the right place. Sangakkara was about to finish his career and I was about to take off my career, I found myself in the right time of my career against Sanga."