"I never felt he was a bowler for Test match cricket" - VVS Laxman on R Ashwin overhauling Harbhajan Singh's tally of wickets

VVS Laxman has heaped praise on R Ashwin for becoming India's third-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket. The former India cricketer acknowledged that he didn't feel the lanky off-spinner was suited to the longest format of the game when he saw him for the first time.

Ashwin scalped three wickets in New Zealand's second innings of the Kanpur Test. Although it didn't help India win the match, the 35-year-old surpassed Harbhajan Singh's tally of 417 wickets in Test cricket.

While lauding Ashwin's achievement during a discussion on Star Sports, Laxman recollected his first impressions of the wily spinner. He said:

"The first time I saw Ravichandran Ashwin was in the 2008 Duleep Trophy, when we were playing against Central Zone. I never felt he was a bowler for Test match cricket. With the flatter trajectory and the fast speed he used to bowl, I felt he could play white-ball cricket but not Test matches."

The cricketer-turned-commentator highlighted that the hard yards Ashwin put in yielded him rich dividends. Laxman elaborated:

"But the way he put in the effort, used to give a lot of attention to practice, used to improve on his art in every session and the mindset that needs to be there in a champion player, Ashwin has that. Because of that, he kept on getting better."

Ashwin played under Laxman's leadership in the aforementioned Duleep Trophy match in Bengaluru in January 2009. He picked up just one wicket in the 49 overs he bowled across the two innings in that encounter.

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"At that time, R Ashwin just had an off-spinner" - VVS Laxman

R Ashwin has plenty of variations up his sleeve [P/C: BCCI]

VVS Laxman added that Ashwin had grown from being a one-trick pony to having a full repertoire of deliveries in his arsenal. He observed:

"He developed variations. At that time, he just had an off-spinner and just used to use the crease. But if you see now, he has five or six options."

The 47-year-old concluded by stating that Ashwin's shrewdness has helped him achieve great success in international cricket. Laxman said:

"He has always been an intelligent player. He used his cricket smartness and because of that, he has taken so many wickets in his career till now."

Ashwin, who now has 419 wickets to his name, is only behind Anil Kumble (619) and Kapil Dev (434) as the most successful Indian bowlers in Test cricket. While he should be able to surpass Kapil Dev's tally, it might be a tall ask for him to go beyond Kumble.