The Special All-rounders’ Club – 500 runs and 50 wickets in a calendar year

#7 Ravichandran Ashwin (India)*

Ashwin is having a great year and he is still not finished. In 10 Tests, Ashwin has already scored 545 runs at 45.41 with 2 centuries and picked 59 wickets at 21.70 (a match still in progress at the time of writing) including 6 five-wicket hauls. Ashwin has benefited from the fact that India has played 6 out of those Tests in India.

However, he was excellent even away from home in West Indies, where he scored two centuries to go with his 17 wickets in 4 Tests. Ashwin is in the middle of a Test series against England with two more games to go, which allows him a genuine crack at Flintoff’s mark of 709 runs and Kapil’s mark of 75 wickets, although he will need two big games for the same.

SK Play of the Day: R Ashwin's beauty removes Alastair Cook in the second innings of the Mohali Test