Muttiah Muralitharan stunned by the success of Ravindra Jadeja

India had a very successful last season at home and a lot of credit goes to some brilliant bowling performances by spin duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin. The two bowled excellently throughout the whole season as they picked up a total of 153 wickets combined.

Ashwin who bagged the ICC Cricketer of the year trophy picked up 82 wickets last season with seven 5 wicket hauls and three 10 wicket hauls. On the other hand, Jadeja who is currently the number one test bowler scalped 71 wickets at an average of 22.83. He picked up four 5 fwicket hauls and one 10 wicket haul last season.

Sri Lankan spin legend who has been arguably the best spinner to have ever graced the cricket field was stunned by Jadeja’s success. While talking to Wisden India, he heaped praise on both Jadeja and Ashwin but told that he never expected Jadeja to come out that good.

“We all expected that, no?. Because, on spinning wickets, you can’t expect fast bowlers to take wickets. Australia, England or New Zealand – they’re not great against spin, they will struggle always. The surprise was Jadeja for me, not so much Ashwin. Ashwin has always been so good. But I never thought Jadeja could bowl that well in that series (against Australia) because sometimes, he outdid Ashwin. That was a surprise”

Murali also hailed the bowler and explained how Jadeja has evolved as a spinner learning to vary his deliveries which got him a lot of success.

“When he was playing One-Day International and Twenty20 cricket, I thought he was bowling too fast. He mixed his speed a little bit and became a better bowler and took a lot of wickets. Maybe he’s learned how to bowl in these conditions. You can’t keep on bowling fast. On a track that is turning very big, you can bowl fast. But sometimes, you have to slow it down. And he has done that,” he added