Sanjay Manjrekar has explained why, in his opinion, Ravichandran Ashwin cannot be labelled an all-time great and his reasoning did not go down well with social media.

Ian Chappell commented on the ESPNCricinfo show ‘Runorder’ that Ashwin is one of the best Test bowlers going around, but Manjrekar, also a part of the show, pointed out that he has a problem “when people start talking about him as being one of the all-time greats of the game”.

Manjrekar cited the overseas record of Ashwin and the performance of Ravindra Jadeja and recently Axar Patel when playing alongside him to rubbish the notion that Ashwin an all-time great.

“One basic problem I have with Ashwin is that when you look at SENA countries, Ashwin doesn’t have a single five-wicket haul there. And the other thing when you talk about him running through sides on Indian pitches that are suited to his kind of bowling is that in the last four years, Jadeja has matched him with wicket-taking abilities. Then, interestingly, in the last series against England, Axar Patel got more wickets than Ashwin on similar pitches. So that is my problem with accepting Ashwin as a real all-time great,” Manjrekar said

Chappell pointed out the example of Joel Garner to say that Ashwin is surrounded by great bowlers and the “wickets are shared around”, but Manjrekar’s comments did not go unnoticed on social media where several people questioned his logic.

There was a dispute between @sanjaymanjrekar and Ian chappell . Manjrekar said to ESPNcricinfo that I didn’t @ashwinravi99 is the best bowler in this era.but he didn’t take a fifer in and against SENA (South Africa,England, New-Zealand,Australia)

— Ronak RJ (Blue Tick) (@RonakRJ5) June 6, 2021

Sanjay Manjrekar is to me what Toby is to Michael Scott 😭

— Bharath (@carromball_) June 6, 2021

Dale Steyn has a higher average than Vernon Philander in the games they play together, he’s not an all time great.

— Dweplea (@dweplea) June 6, 2021

Ravichandran Ashwin is, at worst, India’s second greatest spinner of all time. That makes him an all-time great.

Ravichandran Ashwin is, at worst, India’s second greatest spinner of all time. That makes him an all-time great.

Also, there logic being used here by Manjrekar is incredibly loose. Axar Patel picked more wickets than him in one series it seems. Lol. https://t.co/8dE8qA40eY

— Aaditya Narayan (@AadityaN_28) June 6, 2021

Waiting for a ‘verbal diarrhoea’ tweet from @ashwinravi99 post the victory. 😃 pic.twitter.com/rnOfRQEzxN

— pratikbedia (@pratikbedia) June 6, 2021

Since 2015 Ashwin’s average in SENA is better than Lyon, Maharaj, Moeen, Santner etc … but no 5for so we won’t rate him👍

— Bharath (@carromball_) June 6, 2021

Ashwin is a better overseas test batsman than Rohit. But he won’t criticize Rohit as he’s from Mumbai.

— Jay. (@peak_Ability18) June 6, 2021

I hope this time around Sanjay is again in those commentary boxes and Ashwin does what Jadeja did in that 2019 WC Semis.

— Ruchit Shah (@RoohHitHai) June 6, 2021

So after virat, jaddu, hardik, Kl, pant…Ash is the new name in the manjrekar list😂

— Suraj_18 (@Cricket70142806) June 6, 2021

If you start making this kind of assessment, then only Shane Warne should be in an all-time great spinner list. Look at Muralidharan’s record in Australia and India – awful and pretty ordinary, respectively. I am not saying Ashwin is better than Murali just saying.

— Sreejith Mullappilli (@Mullappilli) June 6, 2021

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