Bengaluru: India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has condoled the demise of Shane Warne, saying the Australian brought spin as an attacking commodity to this cricketing world.

Warne passed away on Friday aged 52 due to a suspected heart attack. “I see Warne as a flag-bearer for carrying the spin aspect of bowling on the front in the world cricketing map. The top three wicket-takers in the world are spinners in Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne and Anil Kumble. He was an interesting character. So many Australian legends had so many nice things to say about him. I still can’t accept the fact that life is so fickle. We cannot predict what can happen,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

“Shane Warne was a colourful character, he redefined bowling, he has taken more than 1000 international wickets, not many can achieve this rare feat. Shane Warne brought spin as an attacking commodity to this cricketing world. Everyone will talk about Warne’s delivery to Mike Gatting, but my favourite is Warne’s delivery to Andrew Strauss in 2005 Ashes. He almost single-handedly fought for Australia in that series. He was a maestro. He was an extraordinary human being and he lived his life to the fullest,” he added.

Warne was one of the most influential cricketers in history. He almost single-handedly reinvented the art of leg-spin when he burst onto the international scene in the early 1990s, and by the time he retired from international cricket in 2007, he had become the first bowler to reach 700 Test wickets.

A central figure in Australia’s ICC Cricket World Cup triumph in 1999, when he was player of the match in both the semi-final and the final, Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack recognized Shane’s achievements by naming him as one of its Five Cricketers of the Twentieth Century.