Ravichandran Ashwin is just four wickets away from reaching 500 wickets in Test cricket. With 496 wickets in 96 matches, all eyes will be on the Tamil Nadu spinner when he takes the ball in the Vizag Test.
If Ashwin takes four wickets in India’s second Test against England, he will become the first Indian, after Anil Kumble, to reach 500 Test wickets in international cricket. Ashwin is playing his 97th Test, and in the first innings of the Hyderabad Test, he was the one who broke the 55-run opening partnership between Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, dismissing the latter leg before wicket.
The 37-year-old added two more wickets, removing Crawley and Mark Wood, to bring his total to 493. He took three wickets in the second innings of the first Test, but was unable to stop Ollie Pope’s magnificent 196 runs.
Second fastest to reach 500 Test wickets.
If the Indian off-spinner achieves the feat, he will become only the second bowler, after Sri Lanka’s Muttaiah Muralidaran, to do it in under 100 Tests. Murali scored 500 wickets in just 87 matches. Ashwin is the fastest Indian to reach 50, 100, 150, 200, 350, 400, and 450 Test wickets, as well as the world’s fastest to 250 and 300 Test wickets.
When did Ashwin reach his milestone of wickets?
Ashwin scored 50 Test wickets in nine matches, 100 in 18, 150 in 29, and 200 in 37. The Tamil Nadu native established a world record by taking 250 wickets in 45 matches and 300 wickets in 54 matches. He reached 350 Test wickets in 66 Tests, then took 11 more matches to reach 400 wickets in only his 77th Test, and finally 450 wickets in his 89th Test.
