Ravichandran Ashwin set to leapfrog Richard Hadlee, Dale Steyn in elite list
Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin had a phenomenal showing with the bat and the ball in the 2nd Test against England in Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium. As the pitch for the Test match was receiving criticism from cricketing pundits, the 34-year-old displayed how to deal with the tricky surface as he went on to score his fifth Test century in the 2nd innings.
R. Ashwin had earlier done the damage with the ball in the first innings, scalping his 29th five wickets haul to bundle out the visiting side for 134 in reply to the hosts' total of 329.
The Indian off-spinner scalped three more wickets in the 2nd innings as India bowled out England for 164 to win the 2nd Test by 317 runs. With 8 wickets in the match, Ashwin took his total tally of Test wickets to 394.
Now, as men in blue get ready for the pink ball Test against England at Ahmedabad’s Motera Stadium. R Ashwin has his eyes set on the club 400. If he manages to take 6 wickets in the 3rd Test, the off-spinner will become the 2nd quickest bowler to claim 400 Test wickets, surpassing New Zealand's Richard Hadlee, and South Africa's Dale Steyn who both are tied at the 2nd position.
Both Dale Steyn and Richard Hadlee had taken 80 Tests to reach the landmark. If R Ashwin joins club 400 during the Day/Night Test, he would reach the mark in his 77th Test. Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan is at the top of the pile as he had just taken 72 Tests to reach the landmark.
In the meantime, Ravichandran Ashwin, overall, will go on to become the 6th spinner to reach the milestone and will only be the 3rd Indian spinner to do so after Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.
