Veteran Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin completed 500 wickets in Test cricket during Day 2 of the third IND vs ENG Test match. It took 98 Tests for Ashwin to reach the historic milestone and England batsman Zak Crawley became his 500th Test wicket. Ashwin became the second Indian spinner after Anil Kumble to take 500 Test wickets and the second-fastest bowler in the history of Test cricket.
On the 1st ball of the 14th over, Zak Crawley tried to sweep Ravichandran Ashwin, however, at last, he ended up top-edging the ball and Rajat Patidar took a simple catch in the fine leg region. Ashwin is one of the greatest spinners that Indian cricket has ever seen. Ashwin is one of the most clever bowlers of modern-day cricket and knows how to take wickets whenever the team needs them to do so.
𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙇𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠 𝙈𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩!
Take A Bow, R Ashwin
Follow the match https://t.co/FM0hVG5pje#TeamIndia | #INDvENG | @ashwinravi99 | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/XOAfL0lYmA
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 16, 2024
Ravichandran Ashwin joins elite list after completing 500 Test wickets
Fastest to 500 Test Wickets
144 Inngs – Muralitharan
184 Inngs – Ravi Ashwin*
188 Inngs – Anil Kumble
201 Inngs – Shane Warne
214 Inngs – Glenn McGrath
Least balls taken to reach 500 Test Wickets
25528 – Glenn McGrath
25714 – Ravi Ashwin*
28150 – James Anderson
Ravichandran Ashwin is a proper watcher of the batsman’s game and therefore manages his tactics to dismiss him during the game. Apart from being a legendary spinner, Ashwin is also a decent batsman and has scored five hundreds with the bat by coming lower down the order.
Focusing on the IND vs ENG third Test match, after finishing at 326/5 on Day 1, the hosts were wrapped up for 445 runs in their first innings. Indian captain Rohit Sharma was the top run scorer of the innings and played an innings of 131 runs whereas, Ravindra Jadeja was not able to add many runs to his overnight score on Day 2 and was dismissed for 116 runs. Dhruv Jurel played a decent innings of 46 runs from 104 balls followed by Ravichandran Ashwin, who scored 37 runs from 89 balls.
Mark Wood was the most successful English bowler and picked up 4 wickets by giving away 114 runs, Rehan Ahmed picked up two followed by James Anderson, Joe Root, and Shoaib Bashir, ending the innings with 1 wicket each.
England were given a decent start in reply to India’s 445 runs. Openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley added 89 runs for the first wicket and Dukett played more aggressively in the partnership and reached his half-century in just 39 balls with 11 fours and 4 sixes.
England would want to continue the attacking approach and make a comeback in the match after India’s decent batting performance. However, the Indian team still has an edge over the match as they focus on wrapping up the visitors as early as possible in the match.
The visitors have played far better than they were predicted by the cricket pundits ahead of the series. The Three Lions have given tough competition to the Indian team in the first two games so far and it never seemed that both the games were turning out to be one-sided affairs.
The Indian team, on the other hand, has not been able to bat as per the full potential and would be hoping to address the problem in the coming games. Both teams will want to win the 3rd Test match and gain a lead in the series. The series is currently leveled at 1-1, with England registering a remarkable victory in Hyderabad whereas India made a brilliant comeback in Vizag.
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