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R Ashwin claimed 100 wickets against England© BCCI/Sportzpics
A modern-day great, Ravichandran Ashwin scaled a new mountain on Friday as India took on England on Day 1 of the 4th Test in Ranchi. The veteran spinner bagged his 100th wicket against England in Tests as he dismissed Jonny Bairstow LBW in the morning session. Ashwin, in the process, became the first Indian to claim 100 scalps against England in the longest format of the game. Ashwin reached the milestone in his 23rd Test against the Englishmen. The overall list is led by the legendary Shane Warne, who bagged a whopping 195 wickets against England in 36 Tests.
After Ashwin, the next Indian on the list of BS Chandrasekhar who took 95 wickets against England in 23 matches. Anil Kumble is the third on the list with 92 wickets in 19 matches.
Though categorised as a spinner, Ashwin has also done wonders with the bat at times. The Tamil Nadu-born cricketer also became the first Asian bowler to claim 100 wickets against England while also scoring 1000 runs against them with the bat.
Ashwin, in the third Test against England in Rajkot, became the second Indian bowler after Anil Kumble to take 500 Test wickets during the third Test against England — a feat which means a lot to the senior off-spinner after enduring a phase when he did not know how to come out of the “dark tunnel” he had hit.
Ashwin also became only the third off-spinner to achieve the feat and continues to be the second-highest wicket-taker for India behind Kumble, who ended his career with 619 scalps.
The 37-year-old reached the milestone on day two of the ongoing Test. He needed just one wicket for the feat and that came in the way of opener Zak Crawley, who mistimed a sweep that landed in the safe hands of Rajat Patidar at short fine leg.
The desire to excel and evolve has remained very intrinsic to Ravichandran Ashwin’s core existence but between 2018 and 19, the ace spinner felt that it was all over for him, let alone thinking about having a shot at 500 Test wickets.
With PTI inputs
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