Ravi Ashwin breaks Anil Kumble's all-time record to achieve massive feat in Indian cricket history.
The first game of the four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia is underway in Nagpur. Australia won the toss and chose to bat first. But it didn't go their way as they faced a stiff challenge against the Indian spinners.
India bundled out the visitors for just 177 runs in 63.5 overs. Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami picked up one wicket each at the start, and then it was all Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. On his return to international cricket, Jadeja picked up a brilliant five-wicket haul.
The all-rounder ended up with a bowling figure of 5/47, including the wickets of Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne. It was his 11th fifer in the test cricket. Meanwhile, Ashwin also supported him well and took 3/42 in his spell to end the inning.
With his three-wicket spell, Ashwin broke the all-time record of Anil Kumble to become the fastest Indian bowler to take 450 wickets in red-ball cricket. Kumble achieved this milestone in 93 games, while Ashwin took only 89 games to do so.
On the other hand, the veteran off-spinner is now the second-fastest to accomplish this feat. Former Sri Lankan legend Muttiah Muralitharan is the fastest player to take 450 Test wickets. He did it in just 80 games. On the other hand, Ashwin is also the second-fastest in terms of balls taken to take 450 wickets.
🚨 Milestone Alert 🚨
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 9, 2023
4⃣5⃣0⃣ Test wickets & going strong 🙌 🙌
Congratulations to @ashwinravi99 as he becomes only the second #TeamIndia cricketer after Anil Kumble to scalp 4⃣5⃣0⃣ or more Test wickets 👏 👏
Follow the match ▶️ https://t.co/SwTGoyHfZx #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/vwXa5Mil9W
He also became the second-fastest bowler to take 450 wickets in terms of balls bowled. Ashwin had it in 23635 balls, while former Australian pacer Glenn McGrath (23474) is first.
For Australia, Labuschagne was the top-scorer with 49 while, Smith (37), Peter Handscomb (31) and Alex Carey (36) also got starts. But none of them could carry on for very long. As a result, the visitors got all out under the 200-run mark.