NEW DELHI:
Ravichandran Ashwin
's 500th Test victim was the topic of discussion among the commentators, TV crew and journalists during the third Test against England in Rajkot. The anticipation and speculation centered on which batsman would become the landmark wicket for the accomplished off-spinner.
And the legendary Indian cricketer
Sunil Gavaskar
got his prediction spot on as he rightly predicted that
Ashwin's 500th Test wicket
would be England opener
Zak Crawley
.
"Zak Crawley out caught & bowled, that's going to be his 500th Test wicket," Gavaskar said in a video.
However, Gavaskar was off the mark on the way of dismissal as Crawley got dismissed after top-edging a full-length delivery to Rajat Patidar at fine leg.
Ashwin joined an elite club in cricket history as the second Indian, following the footsteps of former spinner Anil Kumble, and the ninth overall player to achieve the remarkable milestone of 500 wickets in Test cricket.
Muttiah Muralitharan,
Shane Warne
, Anil Kumble, and Nathan Lyon are the only spinners who have taken more wickets than him in Test history.
The spin maestro, who made his Test debut in November 2011, has been India's strike bowler in Tests, especially at home, where he has taken 347 of his 500 wickets.
Ashwin reached the milestone in his 98 Test matches, trailing only Muttiah Muralitharan in terms of matches played. Each of the remaining seven bowlers required more than 100 Test matches to reach the milestone.
India's star spinner Ashwin has 34 five-wicket hauls and eight 10-wicket match hauls in his shining Test cricket career.
England pace legend James Anderson, Australia's star spinner Nathan Lyon and Ashwin are the only active bowlers to have more than 400 wickets in Test cricket.
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