Ravichandran Ashwin becomes 3rd cricketer in history to achieve this rare milestone; joins Shane Warne, Stuart Broad

India’s veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has become just the 3rd cricketer ever to score 3000 runs and take 500 wickets in Test cricket after picking the wicket of Zak Crawley during the 3rd of a 5-match Test series against England here in Rajkot’s Niranjan Shah stadium. Ashwin achieved this incredible feat in the 14th over of the match.

Ravichandran Ashwin contributed both with the ball as well as the bat on day 2 of the 3rd Test. With the bat, he scored 37 runs off 89 deliveries and has stood for a wicket until now in the match. The match is being evenly contested by both the teams as the batting-friendly surface is now assisting English batters after an innings of Indian batters’ domination.

Following a crumbling start, captain Rohit Sharma and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja who is playing in his home ground at Rajkot along with Jasprit Bumrah, stood for a 204-run partnership to steady India’s innings which at first looked to be under immense pressure.

Rohit scored a crucial and much-needed 131 from his bat while Jadeja smacked his 4th and 2nd Test ton at the venue. India closed off day 1 on a high note with the only setback being the unfortunate run out of Sarfaraz Khan who had to pay the price for a mix-up initiated by Ravindra Jadeja.

After his departure, Kuldeep Yadav came in as the night watchman who got out in a matter of time in 1st session of day 2. Then after Jadeja’s soft dismissal for 112, Ravichandran Ashwin came out to bat and stood for a solid partnership of 77 runs with debut-making wicket-keeper batsman Dhruv Jurel who missed out on his half-century by just 4 runs.

Ravichandran Ashwin’s innings of 37 in particular was important from the Indian’s perspective or else the hosts wouldn’t have been able to reach the 1st inning total of 445 runs. He already had over 3000 Test runs from his previous 97 Test caps and required just a wicket to join the elusive 500-club, something that only one Indian bowler has been able to do.

With his 500th scalp, Ashwin is just the 3rd cricketer after Shane Warne and Stuart Broad to score over 3000 runs and register 500 wickets. But the veteran off-spinner should not be satisfied with that because India are in desperate need of wickets at the moment and Ashwin needs to find a way to remove centurion Ben Duckett.

Ravichandran Ashwin becomes the fastest Indian to reach 500 Test scalps

Nearly two decades after Anil Kumble registered his 500th Test in 105 matches, Ravichandran Ashwin has etched his name in Indian cricket history as the fastest to reach the monumental milestone in Test cricket. It took him 98th Test matches to do so and the services he has provided throughout these years for the Indian team makes him a well-deserving candidate for it.

He is now the second-fastest bowler to claim 500 Test wickets. Ashwin follows in the footsteps of Sri Lanka’s legendary Muttiah Muralitharan, who achieved this remarkable feat in just 87 Tests back in March 2004, during a gripping encounter against Australia in Kandy.