Ravichandran Ashwin joins Garfield Sobers, Ian Botham and Stuart Broad in elite list as he achieves unique feat against England

India and England are playing against each other in the fourth Test of the five-match series which is being played at the Jharkhand State Cricket Association Stadium in Ranchi and Ben Stokes has won the toss and elected to bat first. Ravichandran Ashwin has taken one wicket out of the five as of now but has created a unique record against England as he becomes the first Indian player to get 100+ wickets and score 1000+ runs against a team in Test cricket.

Ravichandran Ashwin now has taken 100 wickets against England in Test cricket and has amassed 1085 runs at an average of 35 in 36 innings across 23 Test matches. He became the second fastest to score 1000+ runs and take 100+ wickets against an opponent. Ravichandran Ashwin became the second Indian bowler and the ninth bowler in cricket to take 500 wickets in Tests during the third Test against England in Rajkot which was won by India by a huge margin of 434 runs.

India is currently at a strong stage reducing England to five wickets under 150 runs as debutant Akash Deep took three wickets and Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin took a wicket each. Ashwin got the wicket of Jonny Bairstow to complete 100 Test wickets against England. He has taken six five-wicket hauls against England in the longest format and has a phenomenal record against them with both the bat and the ball in Test cricket.

Only Ian Botham has taken 100+ wickets and scored 1000+ runs against a team quicker than Ashwin. Ravichandran Ashwin achieved the feat in his 23rd Test match against England whereas Ian Botham did this in his 22nd Test match against Australia. The Ranchi Test is a do-or-die for England whereas if India wins this Test, they will seal the series against England and the fifth Test will be a dead rubber.

Only seven cricketers including Ravichandran Ashwin have taken 100+ wickets and scored 1000+ runs against a team

Ravichandran Ashwin became the seventh cricketer to take 100+ wickets and score 1000+ runs against a particular team in Test cricket. The first to achieve this feat was George Giffen from Australia who scored 1238 runs and took 103 wickets against England in his career. Mony Noble from Australia was the second who took 115 wickets and scored 1905 runs against England.

The third player to achieve this feat was England’s Wilfred Rhodes who scored 1706 runs and took 109 wickets against Australia. Sir Garfield Sobers comes next on this list who has scored 3214 runs and has taken 102 wickets against England in Test cricket. Ian Botham is next on this list who has taken 148 wickets and has scored 1673 runs against Australia. Stuart Broad became the sixth player to achieve this feat as he took 153 wickets and scored 1019 runs against Australia.

Ravichandran Ashwin has now entered this elite list and he is the fourth player to achieve this feat against England. India lost the first Test against England in this series by 28 runs but then made a good comeback by winning back-to-back matches in Vizag and Rajkot to take a lead of 2-1 in the series. India has not lost a Test series at home since 2012 and wants to maintain their record.