India off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin became the fastest Indian bowler to 400 Test wickets on Thursday. Ashwin, playing his 77th Test, was on 397 wickets at the end of England’s first innings of the ongoing third Test and dismissed England batsmen Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope and Jofra Archer in the second innings to get to the milestone. Ashwin is only behind Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan in the list of fastest players to 400 wickets in Tests. Muralitharan got there in just 72 matches. Other Indians to have picked more than 400 wickets are Anil Kumble (619), Kapil Dev (434) and Harbhajan Singh (417). 

Ashwin opened his account in the second innings by trapping Stokes lbw and then followed it with bowling Ollie Pope through the gate.

The 400th wicket was Jofra Archer, who missed with an expansive sweep shot and got the ball hit him low on the pad. India appealed and the on-field umpire gave it out.

Ashwin’s moment was briefly interrupted as Archer reviewed the decision only for DRS to return three reds and complete a well-deserved feat for India’s premier off spinner.

Ashwin picked three wickets in England’s first innings where the visitors were bowled out for 112. 

The 34-year-old has been in good form with both bat and ball in this series, having picked up 23 wickets in the series thus far and scored 176 runs including a century in the second innings of the second Test. 

Promoted

He became the fourth-highest wicket taker for India in international cricket on Day 1 of the third Test as he went past Zaheer Khan’s tally of 597 wickets. 

In addition to 400 Test wickets, Ashwin has 150 wickets in ODIs and 52 in T20Is since his international debut in 2010.