India v England: Ravichandran Ashwin takes 500th Test wicket

Ashwin is the ninth player, and second Indian after Anil Kumble (619), to reach the milestone, doing so with the wicket of xxx in his 98th Test

Ravichandran Ashwin has become the ninth player to take 500 Test wickets after dismissing Zak Crawley on day two of the third Test against England in Rajkot.

He joins Muttiah Muralitharan (800), Shane Warne (708), James Anderson (695), Anil Kumble (619), Stuart Broad (604), Glenn McGrath (563), Courtney Walsh (519) and Nathan Lyon (517) in the exclusive club.

He is the fifth spinner to reach the milestone and the second Indian, following in Kumble's footsteps.

Ashwin began the match, his 98th Test, on 499 wickets and had to wait until the 12th over of England's first innings to be thrown the ball by Rohit Sharma. But he quickly got into his work, seducing a miss-timed sweep from Crawley which popped up to Rajat Patidar via the first ball of his second over.

^{Ashwin took his first wicket against West Indies in November 2011 [Prakash Singh/Getty Images]}

^{Anil Kumble was the first Indian bowler to reach the milestone [Michael Steele/Getty Images]}

He needs a further two wickets to chalk up his 100th against England.

Darren Bravo was the 37-year-old's first victim in Test cricket, bowled for 12 on day one of Ashwin's debut against West Indies in Delhi in November 2011.

Two years later, Bravo's compatriot Daren Sammy became wicket No.100 when he was caught by Rohit Sharma at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium, while New Zealand's Kane Williamson was his 200th scalp, trapped lbw in Kanpur in September 2016.

He bowled Sri Lanka's Lahiru Gamage to bring up his 300th wicket in November 2017 while Jofra Archer (England) was out lbw in Ahmedabad in February 2021 for No.400.

^{Ben Stokes is Ashwin's most frequent victim in Test cricket [Stu Forster/Getty Images]}

^{Zak Crawley was wicket No.500 [PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP via Getty Images]}

The spinner has taken 34 five-wicket hauls across his Test career, with best innings figures of 7 for 59 against New Zealand in Indore in 2016.

Ben Stokes is Ashwin's most frequent victim, with the England skipper dismissed 12 times by the spinner. Australia's David Warner (11) and England's Alastair Cook (9) complete the top three. He has dismissed 194 different players.

Of his 500 wickets, 277 have been caught (including 12 caught and bowled), with 110 lbw, 100 bowled, and 13 stumped.

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