Ashwin enters elite 500 club

Rajkot – Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin yesterday entered an elite club of bowlers to take 500 Test wickets in a stellar cricketing career that includes a World Cup triumph.

India’s go-to bowler for more than a decade, Ashwin took his 500th wicket in the third Test in Rajkot by dismissing England’s Zak Crawley to team hugs and a standing ovation from the crowd.

“One of the greats of the game gets to a fantastic landmark. Time to stand up and applaud a phenomenal achievement,” veteran commentator Harsha Bhogle wrote on X.

The 37-year-old Ashwin, called an “all-time great” by his Test captain Rohit Sharma, became only the ninth bowler to hit the landmark and only the second from India after Anil Kumble (619).

Ashwin, from the southern city of Chennai, started out as an IT engineer after graduating from university and is known for his precision.

The innovative Ashwin is still honing his craft, even though his skill and guile have already led to a glittering international career.

Employing the full width of the crease, Ashwin delivers his offspin from multiple angles with varying pace.

He also has a deceptive “arm ball” that goes straight on and has worked to develop a “carrom ball” that goes the other way, delivered using his knuckles.

But his sometimes blunt, no-nonsense attitude has led to the occasional controversy, such as when inflicting “Mankad” runouts at the non-striker’s end.

Former captain Virat Kohli dubbed Ashwin “lege” – from the word “legend” – and once said: “We are running out of words to describe his performances.”

Ashwin was part of India’s 2011 50-over World Cup title win at home and then the 2013 Champions Trophy, but it was only some three years later that he matured as a top-level bowler.

He took 48 wickets in eight Tests and had 27 victims in 19 Twenty20 matches in the 2015-16 and he was named the ICC Cricketer-of-the-Year.

Ashwin now has 34 five-wicket hauls to his name, with a best of 7/59, over 98 Tests since his debut in 2011.

“He’s a world-class bowler and somebody I have watched closely from the start of his career,” Australia’s leading spinner Nathan Lyon said. –