Ravichandran Ashwin turns 34: Take a look at top 5 records of Indian off-spinner

Hoping to make a comeback in India’s Test team during the upcoming home series against South Africa, Indian spinner turned 34 today. With his guile, skill and fine cricketing sence, Ashwin has made a name for himself in India’s rich legacy of spinner which includes some renowned names like – Erapalli Prasanna, Bishen Singh Bedi, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.

Born on 17th September, 1986, in Chennai, the off-spinner has lately struggled to consolidate his place in playing XI. His exclusion from Team India’s playing XI against West Indies not only grabbed attention but also put a question mark over his future. However, known to change the cricketing narrative with his audacious style of play – Ashwin is expected to make a comeback during the Test series against South Africa.

Ashwin has enjoyed a huge amount of success with the ball and has got the better of the best batsmen around the world. His impressive record of 342 wickets in 65 Tests, at an average of 25.44 exhibets a strong proff to his calibre as of the world’s leading spinner. Ashwin also has 150 wickets under his belt from 111 ODIs while donning the coloured outfit for India.

From taking a 5-wicket haul on his Test debut, the off-spinner went on to become the fastest bowler in the world to get to 300-wicket mark in red ball cricket. He has also played an important role in making India the top-ranked Test team in the world. The international cricket body – ICC adjudged Ashwin ‘Cricketer of the Year’ and ‘Test Player of the Year’ in December 2016.

Look at Ashwin’s top 5 records in international cricket:

1. Ashwin is the fastest Indian bowler to take 100 wickets in Test cricket. He scaled the landmark in his 18th Test match, bettering the former record of legendary Prasanna. Prasanna took 20 Test matches to claim 100 Test scalps.

2. Ashwin has six ‘Man of the Series’ awards under his belt in Test cricket. He beat Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag to achieve the magnificent feat. Apart from this, he is only the fourth Indian cricketer to bag ‘Man of the Match’ in the debut Test after Narendra Hirwani, Praveen Amre and R.P. Singh.

3. Ashwin is also the only cricketer from India to achieve the “brilliant double” of scoring – a Test hundred and picking up five wickets in the same match. He has done this twice so far in his 8-year-long international career. Both times, West Indies were at the receiving end of Ashwin special.

4. In December 2012, Ashwin completed 500 runs and 50 wickets in Tests. He became the third cricketer in the world to achieve that feat. Australia’s Jack Gregory and England’s Ian Botham have also completed the fabulous double in merely 11 Tests.

5. Ashwin is the fastest bowler to breach the 300-wicket mark in Test cricket. He took just 54 Tests to complete the feat, he is ahead of the likes of Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan and Glenn McGrath in the famed list.

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