Indian all-rounder Ravi Ashwin starred in India's huge win over Bangladesh in the first Test match in Chennai. The spin maestro delivered the perfect all-round performance with a century and a six-wicket haul to bag the Player of the Match in India's 280-run win. While he registered several milestones, one massive feat eluded the Chennai boy.
When he takes the field in the second Test against the Bangla Tigers in Kanpur, Ashwin will have a chance to create an all-time India record, while he will also enter an elite list.
If India bat first again and bring Bangladesh to chase the target, Ashwin would be only one wicket away from taking his 100th Test wicket in the fourth innings. Despite his six-wicket haul in the final innings, the wily Indian spinner currently has 99 wickets in the fourth innings, one short of the triple digits mark.
Taking a wicket in the last innings will make him the first Indian to have completed a century of Test wickets in the defence. The star spinner Ashwin will become only the sixth player in the world to do so, joining an elite list of players like Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan among others.
Players with the most Test wickets in the fourth innings:
1 - Shane Warne: 138 wickets
2 - Nathan Lyon: 119 wickets
3 - Rangana Herath: 115 wickets
4 - Muttiah Muralitharan: 106 wickets
5 - Glenn McGrath: 103 wickets
6 - Ravi Ashwin: 99 wickets*
During the opening Test against the Bangla Tigers, the 38-year-old Chennai boy created several records. Ashwin's century and a fifer made him the oldest player to have completed this double in Test cricket. At 38 years and two days old, he broke former Indian cricketer Polly Umrigar's 62-year-old record of the double when he was 36 years and 7 days old.
Ashwin has also become the first cricketer in history to have completed the double of a century and a fifer in the same Test twice at the same venue. Before his double against Bangladesh in the first Test Chennai, the wily all-rounder had hit a ton and bagged a fifer against England at Chepauk.
