Ravichandran Ashwin became the first spinner in over 100 years to take a wicket in the first delivery of a Test innings.
During the first Test, Ravichandran Ashwin became the first spinner in over 100 years to take a wicket in the first delivery of a Test innings. Ashwin thanked Indian captain Virat Kohli for the feat.
"We had to do a lot of hard work for every wicket in the first innings. So, I was very happy with the wicket on first ball. I didn't know about the record until we came back. Need to thank Virat for that, because you (Ishant) were about to bowl the first over but he insisted you bowl from the other end!" Ashwin told Ishant Sharma in a candid conversation.
Ishant also became the sixth Indian bowler to reach the 300-wicket mark in Test cricket. The Indian pacer completed the feat on Monday in the first Test against England, taking the wicket of Dan Lawrence to reach the figure.
Among fast bowlers, Ishant is the third Indian to achieve the feat after former captain Kapil Dev (434 wickets) and Zaheer Khan (311 wickets.)
During the conversation, Ishant opened up on his career, talking about his first wicket and the famous spell against Ricky Ponting in Australia in 2008.
When asked about his first wicket, Ishant was quick to talk about the moment.
"Mashrafe Mortaza, Bangladesh. I was very nervous, it was my debut and there was no crowd. I was only thinking about bowling. I got him at gully, Anil bhai took the catch. He was very special," Ishant said.
Ashwin, then, talked about Zaheer Khan and asked Ishant about overtaking the former Indian fast bowler. However, the Indian pacer insisted that he only wants to focus on his own bowling.
"I don't really think about overtaking Zak or anyone. I don't think about that, I just focus on playing, taking wickets and helping the team win," said Ishant.
Talking about the spell in Perth against Ricky Ponting in 2008, Ishant said, "We bowl such spells quite a lot in First-class cricket. When you are groomed in first-class cricket, you bowl maidens and maidens. Paaji (Tendulkar) told me, 'Don't do any experiments. They're already in pressure. Keep patient and chances will come'."
India ended the Day 4 of the first Test at 39/1, requiring another 381 runs to win the game in Chennai.
