IND vs SL 2017: This Is How Ravinchandran Ashwin Celebrated After Taking 300 Test Wickets
Nov 28, 2017 at 2:27 PM
A night after breaking Dennis Lillee’s long-standing record of quickest to 300 Tests wickets and firing India to a massive win in the second Test against Sri Lanka on Monday (November 27), spin spearhead Ravichandran Ashwin decided to fresh himself up by visiting the Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh.
Ashwin took eight wickets in the recently-concluded Test, and the last of his eight wickets made him the quickest to 300-Test wickets as he broke the record set by the legendary Dennis Lille way back in 1981. Lillee had taken 56 games to achieve the feat while Ashwin reached the milestone in 54 games.
The off-spinner also became only the fifth Indian bowler to complete a career 300 wickets in Test cricket behind Anil Kumble (619), Kapil Dev (434), Harbhajan Singh (417) and Zaheer Khan (311).
Riding on Ashwin’s performance as well as other fine performances like the double century from skipper Virat Kohli and centuries from Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma, the hosts thrashed Sri Lanka by an innings and 239 runs to take an unassailable 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
It was a spectacular performance from Ashwin who took eight wickets in the game after going wicketless in the first Test at the Eden Gardens, and the 30-year old decided to celebrate it by visiting the tiger reserve. He was accompanied by his teammate Vijay Shankar and fielding coach R Sridhar.
Ashwin took to Twitter to post a few pictures of the trip along with the caption:Â “Great start to the day, morning safari @ the Pench Tiger Reserve. Nature and the wilderness at its stunning best. @vijayshankar260 @coach_rsridhar.”
Great start to the day, morning safari @ the Pench Tiger Reserve. Nature and the wilderness at its stunning best. @vijayshankar260 @coach_rsridhar pic.twitter.com/qqqjwZ5cE4
— Ashwin 🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) November 28, 2017
Meanwhile, Ashwin will have a chance to finish this year as the leading wicket-taker in Tests too. He had finished the last two years as the top wicket-taker in Test cricket, having taken 62 wickets in nine Tests in 2015 and 72 from 12 Tests the following year. In the ongoing year, he is the second leading wicket-taker with 52 wickets to his name, trailing South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada by just a couple of wickets.
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