Ravichandran Ashwin emulates Dennis Lillee, becomes fastest to 300 wickets

Ravichandran Ashwin continued to weave his magic in Tests as the Tamil Nadu offspinner became the fastest to reach 300 wickets, emulating Australian pacer Dennis Lillee’s previous record during India’s comprehensive win against Sri Lanka in the Nagpur Test.

Ravichandran Ashwin has been a vital cog in India’s dominant run in Tests since 2015. In the last nine series against various opponents, Ashwin has been a trump card in Virat Kohli’s Indian cricket team.

Ravichandran Ashwin became the fastest bowler to get to 300 Test wickets, breaking Dennis Lillee’s record as he spun India to a massive win over Sri Lanka in the Nagpur Test. (AFP)

During the second Test against Sri Lanka in Nagpur, Ashwin spun himself into the record books with his haul of 4/63. He clean bowled Lahiru Gamage with a carrom ball to not only give India a massive innings and 239 runs victory, but became the fastest to reach 300 Test wickets, beating the previous record set by Australian pace bowler Dennis Lillee.

Ashwin’s magnificent feat, combined with India’s record win makes for some fascinating statistics. Here is a list of the major numbers accumulated by Ashwin and India during the course of this Test.

54 - Number of Tests taken by Ravichandran Ashwin to get to 300 Test wickets. The previous best was 56 Tests by Australian pacer Dennis Lillee. When one looks at spinners, Muttiah Muralitharan took 58 Tests while Shane Warne achieved the feat in 61 matches. For India, Anil Kumble reached the mark in 66 Tests.

46 - Number of wickets by Ashwin in eight Tests against Sri Lanka. He is third in the all-time list, with Harbhajan Singh (53) and Anil Kumble (74) ahead of him.

186 - Number of wickets taken by Ravichandran Ashwin in the last two years. Since 2015, Ashwin has the second-best bowling average behind James Anderson, while in five-wicket hauls he leads the pack with 17. Rangana Herath is a distant second with 146 wickets.

Innings and 239 runs - Victory margin for the Indian cricket team against Sri Lanka in the Nagpur Test, which is their joint-highest in terms of runs. They had achieved a similar margin of victory against Bangladesh in the Dhaka Test of 2007.

8 - Number of innings victories by India against Sri Lanka in Tests, the most by India in Tests. The innings and 239-run defeat is the worst-ever for Sri Lanka.

5 - Number of double centuries for Virat Kohli in Tests as captain, equalling the record set by Brian Lara. His tally equals Rahul Dravid’s mark while only Virender Sehwag is ahead of him with six.