Ravichandran Ashwin achieves yet another feat in red-ball cricket with his 250th Test wicket at home. The 33-year-old equalled former Sri Lankan cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan’s record to become the joint-fastest to 250 Test wickets on Thursday in the first of the two-match series against Bangladesh at Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore.
Ashwin outsmarted Bangladesh skipper Mominul Haque with an arm ball as the latter was expecting it to turn and thus offered no shot. The 33-year-old followed it up with Mahmudullah’s wicket with a fuller delivery on the wicket that missed everything as the batsman went too far trying to sweep.
A total of three catches were dropped by Ajinkya Rahane off Ashwin’s bowling in the first two sessions of the day’s play. He also became the third Indian bowler after Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh to take 250 Test wickets at home.
Earlier, Haque won the toss and elected to bat first. Bangladesh suffered a top-order batting collapse in the first session as they lost both their openers Imrul Kayes and Shadman Islam followed by Mohammad Mithun’s wicket.
Virat Kohli included three seamers in the side and each of them got one wicket each in the first session. The visitors have lost seven wickets at the end of the second session and are looking for a solid partnership.
In the previous Test series at home against South Africa, Ashwin equalled Muralitharan’s record of being the fastest to 350 Test wickets.
