The veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin shatters the record of Anil Kumble for most wickets during Australia tour of India 2023.
India’s all-time leading wicket-taker against Australia
India is currently playing in the three-match ODI series against Australia and leads the series 2-0. Ravichandran Ashwin picked up as a replacement for Axar Patel who has a niggle on his injury he sustained during the Asia Cup.
The spinner Ashwin made it back to the ODI squad after 611 days and dismissed Marnus Labuschagne on the first ODI against Australia. He was impressive in the second ODI as he took three wickets helping India to win with a 99-run difference.
Winning the toss Australia chose to bowl where Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shubman Gill opened for India while Spencer Johnson opened the bowling attack for Australia. While Ruturaj Gaikwad was dismissed by Hazlewood with 8 runs, Shubman Gill and Shreyas joined a partnership to score 200 runs. Shubman Gill scored 104 runs and was sent out by Green while Shreyas Iyer scored 105 runs and was sent out by Abbott.
KL Rahul had scored 52 runs on 38 deliveries and was sent out with Green, while Ishan Kishan was sent out with 31 runs. Suryakumar Yadav was impressive as he scored 72 runs on 37 deliveries. With Jadeja’s 13 runs, India set up a huge score of 399 runs in 50 overs losing 5 wickets.
With a huge target of 400, Matthew Short and David Warner opened the innings, while Mohammed Shami opened the bowling attack. Matthew Short was sent out with 9 runs while Steven Smith was sent out with a duck by Prasidh Krishna. Due to the rainfall, the overs were reduced to 33 overs and target was set to 317 runs.
David Warner scored 53 runs on 39 deliveries and was dismissed by Ashwin. Other batters were sent out with low figures as Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja dismissed three wickets each. Prasidh Krishna scalped two wickets. With batters struggled to face India’s intense bowling attacks, Sean Abbott scored 54 runs on 36 deliveries. With Hazlewood’s 23 runs, Australia was all out scoring 217 runs on 29 overs.
With the figures of 3 for 41, he went on to surpass legendary player Anil Kumble on dismissing more wickets against Australia. Anil Kumble held the record having dismissed 142 wickets against Aussies and Ashwin went to scalp 144 against Australia.
The record goes with Kapil Dev dismissing 141 wickets against Pakistan, Anil Kumble with 135 wickets against Pakistan, and Kapil Dev with 132 wickets against West Indies.
Despite Ashwin’s impressive performance earning him a spot in India’s World Cup squad, former Australia captain Aaron Finch thinks the way from other perspectives.
“I think that depends on how they think the surfaces are going to play throughout the country, and by that time, I think the skill in picking a squad for the World Cup is you have to think of the back end. But you can’t think too much about it because you have to get there,” said Finch.
“I think he might struggle to make it to the final 15, but as somebody who has played so much cricket, I think the rest of the group that is with the Indian team for this current series against Australia, they could learn so much about big gameplay. Because Ashwin is somebody that stands up in big games, whether it’s a test match or a T20 game, he has done it all throughout his career. So I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s there at the moment as a mentor around the group, but I don’t see him making that last 15, unfortunately,” he concluded.
With the injury concerns of Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin would have his spot in the 15-member squad for the upcoming World Cup tournament. India will be playing their third ODI match against Australia on September 27 at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium.
