Incredible Effort Against Australia Sees Ashwin Overtake Kumble

Ashwin was the pick of India bowlers on an unforgiving Ahmedabad surface. He picked up six wickets on a pitch where the next best effort for India was 2/134 by pacer Mohammad Shami.

During his 47.2 overs in the first innings, the off-spinner didn’t try too many variations. Instead, he backed his accuracy and maintained discipline on two taxing days of cricket. This showed in his economy rate of 1.92, which was the second best for India.

Amongst his wickets was the centurion Cameron Green, who fell after scoring a career-best 114. He also accounted for Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy, who had frustrated India with their 34 and 41 lower down the order.

This was his 32nd five-for in Tests. For India, only Kumble (35) has more five-fors.

However, this wasn’t Ashwin’s only feat during the day.

He managed to become India’s leading wicket-taker against Australia in Tests during his six-for.

Against the Baggy Greens, the off-spinner now has 113 wickets at an average of 28.1 with seven five-fors to his name. He went past Kumble’s 111 wickets after trapping Murphy leg-before.

Players	Test wickets against Australia
Ravichandran Ashwin	113
Anil Kumble	111
Harbhajan Singh	95
Ravindra Jadeja	85
Kapil Dev	79