Ravichandran Ashwin registered his 450th Test wicket during the 2nd session of the 1st Day of the Border Gavaskar series against Australia played at VCA Stadium, Nagpur on 9 February 2023.
Australian captain Pat Cummins won the toss and decided to bat first. Mohammed Siraj got rid of Usman Khawaja via review for LBW. The umpire called not out but on review, it was overturned to out. Mohammed Shami produced a peach to dismiss David Warner to leave Australia in trouble at 2 for 2.
Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith steadied the ship for Australia keeping the scoreboard ticking on a tough batting wicket. Australia went into lunch at 76 for 2. Ravindra Jadeja got India back into the game getting wickets of Labuschagne with a brilliant stumping by KS Bharat and then Matt Renshaw off successive deliveries. Labuschagne and Smith added 82 runs for the 3rd wicket.
Ravindra Jadeja struck one more time dismissing well-set Steve Smith to leave Australia in trouble. Alex Carey and Peter Handscomb steadied the ship with boundaries at regular intervals. Ashwin was bought into the attack and got rid of Carey taking an inside edge onto the stumps trying to reverse sweep. With that wicket, Ravichandran Ashwin scalped 450 wickets in the longer format.
4️⃣5️⃣0️⃣ 🆙
A landmark wicket for Ravichandran Ashwin! 🔥#INDvsAUS | BT Sport 1 pic.twitter.com/yvf0YOJifY
— Cricket on TNT Sports (@cricketontnt) February 9, 2023
Ashwin dismissed Australian captain Pat Cummins with a simple catch to Kohli at slips to leave Australia in deep trouble. Ravindra Jadeja then dismissed Peter Handscomb picking his 5th wicket. R Ashwin ended the innings by dismissing Scott Boland skittling out Australia for just 177.
Ravichandran Ashwin ended with figures of 3 for 42 while Ravindra Jadeja grabbed 5 for 47 in 22 overs, Siraj and Shami grabbed 1 wicket each for Team India. Ashwin struggled initially against Marnus Labuschagne and Smith as both Australian batters kept the scoreboard ticking with singles and hitting occasional boundaries. R Ashwin became 2nd Indian after Anil Kumble grabbed 450 Test wickets.
Ravichandran Ashwin’s Test career
R Ashwin made his Test debut against West Indies on 6th November 2011. He has played so far 89 Test matches so far (167 innings) with 452 wickets at an economy of 2.77 runs per over.
The off-spinner has performed brilliantly on Indian soil along with Ravindra Jadeja creating havoc among the batters. His best performance in innings was 7 for 59 including 30 times 5 wicket haul in innings and 7 times 10 wicket haul in a match.
Ashwin would be looking to create pressure in the second innings and also the rest of the series against Australia.
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