Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Wednesday (July 12) became the third Indian bowler to take 700 wickets in international cricket during the first Test against West Indies in Dominica.
Ashwin, 36, wreaked havoc for the West Indies batters on the first day of the opening Test and took a fifer to go past the 700-wickets mark in international cricket.
Only Anil Kumble (956) and Harbhajan Singh (712) have more wickets than the 36-year-old.
The Tamil Nadu-born Ashwin currently has 479 Test wickets to his name besides 151 in ODIs and 72 in T20Is.
He finished the innings with figures of 24.3-6-60-5, recording his 33rd five-wicket-haul in Test matches.
The 36-year-old made his comeback in the Test team after the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia in June — which India lost, in the first Test against the Caribbean side.
Ashwin's first victim was the legendary West Indies batter Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s son — Tagenarine Chanderpaul, who fell prey to the ace-spinner for 12 runs.
The hosts continuously struggled against the bowling attack of the Blues and could not stand for long as they were all out for just 150 runs.
Ashwin completed his fifer after removing Alzarri Joseph who failed the read the off-spinner’s delivery and got himself out for just four runs.
India started their batting after sending the entire West Indies side back to the pavilion and scored 80-0 in 23 overs at the Stumps on day one.
Yashashvi Jaiswal (40) and the skipper Rohit Sharma (30) will resume batting for India on day two.
Lineups
West Indies: Kraigg Brathwaite (c), Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Raymond Reifer, Jermaine Blackwood, Alick Athanaze, Joshua Da Silva (wk), Rahkeem Cornwall, Jason Holder, Jomel Warrican, Alzarri Joseph & Kemar Roach.
India: Rohit Sharma (c ), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, KS Bharat [wk], Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat & Mohammed Siraj.
- Ravichandran Ashwin