It turns out that even if you’ve swept up 499 Test wickets, you can’t choose when to ratchet in your milestone moment. Chief cricketing engineer Ravichandran Ashwin’s 500th didn’t come during a period of glorious Indian dominance. It wasn’t a breathtaking ball. Nor did it win the day, or even the session. Instead, it was a small sign of relief during an afternoon of whoopee led by Ben Duckett, who had already knocked up 55 in the first 11 overs of England’s reply before Ashwin started bowling, and went on to steal the headlines with a breathtaking hundred soon afterwards.
Just a few hours later the BCCI announced Ashwin had withdrawn from the Test because of a family emergency.
Earlier Rohit Sharma handed Ashwin the ball with the look of a man wanting answers, soon. The first delivery of his second over didn’t do anything extraordinary, but plonked firmly into the rough. Zak Crawley dropped to his knees to sweep, only to top edge to Rajat Patidar at short fine leg, who took a sweet running catch over his shoulder.
Ashwin permitted himself a grin and a gentle wave to the crowd, now on their feet, spread out in clumps around the ground. He was back slapped and head patted, hugged by Sharma, by Jasprit Bumrah, by Mohammed Siraj. But soon enough, he was back at work. The familiar stride to the crease, the flurry of arms and then the graceful release, with accompanying twitch of the right leg, like a punchline shouted into the wind.
In the Test bowlers’ wicket-taking pantheon, Ashwin sits ninth, between Nathan Lyon (517) and Dale Steyn (439), his 500 coming at the remarkable average of just 23.94. Of the nine bowlers to have crossed the 500-wicket barrier, only Muttiah Muralitharan got there in fewer games than Ashwin’s 98. A deep dive into the stats reveals that only Glenn McGrath got there in fewer balls bowled: 25,528 to Ashwin’s 25,714. Deeper still? Go on then: 249 of Ashwin’s victims have been left-handers, which makes him the most effective hunter of left-handed batsmen in Test history (Jimmy Anderson is the only other member of the 500 club to have passed 200 (217); while Muralitharan collected a relatively paltry 191).
His figures are all the more remarkable when you consider that, even in his prime, he hasn’t always been an automatic pick, with Ravindra Jadeja usually preferred overseas.
Ashwin once called himself “an engineer who became a cricketer” and it is on the pitches of home that he has constructed his greatest projects, a master of the Indian dust, with 347 wickets at 21.32. Not, though, without the odd altercation or exasperated throw of the long limbs. A man who knows his own mind, he doesn’t have a problem with letting others know how he feels. Earlier on Friday he caught the umpire’s attention by dallying down the centre of the pitch, this after India had already had a soft warning (Sarfaraz Khan) and a first and final official warning against the wandering Jadeja on day one. The umpire duly awarded five penalty runs, much to Ashwin’s pantomime surprise.
Alongside his obstinate, crablike stickability at the crease, on show at Rajkot as well as during his 28 off 84 balls at Hyderabad, Ashwin also has five Test hundreds to his name. The last came during one of the great all-round performances, against England at his home city of Chennai in 2021. There, where Joe Root’s side were twice bowled out in less than 60 overs, he became the first all-rounder since Garry Sobers at Headingley in 1966 to take five wickets and score a century against England.
Back in Rajkot, he allowed himself a brief smile of emotion at the close of play: “It has been quite a long journey. Firstly, I’d like to dedicate the final wicket to my father. He’s been through the thick and thin of everything I’ve done in my life. He’s been a constant support for me.” But then to business. “Five hundred wickets is done and dusted now, we’ve got a game hanging in the balance.”
Ashwin then pulled on his sun hat, with a twist and a very slight frown. Plenty in the bag, plenty more to do. But, after the late announcement, in the future for him, not in this Test match.
