When he dismissed Nick Compton on Friday evening, R. Ashwin became the fastest Indian to take 50 Test wickets, in terms of matches played.
This was the 26-year-old off-spinner’s ninth Test. The previous record holder was the legendary Anil Kumble, who had reached the milestone in his tenth Test.
The five next quickest to the mark are also spinners — Narendra Hirwani and Harbhajan Singh (11 Tests), and Subhash Gupte, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, and Erapalli Prasanna (12 Tests).
The overall record is just six Tests — Australian bowler Charles Turner set the record back in 1888. South African seamer Vernon Philander threatened that earlier this year before reaching 50 in his seventh Test.
There’s another — Englishman Tom Richardson (1896) — on seven Tests and four bowlers tied on eight Tests. Ashwin shares his mark of nine Tests with ten others.
