Ind vs Aus: Ashwin Surpasses Kapil Dev, Becomes India’s 3rd-Highest Wicket-Taker

India vs Australia: With three wickets in the first innings of the third BGT 2023 Test, Ashwin surpassed Kapil Dev.

India vs Australia, 3rd Test: Ravichandran Ashwin is currently India's third-highest wicket-taker.

(Photo: BCCI)

Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin, who recently became only the second player from his nation to have scalped over 450 wickets in Test cricket, added yet another milestone to his prolonged list of achievements on Thursday, 2 March.

With a three-wicket haul in the third Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023 Test against Australia, Ashwin became India’s third-highest wicket-taker in international cricket, surpassing the legendary Kapil Dev in the process.

After returning without wickets on the first day of the match, Ashwin was seen at his best on Day 2 as he plotted the downfall of the baggy greens. His first victim of the day was Peter Handscomb, who tried to play a front-foot defence only for the ball to catch the inside edge and find Shreyas Iyer at short leg.

India vs Australia: Ravichandran Ashwin picked up a three-wicket haul in the first innings of the third Test.

(Photo: BCCI)

The 36-year-old then returned to trap the visitors’ wicketkeeper-batter, Alex Carey, leg before wicket, before knocking over the stumps of Nathan Lyon. Courtesy of his spell of 3/44, India managed to restrict the Aussies to a score of under 200.

From the broader perspective, however, this spell helped Ashwin surpass Dev’s tally of 687 international wickets, to claim the third position on the list of India’s all-time leading wicket-takers in international cricket, behind only fellow spinners Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.

Top 5 wicket-takers for India in international cricket:

• Anil Kumble – 953 wickets

• Harbhajan Singh – 707 wickets

• Ravichandran Ashwin – 689 wickets

• Kapil Dev – 687 wickets

• Zaheer Khan – 597 wickets

Ashwin on Top of the World

Besides the career milestone, Ashwin received another accolade recently, as became the number one ranked Test bowler in men’s cricket on 1 March.

Current ICC men's Test bowling rankings.

(Photo: ICC)

According to the latest rankings released by ICC, the off-spinner is currently sitting at the top of the table with a rating of 864, closely followed by English pacer James Anderson, who has a rating of 859.