Hyderabad (Telangana) [India] : Ravichandran Ashwin’s childhood coach Sunil Subramanian wished the experienced off-spinner ahead of his 100th Test as India is set to lock horns with England in the fifth and final Test of the five-match series at Dharamsala from Thursday.
Ashwin will be the 14th Indian overall and fifth Indian bowler to play the 100th Test. Other than the veteran bowlers, Sachin Tendulkar (200), Rahul Dravid (163), VVS Laxman (134), Anil Kumble (132), Kapil Dev (131), Sunil Gavaskar (125), Dilip Vengsarkar (116), Sourav Ganguly (113), Virat Kohli (113), Ishant Sharma (105), Harbhajan Singh (103), Cheteshwar Pujara (103) and Virender Sehwag (103).
“It is a great moment for any bowler to play 100 Tests. He will be the 14th Indian overall and fifth Indian bowler to achieve this landmark,” Subramaniam said .
“He started playing in 2007 when he was around 20. Be fit for next four years, seeing today’s fitness standards, play for three or three-and-half years and half a decade more for your country,” the coach added.
The 56-year-old further stated whether he will be able to break Muttiah Murlidharan (800) and Shane Warne’s (702) most wickets record in the longest format of the game.
“It will happen. The records will be broken one day. Ashwin has got away with numbees. For the short term, we are playing 20 Tests in next two years so getting to keeping himself fit and get to 600 Test wickets and taking it from there-on,” Subramaniam concluded.
Earlier, the off-spinner was on 499 scalps at the end of the second Test in Vizag and completed his 500th with the wicket of Zak Crawley on Day 2 of the third Test.
The spin maestro became the second Indian, after former spinner Anil Kumble, and ninth overall to take 500 wickets in Test cricket.
Ashwin is the ninth bowler in Test history to reach 500 wickets and Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne, Anil Kumble, and Nathan Lyon are the only spinners who have taken more wickets than him in Test history.
