Ravichandran Ashwin is all geared up to complete a century of Test matches when the Indian cricket team takes on England in the final Test starting on Thursday at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamshala.
India took an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series with a six-wicket win at Ranchi last week. The England cricket team started the tour with a win at Hyderabad in the first Test before India clawed their way back with three wins in a row.
It was an all-round performance from the hosts with Yashasvi Jaiswal leading the run charts. Ravichandran Ashwin along with Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja have shared the spoils in bowling, with 17 wickets apiece.
Yashasvi Jaiswal in the records
Yashasvi Jaiswal has been a revelation in this series with 655 runs from eight innings averaging a mammoth 93.57. He has converted both his hundreds into double hundreds.
In the process, Jaiswal also became the third youngest batter to score two double hundreds in test cricket, after Don Bradman and Vinod Kambli. He is also one among seven batters worldwide to score back-to-back double hundreds in Test cricket.
The 22-year-old Jaiswal is currently fourth in the list of most runs in a Test series by Indians. Sunil Gavaskar, who scored 700-plus runs twice against West Indies and Virat Kohli who scored 692 against Australia in 2014-15 are ahead of him.
Jaiswal needs 120 runs in the final Test to go on top. He is also in sight of Don Bradman’s record of most double hundreds in a series, the three he scored against England in 1930.
Jaiswal, who broke into the top 10 in the men’s ICC Test batting ranking for the first time following his recent exploits, is just 29 runs away from completing 1,000 runs in Test cricket.
While Jaiswal aims for the records, R Ashwin has already knocked off a few in this series. He completed 500 test wickets in Rajkot, only the second Indian and ninth overall to achieve the feat.
View this post on Instagram
Ravichandran Ashwin’s 100th Test landmark
Ashwin is the highest wicket taker in Test matches in India with 354 scalps surpassing Anil Kumble’s 350. His five-wicket haul in the fourth Test at Ranchi was his 35th, fourth overall in world cricket and level with Anil Kumble for most by an Indian.
The off-spinner is on the cusp of achieving another, a 100th Test cap for India, the 14th player to do so.
Another Royal in the Indian cricket team, Dhruv Jurel, made his Test debut when he came in as a replacement for Srikar Bharat in the third Test. Jurel took India past the finish line in the last Test along with Shubman Gill.
England may have ended on the wrong side of the fence in the Test series but will look forward to doing their Bazball brand of cricket justice in the final match.
Meanwhile, India, currently on top of the World Test Championship 2023-25 table, will look to gain maximum points and keep their percentage quotient high.
