Ravichandran Ashwin becomes 2nd Indian to snap 450 Test wickets

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One could argue that Ravichandran Ashwin was brought late in the attack in the first innings of the first Test against Australia in Nagpur. Against Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne, the Indian veteran got to bowl a bit too late; however, Ashwin bagged the milestone of bagging his 450th Test wicket in Alex Carey.

It took him 10.1 overs to get his 450th and first wicket of the day, but the legendary off-spinner took the most-awaited with a ripper of a delivery. Ashwin flighted the ball up on a fuller length on the stumps, to which Carey went reverse sweeping but missed after inside edging onto the woods.

With this wicket, the 36-year-old tweaker has become the 9th bowler overall and 5th spinner to do so in the history of Test cricket. Ashwin is the only Indian bowler after the legendary Anil Kumble to surpass the 450-wicket mark.

The Indian great is the second fastest to 450 Test scalps, just behind Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan. He archived the feat in 89 matches (167 innings).  

As far as the match is concerned, after losing David Warner and Usman Khawaja with just 2 runs on the board, Smith and Labuschagne relieved the Australian innings by batting out the first session on Day 1 without losing any further wicket.

However, Ravindra Jadeja paid the reward of persisting with him as he started the post-lunch session with bagging three wickets in a blink of an eye. 

No batter other than Labuschagne (49) and Smith (37) could stand tall against the great Indian spin challenge as the visitors are tottering at 168-6 after 55 overs.

At the moment of writing, Peter Handscomb is the only ray of hope remaining unbeaten in the first innings. The right-hander will have to pan his innings well with the tail-enders to Australia to a respectable total.