Bangladesh vs India: Ravi Ashwin, Cheteshwar Pujara eye significant milestones in 2nd Test

Ravi Ashwin is on the verge of a number of records going into India’s second Test against Bangladesh to be played from Thursday, December 22 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.

Ashwin is only 11 short of scoring 3000 runs in Test cricket. But that’s not the most important part. If he gets to the milestone, he will join India’s Kapil Dev, Australia’s Shane Warne, New Zealand’s Richard Hadlee and South Africa’s Shaun Pollock in an elite list.

All of Kapil, Warne, Pollock, Hadlee and Broad have scored 3000 runs and picked up over 400 wickets in Test cricket. Moreover, the Tamil Nadu-born Ashwin is only seven wickets away from completing 450 wickets in Test cricket.

Ashwin has a chance of becoming the fastest Indian and the second-fastest overall to rack up 450 wickets. For now, former leg-spinner Anil Kumble holds the Indian record when he achieved the feat against Pakistan in his 93th match back in March 2005.

Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan tops the list, having reached the milestone in 80 matches back in May 2003 against New Zealand in Kandy. As far as Ashwin is concerned, he has picked up 443 wickets from 87 matches with 30 five-wicket hauls.

India’s Cheteshwar Pujara is also on the verge of a significant career milestone. He is only 16 runs away from becoming only the eighth Indian batter to score 8000 runs in Test cricket.

Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly are the seven Indian batters with over 8000 runs in Test cricket.