5 Prestigious Records Ravichandran Ashwin Can Realistically Break

When he won the Player of the Series Award for the Freedom Series, Ravichandran Ashwin made history in more ways than one. He equalled the record for most Player of the Series Awards won by a male Indian cricketer. To put things into perspective, he won his 5 Player of the Series Awards in 12 series, equalling Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar, who won their five in 39 and 74 series respectively.Malcolm Marshall, considered the greatest fast bowler of all time, won 6 of these in 21 series, a mark Ashwin can easily conquer. Only time will tell if Ashwin can win 6 more Player of the Series awards to equal M Muralitharan’s all-time record of 11.However, here are 5 prestigious records that Ashwin can easily conquer to go down as one of the greatest bowlers India has ever produced. Ashwin had a late entry to Test cricket compared to Harbhajan Singh or Anil Kumble, but he is making up for lost time with brilliant performances.Ashwin has it in him to be a genuine all-rounder. But unfortunately for him, Kapil Dev has set the mark way too high, becoming the only all-rounder in the world with 5000 runs and 400 Test wickets. Kumble wasn’t bad either with 600 wickets and 2500 Test runs.

#5 Most ODI wickets by an Indian

Anil Kumble is India’s most successful ODI bowler

For a country that plays a lot of ODI internationals, India surprisingly doesn’t have too many bowlers in the wicket taking charts. For example, Anil Kumble is India’s most successful ODI bowler with 337 wickets in 271 games and he is ninth on the list. Javagal Srinath is the only other Indian bowler with 300 wickets.

Ashwin has 140 ODI wickets in 100 games and is one of the lynchpins for India’s bowling attack. He is very much on target to conquer Kumble’s mark, given that Ashwin is primarily a wicket-taking aggressive bowler of Kumble’s ilk, unlike Harbhajan whose primary inclination in the shorter formats of the game was to control the flow of runs on flat tracks.

Ashwin’s experience early in his career with T20 cricket will stand him in good stead.

#4 Fastest to 300 Test wickets

Dennis Lillee is the fastest to 300 Test wickets

With growing experience, Ashwin will bank on having better tours outside India, if he were to break this mark. The record is currently held by Dennis Lillee who reached 300 Test wickets in 56 matches. The fastest spinner to 300 Test wickets is Muralitharan who reached the mark in 58 Tests.

Ashwin has to pick 124 wickets in his next 24 matches to equal the record at 5.17 wickets per match. Currently he is going at nearly 5.5 wickets per match, a record skewed by poor tours abroad. If Ashwin can continue his current guile and classical form of taking wickets, mixed beautifully with his variety in repertoire, there is no reason why he cannot make it to the mark.

Interestingly, if Ashwin even goes at 5 wickets per match, playing 10 Tests per year for the next 5 years, he will, in the very least break Anil Kumble’s mark of 85 Tests to reach 400 wickets, the fastest for an Indian.

#3 Fastest to 200 Test wickets

Harbhajan Singh is currently the fastest Indian to 200 Test wickets

Ashwin is the fifth fastest to 100 Test wickets. He reached the mark in 18 Tests. To put things into perspective, all four bowlers above him in the list, achieved their feat latest by 1931. If Ashwin goes at the same rate, he will be the fastest to 200 Test wickets without a shade of doubt.

Currently Ashwin has 176 wickets from 32 Tests and the world record for fastest to 200 Test wickets is held by Clarence Grimmett of Australia, a leg-spinner, who did it in 36 Tests. Ashwin needs 24 more in the next four matches.

Dennis Lillee, Waqar Younis and Dale Steyn are the next three on the list, who reached there in 38, 38 and 39 matches respectively. Ashwin will definitely break the Indian mark, which is currently held by Harbhajan Singh who reached 200 Test wickets in 46 Tests.

#2 Most five-wicket hauls and 10 wickets in Match by an Indian

Lack of time is the only hindrance for Ravi Ashwin in reaching up to Muralitharan’s record 67 5-wicket hauls

These two records are totally within Ashwin’s grasp if he goes at his current rate. The Indian record is held by Anil Kumble who picked up 5 wickets in an innings 35 times and 10 wickets in a match 8 times.

Ashwin already has 16 five wicket hauls in 1/4th of the Tests that Kumble or Shane Warne played. Warne had 37 five wicket hauls from 145 Tests. Muralitharan holds the world record with 67. Ashwin picks up one five wicket haul every two matches, but at 29, he probably doesn’t have enough time to realistically target Muralitharan’s record.

However, He needs 19 five wicket hauls and just 4 more 10 wicket per match hauls to equal Kumble’s record of 35 and 8 respectively. Even if he slows down from one 5 wicket haul every two matches to one 5 wicket haul every three matches, he has the time and opportunity to play the 57 to 60 Tests he will need to overtake Kumble.

#1 Most wickets in a series by an Indian

BS Chandrashekhar holds the record for most wickets in a Test series by an Indian

The most wickets in a series, all-time is 49 by the great Sidney Barnes. Although that record is almost beyond reach in modern-day cricket, Ashwin has a realistic chance to break the Indian mark. BS Chandrasekhar holds this record with 35 wickets. Chandrasekhar had the advantage of participating in 5 Test series.

Ashwin came close to the mark with 31 wickets in 4 Tests in the recently concluded Freedom Series. Vinoo Mankad and Subhash Gupte managed to take 34 in one series whereas Harbhajan picked 32 wickets in just 3 Tests against Australia in the epic 2001 series.

Ashwin is only peaking at the moment and with his maturity and experience increasing, he will be in a great position to challenge the mark when England tour India towards the end of 2016 to play 5 Test matches.