It was a record-breaking day for Team India's veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin as he went past Nathan Lyon to become the leading wicket-taker in the World Test Championship (WTC). Ashwin achieved the feat during India and New Zealand 2nd Test currently being held at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune.
Ashwin's two wickets have now taken him to 188 wickets in 39 matches at an impressive average of 20.71 in Tests since the World Test Championship was introduced in 2019. Nathan Lyon has 187 wickets in 47 matches at an average of 26.70 in the WTC. Pat Cummins (175), Mitchell Starc (175) and Stuart Broad (147) complete the top five wicket-takers in the World Test Championship era. With two wickets in the first session in Pune, Ashwin took his tally to 530 in his 104th match.
New Zealand in control after early wickets from Ashwin
R Ashwin, who went wicketless in the second innings of the Bengaluru Test, got the breakthrough in the first session itself. New Zealand skipper Tom Latham was his first victim. It was also the ninth time in his Test career that Ashwin had dismissed the New Zealand captain.
Ashwin then got Will Young before the end of the first session. Sarfaraz Khan who was stationed at short leg convinced his captain Rohit Sharma to take a review for a caught behind down the leg. The faint edge, which Sarfaraz picked on the field, was shown by the snickometer. New Zealand are currently 133/2 at the time of writing
