India’s ace spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Friday, February 16, at the Niranjan Shah Stadium, accomplished the incredible achievement of taking 500 Test wickets.

Ashwin achieved the amazing feat of striking out Zak Crawley with a bowl during the first innings of the Test match at Rajkot. With 500 Test wickets, Ashwin became the second-fastest bowler after the legendary Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka.

The initial partnership of Crawley and Ben Duckett , who appeared to be quite dangerous, was broken by Ashwin. On Day 2, the duo had scored 89 runs in the first 13 overs of the match. Despite enjoying a quiet series, the spinner managed to trap Zak Crawley at short fine leg. Crawley was caught off guard by Ashwin’s off-spinner, which looped up to Rajat Patidar.

In terms of matches played and balls bowled, Ashwin became the second-fastest bowler to reach the milestone. With 25715 balls taken overall, Ashwin is second only to the great Glenn McGrath, who took 25528.

Ashwin surpassed Anil Kumble, who needed 105 matches, by reaching the highest point in just his 98th Test match. With just 87 Tests, the legendary Muttiah Muralitharan is in the lead.

Meanwhile, Ravichandran Ashwin got his 100th test wicket more than ten years ago. Ashwin took Darren Sammy of the West Indies for his 100th Test wicket. When the West Indies visited India in 2013, Ashwin had trapped Sammy at short mid-wicket.

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New Zealand’s Kane Williamson became Ashwin’s 200th Test wicket. During the 2016 Test series, when the Kiwis were in India, Ashwin took wicket of Williamson.

The spinner’s 300th Test wicket was Sri Lanka’s Lahiru Gamge while playing his 54th Test wicket. Ashwin scalped his wicket while playing a home Test in 2017.

Indian captain Rohit Sharma today surpassed the record of former captain Sourav Ganguly to rank fourth in the history of international cricket run scorers. In the fourth Test match at Rajkot against England, Sharma achieved this massive feat.

In the match, Sharma amassed 131 runs in 196 balls with 14 fours and 3 sixes to record his 11th Test century.

His runs were made at a strike rate of 66.83. With an average of 43.35, Sharma scored 18,641 runs in 470 international matches so far. In addition, he has 100 fifty-scores and 47 hundreds for India, with a career best score of 264. Meanwhile, before him, star cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar ((34,357 runs), Virat Kohli (26,733 runs), and Rahul Dravid (24,064 runs), are above him.

Rohit Sharma has scored 3,958 runs at an average of 45.49 in 57 Test matches, including 11 hundreds and 16 fifties. His best score till the date is 212.

Sharma has scored 10,709 runs at an average of 49.12 in 262 One-Day Internationals (ODIs), including 31 and 55 centuries. His highest rating is 264. As India’s fifth-highest run-maker, this is Rohit’s best format.

In addition, Rohit has scored 3,974 runs at a strike rate of more than 139 and an average of 31.79. He has 29 fifty-score runs and five hundreds. His highest rating is 121*. Additionally being the record holder for the most hundreds in the format, he is the second-highest run scorer in T20I history.

After hitting three sixes, Rohit overtook former captain and famous wicketkeeper-batter MS Dhoni’s record to become India’s second-highest six-hitter in Test history with 80 total sixes. With 99 sixes in Test cricket, Virender Sehwag is India’s greatest six-hitter. With 128 sixes, England’s captain Ben Stokes is the highest six-hitter in Tests, with 128 sixes.

Meanwhile, India won the toss and opted to bat first in today’s match.

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah has supported India’s ace batter Virat Kohli’s decision to skip India’s current Test series against England, stating that he is entitled to request a personal leave.

Citing personal concerns, Kohli had originally pulled out of the Indian team for the opening two Test matches of the series. Later on, it was revealed that the 35-year-old will miss the entire five-match series.

Ahead of the India’s third Test match against England in Rajkot, Shah told the media that Kohli is not the type of player who would request a leave without any reason.

Shah said, if somebody is asking for a personal leave in 15 years then it is his right to ask for it. Virat is not that kind of a player that he would ask for a leave without any reason. He also said, the board must back and trust our players.

In addition, Shah said also said, the National Cricket Academy (NCA) will give advice to players in their participation in domestic tournaments and emphasized that they will not  entertain any tantrums.

During the press confrence the BCCI secretary said, in the event that someone’s body is incapable of playing both red-ball and white-ball cricket, the y advice them to follow the NCA’s advise rather than imposing any restrictions. They will not tolarate any more tantrums from anyone who is young and in good health. All centrally contracted players should take note of this message, Shah said.

Meanwhile, Kohli’s former RCB teammate, AB de Villiers, made a statement saying the India batter was expecting his second child but quickly he withdrew his statement and issued an apology, saying without knowing the exact deails he intervened in Kholi’s personal life.

Virat Kohli was last seen in the T20I series against Afghanistan, earlier in January.