It was a massive occasion for veteran Indian cricket team spinner Ravichandran Ashwin as he played his 100th Test match as India took on England in the final game of the five-match series in Dharamsala on Thursday. Ashwin recently became the second India bowler ever to take 500 wickets in the longest format of the sport and as he took the field for his 100th Test, he made history by becoming the oldest India cricketer to achieve the milestone. Overall, Ashwin became the 14th India cricketer to play 100 Tests but the first one to do it after celebrating his 37th birthday. The others were – Sunil Gavaskar (125), Dilip Vengsarkar (116), Kapil Dev (131), Sachin Tendulkar (200), Anil Kumble (132), Rahul Dravid (164), Sourav Ganguly (113), VVS Laxman (134), Harbhajan Singh (103), Virender Sehwag (104), Ishant Sharma (105), Virat Kohli (113) and Cheteshwar Pujara (103).
Overall, Ashwin is the sixth oldest cricketer to play his 100th Test match after Geoffrey Boycott (40y, 254d), Clive Lloyd (39y, 241d), Graham Gooch (39y, 190d), Gordon Greenidge (38y, 346d) and Younis Khan (37y, 208d).
Kuldeep Yadav took five wickets to bundle out England for 218, with India’s batsmen starting strongly on a dominant opening day for the hosts in the fifth Test on Thursday.
Yadav returned figures of 5-72 and, along with fellow spinner Ravichandran Ashwin who took four wickets in his landmark 100th Test, bowled out the tourists in just 57.4 overs at the picturesque Dharamsala stadium.
India reached 135-1 at stumps, still trailing England by 83 runs.
Skipper Rohit Sharma, on 52, and Shubman Gill, on 26, were batting at the close of play after in-form Yashasvi Jaiswal fell for 57.
The left-handed Jaiswal looked assured until his departure as he smashed spinner Shoaib Bashir for three sixes in an over, and consolidated his position at the top of the series batting with 712 runs.
Bashir, a rookie off-spinner, got Jaiswal stumped to end a 104-run opening stand.
Jaiswal, 22, went past 1,000 runs in just his 16th Test innings since his debut last year, becoming the second-quickest Indian to the mark after former batsman Vinod Kambli (14 innings).
(With AFP inputs)
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