You have to admit that the milestones in cricket are always specials.
It could be either a batsman reaching 1000x runs in their career, a bowler picking up his 100x wickets, or a fielder/wicket-keeper holding onto 100x catches. It will be a special occasion for the players, and the fans will love it too.
On that note, here are 5 approaching milestones for Indian cricketers, who are traveling to South Africa for a 3-match Test series.
Ravichandran Ashwin – 435 Test Wickets
The Indian off-spinner will start the inaugural Centurion Test with 427 wickets. It means that by picking up 8 more wickets in this series, Ashwin will manage to overcome former Indian legendary bowler Kapil Dev’s feat of 434 Test wickets. While doing so, Ashwin will become the 2nd best Indian bowler in Tests on the count of wickets.
Anil Kumble tops the chart with 619 Test wickets, whereas the retired Harbhajan Singh (417 Wickets) and Ishant Sharma (311 Wickets) forms the bottom two of the top five Indian Test wicket-takers’ list. Whether Ashwin will break Anil Kumble’s record or not, we have a separate prediction report for this. Check it out!
Mohammed Shami – 200 Test Wickets
With 195 wickets in his Test career, Shami needs 5 more to reach a sweet landmark of 200 Test scalps. Shami made a remarkable Test debut on Eden Gardens in 2013, when he picked up a 5-wicket haul against West Indies. Since then, he has come a long way ahead and is one of the leading members of the current Indian pace unit.
Reaching the milestone will make Mohammed Shami the 11th Indian bowler to do so. Another recent addition to this list is the left-arm all-rounder, Ravindra Jadeja.
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Rishabh Pant – 100 Test Catches
Rishabh Pant has taken 97 wicket-keeping dismissals so far in Tests and needs 3 more to become the sixth Indian wicket-keeper to reach the 100 dismissals milestone. MS Dhoni, the former Indian captain-WK, tops the Indian chart with 294 wicket-keeping dismissals. You can also get to know about who tops the ODI wicket-keeping records here.
The other 4 keepers to reach this feat are Syed Kirmani (198), Kiran More (130), Nayan Mongia (107), and the other current keeper in the squad, Wriddhiman Saha (104 Wickets).
Ajinkya Rahane – 100 Test Catches
Rahane’s slip-catching skills need no introduction. He has been an excellent slip fielder for India in the longest format, especially with spinners bowling. His bowler-fielder partnership with Ravi Ashwin has been phenomenal that the duo is one among the two current pairs to complete 25 Test wickets together. Steve Smith-Nathan Lyon are the other pair.
Rahane also holds the world record for the most catches in a single Test match. He caught 8 catches playing against Sri Lanka at Galle International Stadium, Galle, Sri Lanka, on 12 August 2015. Read on to be blown away by some fielding catches numbers here.
Virat Kohli – 100 Test Catches
The Indian captain is just 1 catch ahead of his fellow countrymate Rahane. Kohli, who has kept onto 98 Test catches to date, will need 2 more to become the 6th Indian to reach the landmark.
Interestingly, the current world-record holder for the most catches by a fielder in Test cricket, Rahul Dravid, is the head coach of the current Indian team. Both Rahane and Virat will cross the 100-catches milestone playing under Dravid’s coaching.
Wrapping up!
Not stopping there, we will see more milestones to come with the current Indian Test team having multiple stars in it, who have been part of the squad for a long time now. If things go great, we will soon see Ashwin’s 450 mark, followed by his big 500, and Virat, with the bat, is also approaching the 8000 Test runs mark and 6000 runs as Test captain.
Also, the Test cricket getting its own World Cup, the World Test Championship, will only help players play more longer format cricket and reach more numbers!
