R Ashwin claims incredible feat in the 1st IND vs WI Test; Becomes 1st Indian to account for father-son scalps in Test
IND vs WI 1st Test: R Ashwin demonstrated his influence with the red ball in the current Test against West Indies in Dominica despite not being selected for the playing XI for the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia. The expert at carrom provided India with its first success and added a second one quickly to his total.
Before packing his opening partner and captain Kraigg Brathwaite for 20, he started by removing opener Tagenarine Chanderpaul for 12.
As part of his brilliant performance, Ashwin also established a rare record by becoming the sixth bowler to ever dismiss a father-and-son team in a Test match. The great Windies batter Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s son, Tagenarine, was dismissed by Ashwin several times throughout his career.
In a Test played in Delhi in 2011, Ashwin successfully removed the senior Chanderpaul for the first time. In the ensuing match, which was played in Kolkata, he struck out the Windies batter. In the longer format of the game, Ashwin has ultimately dismissed senior Chanderpaul four times.
Ashwin also surpassed former India captain Anil Kumble on the record of Indian bowlers with the most bowled dismissals in Test matches with the dismissal of Tagenarine.
One more than Kumble, Ashwin has cleaned up a batter 95 times. The third person on the list, Kapil Dev, has knocked the stumps 88 times.
R Ashwin opens up on his record breaking performance in IND vs WI 1st Test
On the first day of the first test on Wednesday, India bowled out the West Indies for 150, earning Ravichandran Ashwin his 33rd five-wicket haul in tests and a place in history.
At stumps, India was 80-0, only 70 runs behind with Yashasvi Jaiswal 40 not out and captain Rohit Sharma 30 not out.
Additionally, Ashwin reached 700 wickets in all international competitions.
“I thought it was a really good performance,” Ashwin said. “There was some moisture in the pitch in the first session. It got slower and started to spin a little bit. I enjoyed the spell in the first session and in the second I had to work a little bit more.”
If we look at how the match has rolled out, Brathwaite won the toss and opted to bat. India handed debut to Ishan and Yashasvi Jaiswal, while Alick Athanaze earns his maiden Test cap for the West Indies.
India ‘dominant’ in Dominica, bowls out West Indies for 150 on Day 1
On the first day of the first Test, here on Wednesday, West Indies stumbled to 68-4 at lunch against India after Ravichandran Ashwin removed both openers with pure creativity. While Ravindra Jadeja (1-6 in 2 overs) also added his name to the wickets column thanks to a spectacular catch by Mohammed Siraj to remove Jermaine Blackwood (14), Shardul Thakur (1-7 in 3 overs), playing as the third seamer in foreign conditions for the first time, continued with his happy knack of picking wickets.
West Indies were only able to smash six fours in the 28 overs that were bowled during the session, thus rookie Alick Athanaze (batting 13) was at the crease at the time of the break.
In the first hour of play, after choosing to bat first, West Indies openers Tagenarine Chanderpaul (12 off 44 balls) and Kraigg Brathwaite (20 off 46 balls) withdrew as Siraj (0-17 in eight overs) and Jaydev Unadkat (0-7 in five overs) settled into a nice fuller Test match length, repeatedly beating the outside edge of both openers.
The pressure the pace duo applied paid off as Ashwin (2-25 in 10 overs) reduced the speed of his deliveries and effectively utilised the available drift to make life difficult for the two openers.
During the second hour, he did challenge both the inside and outside edge thanks to a beautiful loop. Even though Tagenarine is significantly more side-on than his “Old Man,” his stance and trigger shuffle from leg to off-stump have an amazing resemblance to those of his renowned father Shivnarine.
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