Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra reckons it will be difficult for Ravichandran Ashwin to leapfrog Anil Kumble’s tally of 619 Test wickets.
In the first Test match against Sri Lanka, Ashwin surpassed Kapil Dev’s record of 434 Test scalps and thus became India’s second-highest wicket-taker in the red-ball version.
As it is known that every team plays three home series and three away series in the World Test Championship cycle, Chopra is not sure if Ashwin will get his chances in foreign Test matches as Ravindra Jadeja has claimed his place as the first-choice spinner in overseas conditions. Furthermore, Ashwin doesn’t have the best of records while playing in alienate conditions.
Ergo, it will be difficult for him to take another 183 wickets to level Kumble’s tally of Test wickets as he is already 35 years old and has gone through a spate of injuries in the last few years.
Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel, “In my opinion, it will be difficult, it will not happen. I am not 100% certain that it is possible because we do not play too much Test cricket. In whatever we play, we need to play three series away and three at home if we talk about the two-year cycle.”
“He is not going to get 25 wickets or so in the series away from home, he will get very limited wickets. How many chances he will get to play, I am not 100% certain either.”
Chopra isn’t sure if Ashwin will get a lot of chances in overseas conditions as Ravindra Jadeja will play ahead of him. Jadeja has drastically improved his batting and has done a fine job for the team.
“When you go to England now, you will see Jaddu playing ahead of him. So he will not play there at all. When he will not play, how will he pick up wickets? There is no guarantee in India as well because there are a lot of two-Test series also, then how will he get so many wickets?”
“He still needs 180-odd wickets from here, it is not going to be easy, that’s what I feel. You get 50 to 60 wickets in a year, if he has three to four very good years, there is an outside chance it might happen. But we really don’t know.”
The second Test match between India and Sri Lanka will be played in Bengaluru from March 12.
