Ashwin & Jadeja Continue Their Successful Run With 100 Plus Wickets Against Australia

For over a decade Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have teased and taunted batters and turned out to be stellar performers with the ball. Both finger spinners of the off-break and orthodox left arm variety, have stamped their class against Australia in a home series. Ashwin had 50 Australian scalps before the start of the first Test at Nagpur and Jadeja, 49 for a total of 99 in eight matches of the 2012-13 and 2016-2017 series. On Thursday (Feb 9), Jadeja sporting a ponytail on his return to Test cricket after seven months, plotted the downfall of five Australian batters and Ashwin mopped up three to take their tally past the 100-plus mark against visitors from the antipodes. These two are now 41 wickets away from Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble’s combined collection of 148 wickets against Australia at home. Ashwin and Jadeja will get a chance to bridge the gap in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Ashwin had crossed Kapil Dev’s record of 434 wickets in his 85th Test and on the first day of his 89th Test, he crossed the 450 wicket mark. He and Jadeja have proved to be the most effective pair after Ashwin and left arm spinner Pragyan Ojha took a bucketfull of wickets in home conditions. The success of Ashwin and Jadeja will determine India’s passage to the ICC World Test Championship final.