The veteran Indian off-spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin became the fastest Indian bowler to surpass the tally of 400 wickets in Test cricket on Thursday. R Ashwin, playing his 77th Test, was on 397 wickets at the end of England’s first innings of the ongoing third Test when they were bowled out for 112 and in the second innings he dismissed England batsmen Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, and Jofra Archer to complete the milestones.

R Ashwin is only behind Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan in the list of fastest players to 400 wickets in the longest format of the game. Muralitharan had managed ti surpass the tally in just 72 Tests. Other Indian bowled to have picked more than 400 wickets are Anil Kumble (619), Kapil Dev (434), and Harbhajan Singh (417).

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Ashwin opened his account in the second innings by trapping Stokes lbw and then cleaned up Ollie Pope. His 400th scalp was Jofra Archer, who missed with an expansive sweep shot as the ball hit him low on the pad. India appealed and the on-field umpire gave it out. However, as Archer went for DRS, Ashwin’s moment was briefly interrupted, but the third umpire ruled in the favor of the Indian spinner, who completed a well-deserved feat.

Ashwin’s wife Prithi reacted to Ashwin’s milestone of 400 Test wickets with a tweet. She tweeted, “Archer for his 400th. My god, Win.”

Archer for his 400th. My god, Win.

— Prithi Ashwin (@prithinarayanan) February 25, 2021

The 34-year-old has been in good form with both bat and ball in this series, as he has managed to scalp as many as 23 wickets in the series thus far and scored 176 runs including a century in the second innings of the second Test.

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R Ashwin became the fourth-highest wicket taker for India in international cricket on Day 1 of the third Test as he went past Zaheer Khan’s tally of 597 wickets. In addition to 400 Test wickets, Ashwin has 150 wickets in ODIs and 52 in T20Is since his international debut in 2010.

Here are some of the congratulatory message for R Ashwin after completing the milestone:

What a champion bowler 🔝😎

4️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ Test wickets for @ashwinravi99 and we're sure there's still many more to come 👌🏻🤗

Fastest Indian to achieve this milestone 🔥🇮🇳@Paytm #INDvENG #TeamIndia #PinkBallTest

Follow the match 👉 https://t.co/9HjQB6TZyX pic.twitter.com/QyvRUr9e4Y

— BCCI (@BCCI) February 25, 2021

What a journey for @ashwinravi99. 2nd quickest to get there. We are in the midst of greatness

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) February 25, 2021

Terrific consistency!

Well done, keep it up @ashwinravi99.

Joy to watch you bowl. #INDvENG pic.twitter.com/CEBkoUQVlR

— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) February 25, 2021

Well done @ashwinravi99 on reaching 400 wickets .Phenomenal! Congratulations on a fantastic achievement. Great going, keep it up! 👍🏽

— Anil Kumble (@anilkumble1074) February 25, 2021

Magnificent milestone for the spin wizard @ashwinravi99 Congratulations Ash on 400 Test Wickets. Keep ‘em coming. #INDvENG @StarSportsIndia pic.twitter.com/jFfa5hyzfV

— VVS Laxman (@VVSLaxman281) February 25, 2021

Congratulations @ashwinravi99 on 400 test wickets.. well done.. keep going @BCCI @StarSportsIndia #ENGvIND

— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) February 25, 2021

A major milestone for India’s spin king R Ashwin 🙌#INDvENG pic.twitter.com/QbXdiD8fYO

— ICC (@ICC) February 25, 2021

Fastest Indian to take

50 Test wickets: Ashwin
100 Test wickets: Ashwin
150 Test wickets: Ashwin
200 Test wickets: Ashwin
250 Test wickets: Ashwin
300 Test wickets: Ashwin
350 Test wickets: Ashwin
400 Test Wickets: Ashwin

— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) February 25, 2021

Who’d have thought Ravichandran Ashwin would beat Nathan Lyon to 400 Test wickets? He started the Australia-India series on 365 to Lyon’s 390. Lyon will be stuck on 399 for quite some time. #INDvENG

— Andrew Wu (@wutube) February 25, 2021

ASHWIN’S 400 🔥👏🏼 The biggest congratulations to Ravichandran Ashwin on 400 Test wickets! He gets Archer out for a duck – LBW. The man is a magician! Time to celebrate! Take a bow Ravi Ashwin! What a cricketer. 🇮🇳🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #INDvENG

— Chloe-Amanda Bailey (@ChloeAmandaB) February 25, 2021

400 Test wickets in 77 matches 👏 @ashwinravi99 what a bowler #INDvsENG

— Surya Kumar Yadav (@surya_14kumar) February 25, 2021

Great cricketer @ashwinravi99 !! #400

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) February 25, 2021

400 cheers to Ashwin @ashwinravi99 #INDvENG #400Wickets

— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) February 25, 2021

Fastest to take 600 wickets across formats (Matches)

211 – D Steyn 🇿🇦
226 – G McGrath 🇦🇺
232 – A Donald 🇿🇦
234 – R Ashwin* 🇮🇳
236 – S Warne 🇦🇺
240 – M Muralitharan 🇱🇰
251 – B Lee 🇦🇺#INDvENG #PinkBallTest

— Sukriti Kuila (@sukriti_kuila) February 25, 2021