Stats: Ravi Ashwin goes past Bishen Singh Bedi in 5-wicket hauls

Ashwin removes AB de Villiers in the recently concluded Nagpur Test

Ravichandran Ashwin’s 12-wicket haul in the 3rd Test of the India-South Africa series helped India deliver a crushing defeat on the Proteas and clinch the series by taking a 2-0 lead with a solitary Test to go. The Indian offie managed to pick up a 5-wicket haul in both innings, which makes it 3 for him in the series, increasing his tally of wickets to 24 in just 5 innings.

In the process of getting 7 for 66 in South Africa’s 2nd innings, Ashwin surpassed former Indian left-arm spinner Bishan Singh Bedi in the list of Indian bowlers who have taken 5 wickets in an innings the most number of times. In his 67 Test-long career, Bedi took a five-wicket haul as many as 14 times in an innings.

Post the completion of the Nagpur Test, Ashwin now has 15 five-wicket hauls in Tests which has sent him to the fifth position in the all-time list. The tall off-spinner is only bettered by Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Kapil Dev and BS Chandrasekhar. Although Ashwin still has a while to go before he catches up with the top 3, another couple of five-fors in the 4th Test will see him go past Chandrasekhar, who is 4th on the list with 16.

Following is the list of Indian bowlers with most five-fors in an innings:

Bowler	Matches	Wickets	5-wkt hauls
Anil Kumble	132	619	35
Harbhajan Singh	103	417	25
Kapil Dev	131	434	23
BS Chandrasekhar	58	242	16
Ravichandran Ashwin	31	169	15
Bishan Singh Bedi	67	266	14
Subhas Gupte	36	149	12
Zaheer Khan	92	311	11
Erapalli Prasanna	49	189	10
Javagal Srinath	67	236	10

The Nagpur Test also marked the 4th occasion on which Ravichandran Ashwin has picked up 10 wickets or more in a match. Only the legendary spinner Anil Kumble and his outstanding ally Harbhajan Singh have taken more 10-wicket match hauls in Test matches.

While Kumble is right at the top of the list with 8 ten-fors against his name, Harbhajan stands second with 5 of them. Another 10-wicket haul in the 4th Test will bring Ashwin to the joint-second position alongside Bhajji.

The table below shows the bowlers who have taken the most 10-wicket hauls for India in Tests:

Bowler	Matches	Wickets	10-wkt hauls
Anil Kumble	132	619	8
Harbhajan Singh	103	417	5
Ravichandran Ashwin	31	169	4
Irfan Pathan	29	100	2
Maninder Singh	35	88	2

It is difficult to predict the future for Ravichandran Ashwin, but the rate at which he is going at present may help him break a lot of bowling records for India.