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Muttiah Muralitharan predicts Ravichandran Ashwin can get to 700 wickets

Does Ashwin have 700 Test wickets in him?

Ravichandran Ashwin, whose heroics during the second Test in Colombo helped India secure a win and draw the series, has been praised by the “Wizard” Muttiah Muralitharan, reports sports.ndtv.com. Muralitharan, a legend who is the world’s highest wicket taker with 800 Test scalps, has said that Ashwin has the potential to get to somewhere between 600 to 700 wickets.

Ashwin, who picked up the wicket of Kumar Sangakkara on four consecutive occasions in each of the Test matches, now has 141 wickets for 27 Test matches.  

"The good thing about Ashwin is that he is flighting the ball. This is the biggest difference (from what he did in Australia). He also got bounce and that got him the wickets," Muralitharan said on TV, after the match during the post match talk show, adding that the delivery that got Kumar Sangakkara out caught in the slips was a "classical" off-spinner's delivery.

Ashwin should play 10 more years for India: Muralitharan

Ashwin’s 17 wickets in the two Test matches is a record and Murali is highly impressed, "He has really done well for himself and Ashwin should play another 10 years for India," the Sri Lankan wizard said. "He is 28 now and if can play a 100 Test matches, he would have picked up at least 600-700 wickets," Murali added.

Ashwin turns 29 in September and if he can keep himself fit and free from injuries, he can possibly go on till the age of 38 at least. 9 more years is a lot of cricket and maybe even enough to surpass India’s own spin king, Anil Kumble’s tally of 619 wickets. If Ashwin continues the same form which he has carried in to the Sri Lanka series, he might even have a shot at making it to the Top 5 wicket takers list.

Here’s a look at his numbers in Tests:

Name Matches Runs Wickets BBI BBM Average Economy
Ravichandran Ashwin  21 4023 141 103/7 85/12 28.53 2.99

From the table we can see that he is and very economical bowler and also takes wickets at a healthy average, which makes him both a wicket taker and restrictor of runs.

Being a spinner in India, Ashwin is bound to be compared to the Big Three – Bedi, Chandrashekar and Prasana – so is he good enough to be compared to the three?  Sunil Gavaskar says, "Ashwin has pushed the door open." The future is looking extremely bright for Ravichandran Ashwin.

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