Ravichandran Ashwin congratulates Yasir Shah on becoming the fastest Asian to reach 100 Test wickets

Yasir Shah celebrates the fall of a wicket during the Test

Pakistan's Test match against the West Indies in Abu Dhabi witnessed Yasir Shah creating history by becoming the joint second-fastest bowler ever to complete 100 Test wickets. The leg-spinner overtook Ravichandran Ashwin while registering his name in the record books.

The Indian off-spinner seemed to be delighted by Shah's achievement and took it to Twitter to congratulate the Pakistani cricketer's efforts and also expressed his desire to see him reach 200 Test wickets. Ashwin had already wished him luck before the start of the Test match.

Just a little late I guess, but very well done @Shah64Y.Double it up now.

— Ashwin Ravichandran (@ashwinravi99) October 16, 2016

Shah went into this match needing five wickets to achieve this milestone. The Pakistani fans were well aware of this fact and were even confident that he would embrace the feat given the rough patch that the West Indies batsmen were going through.

The leg-spinner was troubling the West Indian batsmen right from the word go and it was just a matter of time before he would reach the magical mark. He picked up two wickets towards the end of the third day and went into the fourth's day play needing three more scalps.

Shah finally reached the landmark when the West Indian bowler Miguel Cummins had his stumps rattled by a peach of a delivery. The leggie joined the elite club of 100 Test wickets in his 17th Test match and became the joint-second fastest bowler to achieve this feat along with Charlie Turner, Sydney Barnes and Clarrie Grimmett. However, he became the quickest Asian bowler to do so as Ashwin had taken 18 Test matches to get to the feat. 

However, England seamer George Lohmann still stands on top of the list after having taken only 16 Tests to complete 100 wickets. In 10 year long career, the right arm bowler picked up a total of 112 wickets from 18 matches at an average of 10.75 and strike-rate of 34.10. Ashwin had reached the landmark in the 2013 Mumbai Test against West Indies. More recently, the off-spinner became the second fastest bowler to reach 200 Test wickets in the first Test against New Zealand at Kanpur after Australian leg spinner Grimmett.

With both the spinners showing their effectiveness in their respective matches, it remains to be seen if the debate regarding the best spinner reaches the intensity to that of Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan.