India's Ravichandran Ashwin overtook Nathan Lyon to become the top wicket-taker in the World Test Championship during the first morning of the India-New Zealand Pune Test.
India took on New Zealand in the second Test of their three-match series in Pune. Having lost the first match in Bengaluru, they were looking to hit back quickly, and made three changes to their lineup with many expecting the wicket to turn from day one.
New Zealand won the toss and chose to bat first. After an opening burst from seamers Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep, Ashwin was introduced in the eighth over of the innings.
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He struck with his fifth delivery, getting it to turn from leg stump and trapping visiting skipper Tom Latham lbw for 15. Ashwin picked up another wicket in the morning session off the last ball of the 24th over. Will Young was caught behind thanks to a feather off his glove, after India reviewed the umpire's not out call on the insistence of Sarfaraz Khan.
With the second wicket, Ashwin took his tally in the World Test Championship (WTC) to 188, overtaking Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon to become the top wicket-taker in the competition's history.
Full list of highest wicket-takers in World Test Championships
This is the third edition of the WTC, after the 2019-21 and 2021-23 cycles. Across the three editions, Ashwin has taken 188 wickets in 39 matches, at an average of 20.74 runs per wicket. Eleven other players have taken over 100 wickets, and two others have taken over 150.
| Player | Team | Matches | Wickets |
| Ravichandran Ashwin | India | 39* | 188* |
| Nathan Lyon | Australia | 43 | 187 |
| Pat Cummins | Australia | 42 | 175 |
| Mitchell Starc | Australia | 38 | 147 |
| Stuart Broad | England | 33 | 134 |
| Kagiso Rabada | South Africa | 28 | 132 |
| Jasprit Bumrah | India | 30* | 124* |
| Tim Southee | New Zealand | 34* | 120* |
| James Anderson | England | 36 | 116 |
| Ravindra Jadeja | India | 35* | 114* |
Ashwin has also moved level with Lyon for the most Test wickets of all-time. Both players now have 530 to their name at the time of writing, the seventh-highest tally of all time. The next player above them is Australia's Glenn McGrath, who took 563 Test wickets.
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