Ravichandran Ashwin said that while he is thankful that Muttiah Muralitharan said that the ace Indian spinner can get to the Sri Lankan great’s Test record of 800 wickets, the mark is just too far away for him at the moment. Ashwin, 35, has taken 427 wickets thus far in 81 matches.
“Firstly, I thank Murali Anna (Muttiah Muralitharan) for such a statement. He has mentioned it to me as well a few times. Once when I was injured he called me up and said listen, I too had a similar injury, so take care of yourself. If you don’t take care of it immediately with full attention, you might find it recurring. So we’ve had a good connect; he is a really nice human being,” Ashwin said on his Youtube channel.
“So if he has said so, I am really thankful, but the goal of 800 is so far from reach. I know all of you have this hope that I do reach that mark, but it is too far. Let’s try to take it one step at a time, one wicket at a time and that is how I am looking at things,” he said.
“Ashwin has a chance because he is a great bowler. Other than that, I don’t think any younger bowler coming in will go to 800. Maybe Nathan Lyon is not good enough to reach it. He is close to 400 (396) but he has had to play many, many matches to get there,” Muralitharan was quoted as saying by Telegraph in January this year.
