'I thank Murali anna but it's too far' - R Ashwin on Muttiah Muralitharan's 800 wickets remark

Ravichandran Ashwin has picked 427 Test wickets in 81 matches at an average of 24.12. He is the third-highest wicket-taker for India in Test cricket. In the recently concluded Test series against South Africa, he went past Harbhajan Singh’s record of 417 Test wickets.

Ashwin has been the poster boy of the Indian bowling attack in the subcontinent region. He has made a significant contribution for India to have such domination in home conditions. India has not lost a Test series in India since losing against England in 2012.

On December 16, Ashwin released a new video on his YouTube channel called ‘40 Shades of Ash’ in which he gave answers to 40 questions fans asked him on Twitter. One of the users mentioned that Muttiah Muralitharan once named Ashwin as the one who can break his record of most wickets in Test cricket. The user asked Ashwin’s response to Murali’s claim. He answered:

“Firstly, I thank Murali Anna (Muralitharan) for such a statement,” he said on his YouTube channel. “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.”

Muttiah Muralitharan is the only bowler to pick 800 Test wickets

Muralitharan picked 800 wickets in 133 Test matches at an average of 22.72. He took 67 five-wicket hauls, which is the most by any bowler in this format of the game. His record is the peak that every bowler might think of reaching during their test career. However, Ashwin did mention that the record is too far from his reach at this moment.

“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 mentioned.

During an interview with Telegraph in January this year, Murali said that Ashwin has a chance to break his record of picking 800 wickets.

“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,” Murali said.