Even as India put England under the mat on Day 1 of the first Test in Hyderabad, the home team's treasured spin twins Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja achieved a major milestone that signified the passing of the proverbial baton. Ashwin and Jadeja have overtaken their predecessors Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble as the most successful bowling pair for India in Test cricket. (Scorecard | Streaming)
With their collective 502nd wicket in the 50th Test match where they are bowling together, Ashwin and Jadeja went past the previous Indian record of 501 wickets held by Kumble and Harbhajan. The retired duo had bagged their combined haul in 54 matches.
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The world record for the most wickets by a Test bowling pair currently belongs to England's famed combine of James Anderson and Stuart Broad. While Anderson has not been picked in England's playing XI and Broad retired last year, the duo terrorized batters worldwide with their skillful displays of swing bowling.
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Anderson and Broad together scalped 1039 wickets in 138 Test matches. Since Broad has retired, there will be no change to their tally. As for the currently active pairs, Australia's Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon are on top, having bagged 643 wickets in 81 Tests together.
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Earlier in the day, England skipper Ben Stokes won the toss and chose to bat first at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. India have gone with the potent spin trio of Ashwin, Jadeja and Axar Patel for this game. This meant Kuldeep Yadav missed out, as there was no space for him in the Indian XI.
As for the batting, Yashasvi Jaiswal is expected to partner India captain Rohit Sharma, with Shubman Gill in at number 3. KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer will make up the middle-order core, and KS Bharat will keep wickets.
