Ashwin waits, for magic and milestones

"I THOUGHT ASHWIN would get it (500 wickets) in the first Test itself. It's okay..." Ravindra Jadeja would crease into a lovely smile at the press conference a day ahead of the third Test. It was said in jest perhaps, but it's a good way to frame R Ashwin's toughest battle yet at home against an attacking England.

Ollie Pope swept him out of attack in Hyderabad and he bled five runs per over in the first innings at Visakhapatnam.

But he rose to the occasion in the chase when the game hung in balance or rather was actually tilting towards England by taking out Joe Root, Pope, and Ben Duckett.

The remarkable off-spinner needs just one more wicket to become the second-fastest after Muttiah Muralitharan to reach 500 Test wickets. It will be an astonishing achievement for an off-break bowler. Without the wrist kicking into action as it did for Murali and leg-spinners like Shane Warne, you can't rip the ball as much and should have lesser revolutions on the ball. It also explains the influx of offspinning bowling actions cloaked in full-sleeves. To his credit, Ashwin is the best shortsleeved off-spinner of the recent vintage. It's time he is featured in an advert for smart halfsleeved casuals, taking a crackat the full-sleeved sly men. But in the here and now, a er challenge awaits him in Rajkot: Can he soak up the Bazball attack and do his thing? The art of Ashwin lies in entangling the batsmen into meanderings from which they are unable to disengage themselves in time. But England went after him with a purpose that he has seldom seen.