India vs England: First time in over 100 years! Ashwin claims special feat on Day 4 in Chennai

Ravichandran Ashwin bagged a unique record during Day four of the ongoing first Test between India and England in Chennai on Monday. He became the first Indian spinner in over 100 years to pick a wicket off the first ball of a Test innings when he removed opening batsman Rory Burns in England's second innings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.

With the wicket of Burns, Ashwin, overall, became only the third spinner to achieve the special feat in Test cricket.

The instance of a spinner removing a batsman off the first delivery of a Test innings took place last 114 years ago in 1907 when South Africa's Bert Vogler had dismissed England's Tom Hayward at the Ovall. The first of such instance had taken place in 1888 when England's left-arm spinner Bobby Peel had dismissed Australia's Alex Bannerman off the first ball of the second innings in the third Test at the Old Trafford during the Ashes.

Indian skipper Virat Kohli handed Ashwin the new ball in the second innings on Monday and the bowling all-rounder did not disappoint his captain. As the England opener, Burns moved forward to defend the delivery from Ashwin, the ball spun away because of the extra bounce and the batter ended up edging to Ajinkya Rahane at slips. Ashwin has also removed England's other opener, Dominic Sibley, a few overs later before he trapped the big fish Ben Stokes, who was sent back for a 12-ball seven.

Earlier in the first innings, Ashwin had finished with figures of 3 for 146, including the wickets of Burns, Ollie Pope, and James Anderson. During that spell, Ashwin had also bowled his maiden no-ball of his Test career. Before overstepping in the first innings in the underway Test in Chennai, Ashwin had gone more than 20,600 balls without doing so in the longest format. His incredible streak came to an end in the 137th over before he went on to bowl a second no-ball nearly 40 overs later.

England captain Joe Root won the toss and opted to bowl in the ongoing first Test in Chennai. The visitors posted a mammoth 578 runs in the first innings before bowling Team India out for 337 runs. Instead of enforcing a following on, Root decided to bat again on Monday. England have already lost four wickets and have posed 86 runs in 21 overs as they lead by 300+plus runs.

Ashwin is currently the leading wicket-taker in the series, having bagged six wickets so far ahead of English spinner Dom Bess with four wickets and Indian fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah with three wickets.

In the meanwhile, Indian fast bowler Ishant Sharma became the third pacer from the country to take 300 wickets in Test cricket after Kapil Dev and Zaheer Khan. The 32-year-old claimed the record with the wicket of England's No. 3 batsman Daniel Lawrence in the 17th over of their second innings.