IPL 2024: Ravichandran Ashwin overtakes Amit Mishra as the sixth highest wicket taker

India’s premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has become the sixth highest wicket taker in the Indian Premier League. The wily off-spinner moved ahead of compatriot Amit Mishra during his spell of 3/24 against Delhi Capitals on Tuesday.

Ashwin, playing for Rajasthan Royals, now has 176 wickets in the IPL, surpassing Mishra’s tally of 174.

Before the match, Ashwin was on 173 wickets and he drew level with Mishra when he accounted for the dangerous Jake Fraser-McGurk, who was going hammer and tongs against the RR bowlers. Ashwin bowled a low full-toss which Fraser-McGurk could only guide to Donovan Ferreira but only before he had scored a destructive 50 off just 20 balls.

The 37-year-old spinner overtook Mishra when he scalped the wicket of Axar Parel next, who was out after being caught by Riyan Parag. Ashwin then took his third wicket of the match when he had Abhishek Porel, caught by Sandeep Sharma at point.

Ashwin returned with figures of 3/24 in his four overs, with an economy rate of 6, in a match where DC scored 221/8 in their 20 overs, with a run rate of 11.05.

Ashwin now has 176 wickets in 207 matches at an average of 29.77 and best bowling figures of 4/34.

Yuzvendra Chahal leads the all-time highest wicket takers list in the IPL with 201 wickets, followed by Piyush Chawla with 187 wickets. Dwayne Bravo is third on the list with 183 wickets while Bhuvneshwar Kumar is fourth with 179 wickets. Sunil Narine is in the fifth position with 177 wickets, just one more than Ashwin's 176.

The Chennai-based off-spinner made his IPL debut with Chennai Super Kings in 2008 and played for the franchise till 2015. He then played for the now-defunct team Rising Pune Supergiant in 2016 and 2017, before making a move to Punjab Kings. He played for the Kings for two years before being bought by Delhi Capitals. He played for Delhi Capitals for two seasons and now has moved to Rajasthan Royals. This is the third season for Ashwin in RR.

He has played 40 games for RR and has taken 31 wickets for the Sanju Samson-led franchise.

Rajasthan Royals are second in the points table with 16 points, with a playoff spot almost a certainty. The franchise has played 11 matches so far, won eight of them and lost three, including the one against DC on Tuesday by 20 runs.