Published: Sep 17, 2016, 10:05 PM (IST)
Edited: Sep 17, 2016, 10:50 PM (IST)
India‘s Test captain Virat Kohli today cut a specially customized cake kept by the hotel authorities as a part of celebration of India’s upcoming historic ‘500th Test’ against New Zealand starting at the Green Park on September 22. The New Zealand team will arrive on Monday. The Indian players arrived in batches today for the Test match. The first ones to reach were Wriddhiman Saha, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja. Skipper Kohli along with openers Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane, Umesh Yadav arrived in the evening.
They were all accorded traditional welcome. After Kohli cut ‘500th Test’ cake, birthday boy Ashwin, who turned 30 on the day also celebrated his birthday alongside teammates in the hotel lobby. Indian team will have a light session at Green park tomorrow. It took almost 20 years for India to register first Test win, which came at Chennai against the same team against whom they played their first Test — England. From there on, year by year, India kept rising and improving in Tests with every game and completed their circle of 100 matches in 1967. After playing the first Test against New Zealand at Kanpur, India will become the fourth team to reach this landmark after England (976), Australia (791) and West Indies (517). In terms of winning, India doesn’t boast of a very good record as they are standing at fifth place with 129 victories to their name but the future looks bright.
Ashwin on the other hand, from 36 Tests, he has scalped 193 wickets and soon Ashwin will surely break another record of fastest Indian bowler to have 200 Test wickets to his name. Ashwin also has smashed four centuries at a batting average of 34.26.
