After going wicketless in the first innings of the second Test against England in Visakhapatnam, premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took three wickets in the second to move from 496 to 499 wickets in his Test career. He was stuck on 499 for a while before skipper Rohit Sharma took him off the attack. However, when the last pair of Tom Hartley and James Anderson were in the middle, Ashwin was given one final try to reach the landmark, but could not succeed.

Ashwin has been a champion bowler in India, with 346 wickets in 57 matches at an average of 21.27 and a strike rate of 46.80. However, he has fallen back in the pecking order when India play overseas with Ravindra Jadeja being the preferred spinner.