Next generation of bowlers can forget about taking 1000 international wickets: Ashwin

Ashwin says reduction in Tests, emergence of T20 leagues will make it difficult to emulate Shane Warne's featNEW DELHI: As the calendar gets busier, breaking records seems to get harder for contemporary cricketers. As a case in point, while being felicitated for his 100th Test last week, Virat Kohli had mentioned that he was proud to have lasted so long in this day and age. "In present-day cricket, with three formats and IPL, the only takeaway from my career for the next generation is that I could strive through and play the purest format this long," Kohli had said on the morning of the first Test match against Sri Lanka in Mohali.

Now off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has claimed that the next generation of bowlers will find it hard to take 1000 international wickets like Shane Warne did. In an ode to Warne, who passed away on Friday, Ashwin spoke on his YouTube channel. "Shane Warne was a colourful character and he redefined the term bowling. He has taken more than 1000 international wickets. Not many can achieve this rare feat. In fact, the next generation of bowlers can forget to even think about getting 1000 international wickets," Ashwin said in the video released on Tuesday.

"The volume of Test cricket will come down drastically. And also because there are so many leagues, workload management will take centrestage," he said. Ashwin went past Kapil Dev's tally of 434 Test wickets on Sunday and has 648 international wickets across three formats. Warne had 1001 international wickets in two formats while Muttiah Muralitharan has 1347 wickets across three formats and Anil Kumble has 956 international wickets. Pacers Glenn McGrath, James Anderson and Wasim Akram are the only other bowlers to have taken over 900