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XtraTime Web Desk - With Daniel Lawrence's wicket in the second innings, Ishant Sharma picked up his 300th test wicket in his career. He's the third Indian pacer to do so after Kapil Dev and Zaheer Khan. When Ashwin was asked to throw some light on it, he said, “Ishant has been one of the most hardworking cricketers I've seen in Indian dressing room”.

He added, “From Ishant that went to Australia to get Ricky Ponting out to go to do many other yours. For a fast bowler to get to 100 tests in India is no joke and it's a fantastic fantastic achievement. He's the third Indian pacer to do so. I can go on complimenting him but I really wish to see him go on and take 400 or 500 wickets”.

England delayed a bit in declaring this innings. The experts and the fans felt they should but Joe Root didn't and then India bowled them out at 178. When Ashwin was asked about that, he said, “We expected that they will probably try for 430 or 440 on the board. So, we were also trying to manage our bowlers accordingly. I'm not sure what went inside their dressing room, I think the bowlers being tired and coming out to ball, all this things gets factored in. So, is their management call”.

Washington Sundar's 85 was very crucial for India to set up a decent total on board. He helped India reach 357 runs. Speaking about that, Ashwin said, “We actually did believe that we can wipeout the follow-on. Both Washi and I played on pitches here”.

He added, “Washi is a fantastic batsman. I think a lot of people going by the t20 format where we plays at number 7 don't recognize his batting talent”.

Speaker about the wicket, Ashwin said, “When I saw the wicket, I thought it'll be pretty good to bat on but I thought it'll do a bit more than what it did on the first day. It was really flat. It was a crucial toss for us. I think we fought back really well throughout the course of the day yesterday and even today. If we have a good fifth day, we will be happy to round off this test”.