VETERAN India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Wednesday achieved a rare distinction when he dismissed West Indies batter Tagenarine Chanderpaul on the first day of the first Test match against the Caribbeans at Windsor Park, Dominica.
Ashwin had claimed the wicket of the father of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the father of Tagenarine, in his debut Test in Delhi in 2011 -- the match in which he was adjudged as the best player for picking nine wickets.
The 36-year-old bowler, whose absence in India's playing XI in the final of the World Test Championship against Australia in England caused an uproar after India lost the match, castled opener Chanderpaul for 12 in the 13th over of the day to give the visitors the first breakthrough. He also dismissed the other opener, captain Carlos Brathwaite for 20 as India pegged back the hosts before lunch by picking up four wickets.
West Indies were precariously placed at 105 for 5 at the time of writing this report after they won the toss and elected to bat.
Ashwin, who had 474 Test wickets before this match, became only fifth bowler in world cricket to dismiss both father and son during his career after picking Tagenarine, 27.
Funnily, it is the Chanderpauls, who feature thrice in the list of the father and son duo dismissed by same bowler.
Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc and South Africa's off-spinner Simon Harmer are the other two bowlers who had dismissed Shivnarine and Tagenarine.
May be it has got to do with the senior Chanderpaul's longevity as he retired as late as 2015, while his son made his debut in Tests last year.
The other two bowlers to achieve the feat are England all-rounder Ian Botham and Pakistan legend Wasim Akram.
Their feat was also eerily similar as they dismissed the New Zealand father son duo of Lance and Chris Cairns.
Going into lunch on day one of the opening Test, Ashwin had already picked up 699 international wickets across formats with 476 of them coming in Tests.
(With PTI inputs)
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