R Ashwin of India is all set to achieve a rare distinction which no bowler has achieved in the 19^th century and also in the 20^th century. Opening the bowling attack as spinner he has an aggregate of 45 wickets as at the end of the just concluded away test series against Sri Lanka. Five more wickets would fetch him an aggregate of 50 wickets. He would then become the fifth bowler to aggregate  50 plus wickets while opening the bowling attack as a spin bowler and achieved the coveted distinction of becoming the first bowlers from 1900 onwards to total 50 plus wickets under this category of statistics. The following table lists the bowler who have captured 45  wickets.

No	Player	Team	Span	M	I	Balls	Runs	W	BBI	BBM	Ave	5	10
1	H Trumble	Aus	1893-1904	15	25	4291	1512	93	8/65	12/089	16.25	8	3
2	R Peel	Eng	1884-1896	17	31	4361	1520	88	7/31	11/068	17.27	4	1
3	C Blythe	Eng	1902-1910	13	24	3241	1319	74	8/59	15/099	17.82	8	4
4	GE Palmer	Aus	1880-1885	11	19	3347	1204	62	7/65	11/165	19.41	5	2
5	W Rhodes	Eng	1899-1908	9	16	1766	784	48	8/68	15/124	16.33	3	1
6	R Ashwin	Ind	2011-2015	12	14	1744	967	45	6/47	12/198	21.48	5

One more little specification with the above classification – replacing spin bowler – with right arm spin bowler – would redefine the list further. The list would reduce to three bowlers.

No	Player	Team	Span	M	I	Balls	Runs	W	BBI	BBM	Ave	5	10
1	H Trumble	Aus	1893-1904	15	25	4291	1512	93	8/65	12/089	16.25	8	3
2	GE Palmer	Aus	1880-1885	11	19	3347	1204	62	7/65	11/165	19.41	5	2
3	R Ashwin	Ind	2011-2015	12	14	1744	967	45	6/47	12/198	21.48	5	2

Thus R Ashwin would become the third right arm spin bowler while opening the bowling to capture 50 plus wickets – if he gets five more wickets.