Jasprit Bumrah has 202 wickets to his name in 44 Test matches played so far. He is the only bowler in the world to take more than 200 wickets with a bowling average of less than 20.
‘National asset’ Jasprit Bumrah created history on Sunday, December 29, by becoming the first bowler in the history of Test cricket to take more than 200 wickets with an average of less than 20. Bumrah, who is playing his 44th Test match for India these days against Australia in Melbourne, has 202 wickets to his name at an average of 19.38.
In the list of bowlers with more than 200 wickets in Test cricket, Bumrah takes the No. 1 position, and he is followed by the West Indies trio of Malcolm Marshall (376 wickets, 20.94 avg), Joel Garner (259 wickets, 20.97 avg), and Curtly Ambrose (405 wickets, 20.99 avg).
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Best bowling average in Tests (min 200 wickets)
- Jasprit Bumrah (India) – 202 wickets (19.38)
- Malcolm Marshall (West Indies) – 376 wickets (20.94)
- Joel Garner (West Indies) – 259 wickets (20.97)
- Curtly Ambrose (West Indies) – 405 wickets (20.99)
- Fred Trueman (England) – 307 wickets (21.57)
- Glenn McGrath (Australia) – 563 wickets (21.64)
Bumrah completed his 200th dismissal in Test cricket by removing Travis Head for 1 run from two balls. The left-handed batter was caught by Nitish Kumar Reddy. In the same over, four balls later, Bumrah got the better of Mitchell Marsh as well. Marsh failed to open his account and was caught behind by Rishabh Pant.
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Bumrah, who is the leading wicket-taker in international cricket this year, picked up his fourth wicket of the second innings and 29th overall in the series by breaching Alex Carey’s defence on the last ball of the 36th over of Australia’s second inning. The Aussie wicketkeeper-batter could only manage to score 2 runs from 7 balls.
By dismissing Head for the second time in the ongoing Boxing Day Test at MCG, Bumrah also broke Kapil Dev’s record of being the fastest Indian pacer to take 200 Test wickets. Kapil’s 200th Test wicket came in the 50th match, whereas Bumrah has achieved the feat in his 44th match only. He is the second fastest Indian to dismiss 200 batters in Tests. Ravichandran Ashwin tops the list with 37 matches.
Bumrah has a total of 74 wickets to his name in 14 matches of WTC 2023-25. He broke Ashwin’s record of taking the most wickets in a single edition of the WTC for India. Ashwin dismissed 71 batters in 14 matches of the 2019-21 edition of WTC. Only Nathan Lyon on Australia has picked up more wickets than Bumrah in one edition of the WTC now. The legendary spinner accounted for the dismissal of 88 batters in 20 matches for Australia in the 2021-23 edition of WTC.
