Yasir Shah becomes fastest to 200 Test wickets

Yasir Shah broke a record that has stood for 82 years as he became the fastest man to reach 200 Test wickets.

Published : Dec 06, 2018 12:46 IST

Pakistan spinner Yasir Shah became the fastest man to take 200 wickets.

Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah made Test cricket history by becoming the fastest man to reach 200 wickets.

Yasir achieved the feat when he trapped William Somerville early on day four of the third Test against New Zealand in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.

The 32-year-old needed just 33 matches to join the 200 club, beating the record set by Clarrie Grimmett, the Australian reaching that mark in his 36th match in February 1936.

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An illustrious list of names are looking up at Yasir, with Ravichandran Ashwin (37), Dennis Lillee (38), Pakistan legend Waqar Younis (38) and Dale Steyn (39) all taking longer to get to 200.

Legendary spinners Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan each needed 42 matches to bring up their respective 200th wickets, illustrating just how impressive Yasir's start to life at the highest level of international cricket has been.

A stunning 14-wicket haul in the second Test with New Zealand last month helped inflate Yasir's numbers, and he is surely poised to become known as one of the best spinners of all time should he continue this frantic pace.