Bumrah joins an elite club

India's bowling spearhead is now the fastest pacer and joint third fastest bowler overall from the country to reach 50 wickets.

Jasprit Bumrah required the fewest balls among Indian bowlers to reach 50 wickets in Test cricket.

11

The number of Tests Jasprit Bumrah needed to claim his 50th Test wicket. He reached the landmark in the first Test against the West Indies at North Sound on August 23. He is now the third quickest Indian bowler (shared with two others) to claim 50 wickets in terms of number of Tests. However, Bumrah’s effort is by far the quickest by any Indian pace bowler. Bumrah needed 2,524 balls to claim his 50th Test wicket. This, from the data available, is the quickest in terms of balls delivered by an Indian bowler to reach 50 Test wickets.

Fewest matches to claim 50 Test wickets by Indian bowlers

Tests	Bowler	Balls	Wickets	Average	Strike rate	Achieved on	Opponent	Venue
9	R. Ashwin	2,726	52	26.63	52.42	November 16, 2012	England	Ahmedabad
10	Anil Kumble	3,730	53	24.66	70.38	March 17, 1993	Zimbabwe	Delhi
11	Narendra Hirwani	2,726	50	26.62	54.52	July 30, 1990	England	Lord’s
11	Harbhajan Singh	2,785	53	25.57	52.55	March 21, 2001	Australia	Chennai
11	Jasprit Bumrah	2,524	50	22.56	50.48	August 23, 2019	West Indies	North Sound

 

Fewest matches to claim 50 Test wickets by Indian pace bowlers

Tests	Bowler	Balls	Wickets	Average	Strike rate	Achieved on	Opponent	Venue
11	Jasprit Bumrah	2,524	50	22.56	50.48	August 23, 2019	West Indies	North Sound
13	Venkatesh Prasad	3,010	51	28.14	59.02	March 27, 1997	West Indies	Bridgetown
13	Mohammed Shami	2,799	51	34.61	54.88	July 23, 2016	West Indies	North Sound
14	Irfan Pathan	2,975	50	30.94	59.50	September 14, 2005	Zimbabwe	Bulawayo
14	S. Sreesanth	2,873	50	31.46	57.46	April 13, 2008	South Africa	Kanpur

 

Fewest deliveries to reach 50 Test wickets by Indian bowlers

Balls	Bowler	Tests	Wickets	Average	Strike rate	Achieved on	Opponent	Venue
2,524	Jasprit Bumrah	11	50	22.56	50.48	August 23, 2019	West Indies	North Sound
2,606	Karsan Ghavri	16	52	25.90	50.12	January 14, 1979	West Indies	Chennai
2,700	Umesh Yadav	17	50	38.04	54.00	December 4, 2015	South Africa	Delhi
2,726	Narendra Hirwani	11	50	26.62	54.52	July 30, 1990	England	Lord’s
2,726	R. Ashwin	9	52	26.63	52.42	November 16, 2012	England	Ahmedabad

Note: The numbers of balls and wickets mentioned above are the tallies at the end of the innings.

5

The number of Indian bowlers who have the distinction of claiming a five-wicket haul in a spell of less than 10 overs. Bumrah is the latest entrant to this elite list.

Indian bowlers with a five-wicket haul in less than 10 overs

Balls	Bowling figures	Bowler	Opponent	Venue	Month, year	Result
27	4.3-0-13-5	Harbhajan Singh	West Indies	Kingston	July 2006	Won
36	6-0-18-5	Subhash Gupte	Pakistan	Dhaka	January 1955	Drawn
36	6-1-28-5	Hardik Pandya	England	Nottingham	August 2018	Won
48	8-4-7-5	Jasprit Bumrah	West Indies	North Sound	August 2019	Won
54	9-2-32-5	Ifran Pathan	Bangladesh	Chittagong	December 2004	Won

1

The number of Asian bowlers to claim a five-plus wicket haul while conceding less than 10 runs in a Test innings. Jasprit Bumrah at North Sound in Antigua became the first Asian to do so. Overall in Test cricket, only 11 bowlers have achieved this rare feat.

Five-plus wicket hauls by bowlers while conceding less than 10 runs in a Test innings

Bowling figures	Bowler	For	Opponent	Venue	Month, year	Result	Type
2.3-1-2-5*	Ernie Toshack	Australia	India	Brisbane	December 1947	Won	Pace
6.5-4-3-6	Jermaine Lawson	West Indies	Bangladesh	Dhaka	December 2002	Won	Pace
7.2-5-6-5	Bert Ironmonger	Australia	South Africa	Melbourne	February 1932	Won	Spin
9.4-5-7-8	George Lohmann	England	South Africa	Port Elizabeth	February 1896	Won	Pace
6.3-4-7-6	Arthur Giligan#	England	South Africa	Birmingham	June 1924	Won	Pace
6-3-7-5	Vernon Philander@	South Africa	New Zealand	Cape Town	January 2013	Won	Pace
8-4-7-5	Jasprit Bumrah	India	West Indies	North Sound	August 2019	Won	Pace
8.1-6-8-6	Dale Steyn@	South Africa	Pakistan	Johannesburg	February 2013	Won	Pace
5-1-8-5	Kemar Roach	West Indies	Bangladesh	North Sound	July 2018	Won	Pace
6.5-3-9-5	Tim May	Australia	West Indies	Adelaide	January 1993	Lost	Spin
6.2-0-9-6	Michael Clarke	Australia	India	Mumbai (Wankhede)	November 2004	Lost	Spin

* Eight-ball overs; # was captain; @ occurred twice for South Africa in same series

2

The number of West Indian batsmen dismissed caught and bowled by Ishant Sharma in the first innings of the Test match at North Sound. He thus became the 11th Indian bowler (for the 12th time) and only the second pace bowler to claim two caught and bowled dismissals in the same Test innings for India. Munaf Patel against England at Mohali in March 2006 is the only other Indian pacer to do so. Ishant Sharma is the only fifth Indian to do so in an away Test match.

Two caught and bowled dismissals in the same Test innings by an Indian bowler in away matches

Bowler	Bowling figures	Opponent	Venue	Month, year	Result
Vinoo Mankad	5/64	Pakistan	Peshawar	February 1955	Drawn
B. Chandrasekhar	6.38	England	The Oval	August 1971	Won
B. Chandrasekhar	6/94	New Zealand	Auckland	January 1976	Won
Dilip Doshi	2/79	New Zealand	Auckland	March 1981	Drawn
Anil Kumble	4/87	Zimbabwe	Harare	October 1998	Lost
Ishant Sharma	5/43	West Indies	North Sound	August 2019	Won

 

Queries Corner In the recent Test match at Antigua, Jasprit Bumrah claimed his 50th wicket in his 11th Test match. Since he is yet to appear in a Test match at home, is this the quickest to 50 wickets by any Indian bowler while playing Tests away from home? – Anil Badrinath, Tirupati Both Subash Gupte (in 1959) and E. A. S. Prasanna (in 1968) also claimed their 50th Test wicket in their 11th overseas Test. However, the Indian record stands in the name of Irfan Pathan, who managed to claim 50 away wickets in just nine Test matches in September 2005 (in Zimbabwe). However, Bumrah’s case is unique since all his first 50 wickets have come away from home. Jasprit Bumrah’s five-wicket haul at North Sound had four bowled dismissals. Is this some sort of a record by an Indian in Tests? – Vijay Tiwari, Delhi Jasprit Bumrah’s four bowled dismissals in the recent North Sound Test make him the 11th Indian bowler to claim four or more bowled dismissals in a Test innings. This includes three bowlers – Jasu Patel and Bapu Nadkarni in 1960-61 at home and Anil Kumble in 1992-93 in South Africa – who have the distinction of claiming five bowled dismissals in an innings. Eight other Indian bowlers – including Kumble again! – have managed four bowled dismissals in an innings. However, Bumrah becomes the first Indian pace bowler to achieve this. For the record, among Indian bowlers who have claimed three or more bowled dismissals, Kapil Dev and Mohammed Shami have achieved this on four separate occasions! When Ajinkya Rahane’s scored his 10th career Test hundred in the recent match at Antigua, was it the longest he has taken between two Test hundreds? What has been his recent record in Tests? – Akhil Patwardhan, Pune Ajinkya Rahane’s 102 at North Sound was the 10th Test century of his career. His ninth century came way back in the first week of August 2017 – the 132 he made at the SSC, Colombo. Since then, it’s been 29 innings in 777 runs at an average of 26.79 with six fifties (his highest scores have been 81 twice and an 80). His 29 innings is by far his longest spell without a Test century. He also had a spell of 17 innings without a Test century between October 2016 and July 2017.

Note: All figures above are updated as on August 31, 2019.