When he dismissed New Zealand opener Devon Conway in the World Test Championship (WTC) final, Ishant Sharma went past Kapil Dev to become the leading wicket-taker in Test matches for India in England.
Ishant -- for whom the WTC final in Southampton is his 13th Test in England -- now has 44 wickets in the country at an average of 33.56.
Among current bowlers, Mohammed Shami, with 21 wickets in nine Tests in England, is a distant second to Ishant.
Further, Ishant is now only seven wickets behind Zaheer Khan’s overall tally of 311, while R Ashwin is also seven short of Harbhajan Singh’s career haul of 417 Test wickets. While the Test career bowling averages of Zaheer (32.94) and Ishant (32.23) are similar, Ashwin (24.68) is way ahead of Harbhajan (32.46).
Most Test wickets for India in England
|
Bowler |
Matches |
Wickets |
Average |
Five-fors |
|
Ishant Sharma |
13 |
44 |
33.56 |
2 |
|
Kapil Dev |
13 |
43 |
39.18 |
2 |
|
Anil Kumble |
10 |
36 |
41.41 |
0 |
|
Bishan Bedi |
12 |
35 |
38.08 |
1 |
|
B Chandrasekhar |
9 |
31 |
33.96 |
2 |
|
Zaheer Khan |
8 |
31 |
27.96 |
1 |
|
Mohammed Shami |
9 |
21 |
47.95 |
0 |
|
Vinoo Mankad |
6 |
20 |
33.90 |
2 |
|
S Venkataraghavan |
10 |
20 |
41.05 |
0 |
|
Bhuvneshwar Kumar |
5 |
19 |
26.63 |
2 |
Kapil Dev remains the only bowler to have taken 50 or more Test wickets for India in any opponent country, with his 51 wickets in Australia. With the five-Test series in England to follow the WTC final, Ishant is likely to become the second Indian bowler to take 50 Test wickets in an opponent country.
Most Test wickets for India in an opponent country
|
Country |
Bowler |
Matches |
Wickets |
Average |
Five-fors |
|
Australia |
Kapil Dev |
11 |
51 |
24.58 |
5 |
|
West Indies |
Anil Kumble |
11 |
45 |
31.28 |
3 |
|
South Africa |
Anil Kumble |
12 |
45 |
32.02 |
1 |
|
England |
Ishant Sharma |
13 |
44 |
33.56 |
2 |
|
Pakistan |
Kapil Dev |
15 |
44 |
40.02 |
3 |
|
Sri Lanka |
R Ashwin |
6 |
38 |
21.57 |
3 |
|
New Zealand |
E Prasanna |
7 |
35 |
19.25 |
3 |
|
Bangladesh |
Zaheer Khan |
7 |
31 |
24.25 |
2 |
|
Zimbabwe |
Irfan Pathan |
2 |
21 |
11.28 |
3 |
Featured photo : Dibyanghsu Sarkar / AFP
