Top Five Unique Records Held by Indian Bowlers in Test Cricket

Top Five Unique Records Held by Indian Bowlers in Test Cricket

Indian Cricket is mainly known for their potent batting line-up. The Indian kids growing up have aspired to become the next Sachin Tendulkar or a next Rahul Dravid or Virat Kohli. Thus, the bowling battery has always lived in the shadow of Indian batting.

However, there are some performances by Indian bowlers in the Test Cricket. These fine performances have helped the Indian team in achieving success in the red ball form.

Thus, let us take you on the journey of top five unique records held by Indian bowlers in Test Cricket.

Here are these five records:

Anil Kumble: 10 wickets in an innings

Anil Kumble went on to write his name in the history books when he took all ten Pakistan wickets in the second Test match in Delhi in 1999. Consequently, India went on to win that match by 212 runs.

Furthermore, the former Indian skipper scalped four wickets in the first innings. Thus, Kumble joined England’s Jim Laker to achieve the unique feat of taking all the ten wickets in an innings. In fact, only these two bowlers have achieved this milestone in the folklore of Test cricket.

Moreover, Kumble delivered 40,850 balls in his career which is second best after Muttiah Muralitharan who bowled 44039 balls.

Ravichandran Ashwin: Fastest to 250 and 300 wickets

Ravichandran Ashwin was successful in filling the big void left by Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble. In fact, Ashwin is right on the money with a plethora of arrows he has got in his quiver.

Thus, Ashwin was the fastest to complete 250 and 300 Test wickets at the International arena. Ashwin took just 45 Test matches to scale 250 wickets while he just needed another nine matches to add 50 more wickets to his bag. Consequently, the talismanic off-spinner reached the milestone of 300 Test wickets in only 54 Test matches.

Furthermore, Ashwin is the second quickest to complete 200 Test wickets. The Tamil Nadu off-spinner took 36 Test matches to reach 200 wickets which was one more than Australia’s CV Grimmett.

Narendra Hirwani: Best Figures in a Test match on Debut 

Narendra Hirwani shot himself into the limelight in 1988 against West Indies in Chennai. The leg-spinner took eight wickets in both the innings to claim the best figures of 16 for 136 in the debut match.

Thus, India went on to win the fourth Test match by a huge margin of 255 runs. However, Hirwani early magic faded away as he managed to scalp 66 wickets in the 17 Test matches. The leg break bowler took 23 wickets in the 18 One-Dayers he played for the Men in Blue.

Interestingly, Under-19 Assistant coach WV Raman and current Afghanistan coach Phil Simmons had made their International debut in the same match.

Anil Kumble: Most Caught and Bowled Dismissals

India’s Anil Kumble was well known for bowling wicket to wicket. Thus, he created more chances of getting caught and bowled. Consequently, the Karnataka spinner was able to take 35 caught and bowl which is the joint highest along with Muttiah Muralitharan.

Furthermore, Jumbo took 156 of his 619 wickets by trapping the batsmen in front of the wickets. Thus, he also holds the record for the maximum scalps via Leg Before Wicket.

Kapil Dev: Best Figures in an innings by a captain

India’s World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev holds the record of taking 9 for 83 against West Indies in Ahmedabad in 1983. This is the best Test figures by the captain of any side. In fact, Dev scalped a solitary wicket in the first innings. However, Indian captain heroics with the ball in the second innings went in vain as India went on to lose that match by 138 runs.

However, Kapil Dev could only contribute 32 runs with the bat in the Test match.

Meanwhile, Haryana Hurricane as he was fondly called was one of the best all-rounder ever produced by India. Dev even took the underdogs Indian team to World Cup glory in 1983.