Ishant Sharma becomes the 6th Indian bowler to 300 Test wickets

Ishant Sharma trapped English batsman Dan Lawrence lbw in the second innings of the first Test between India and England in Chennai to join the 300-wicket club. In doing so, Sharma became the sixth Indian bowler after Kapil Dev, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and Ravichandran Ashwin to pick up 300 wickets in Test cricket.

DO NOT MISS: @ImIshant's historic 3⃣0⃣0⃣th Test wicket 👌👌The right-arm pacer became the third Indian fast bowler to scalp 300 Test wickets after he got Daniel Lawrence out LBW. 👍👍Relive that iconic moment here🎥👇 https://t.co/pPqoaaAZ3i pic.twitter.com/LxmC2PkkvL

— BCCI (@BCCI) February 8, 2021

Among Indian pace bowlers, only Kapil Dev and Zaheer Khan were part of this illustrious club before Ishant Sharma.

Indian bowlers with 300 Test wickets.

Sharma also became the 35th bowler in the world to reach the 300-wicket mark in Test cricket. Led by Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan with 800 wickets, the list includes six bowlers from India and Australia, five from England and South Africa, four from West Indies, and three each from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

The 300-wicket list also consists of 26 fast bowlers and nine spinners. However, the top three entries are spin bowlers – Muralitharan (800), Shane Warne (708) and Anil Kumble (619).

Ishant Sharma - the slowest to 300 wickets

Of all the bowlers in the 300-wicket club, Ishant Sharma is the slowest to reach this milestone in terms of matches played. Sharma picked up his 300th wicket in 98 Tests. The record was earlier held by New Zealand all-rounder Daniel Vettori, who claimed his 300th wicket in 94 Tests.

Ishant Sharma made his Test debut against Bangladesh when he was 18 years old under Rahul Dravid’s captaincy in May of 2007. Mashrafe Mortaza was his first wicket. Sharma's performances dipped along the way before he turned things around in the past five years to emerge as one of India’s best bowlers in Test cricket.