Stats: Rangana Herath joins elite club of bowlers with a five-wicket haul against all Test playing nations

Herath is also the joint-leading wicket taker in Tests this year along with Ravichandran Ashwin

Sri Lanka are currently playing Zimbabwe in the second and final Test match of the series. Having already won the first match, the Sri Lankans are the hot favorites to win the second one as well. The Lankans posted a mammoth total of 504 runs in the first innings before skipper Rangana Herath's 5/89 rattled the Zimbabwean batsmen as they were bundled out for 272 in their first innings.

Herath's five-wicket haul turned out be a historic one as he became only the third bowler in the history of the game, after Muttiah Muralitharan and Dale Steyn to have picked up a five-wicket haul against all the Test playing nations.

Herath made his international debut at the age of 21 in the year 1999. While the spinner has had an ordinary ODI career with 74 wickets in 71 matches, his Test records are incredible. The spinner is currently playing his 75th Test match and has picked up 343 wickets at an impressive average of 28.45.

He has proved to be one of the finest bowlers in the Test matches post-2010 as he has picked up 273 wickets since then, only behind England's James Anderson who has picked up 315 wickets and Stuart Broad who has 287 scalps. Moreover, he is the joint-leading wicket taker in Tests this year along with Ravichandran Ashwin.

Both the spinners are currently playing their eighth Test match of 2016 and have picked up 46 wickets each. However, Herath has a better average of 19.21 in the eight Test matches that he has played in this year, compared to Ashwin’s 20.45. 

The left-arm spinner's five-wicket haul against Zimbabwe yesterday was his 27th five-for of his Test career. The bowler has proved to be a nightmare for the teams touring Sri Lanka as 22 of his five-wicket hauls have come at home.

The 38-year old had a fabulous 2012 in terms of the five-wicket hauls as he went on to claim seven of them including three consecutively on two occasions. His tally of seven five-wicket hauls in 2012 is the joint-third highest in terms of most five-wicket hauls in a single calendar year.

Herath has been very consistent with his bowling and the stats claim that among the bowlers to have played at least 20 Test matches, he takes one five-wicket haul for every 2.4 matches only behind  Ravichandran Ashwin, who takes a five-for every 1.8 matches.

Number of five-wicket hauls that Herath has taken against each nation in Tests

Opposition	Number of five-for
Australia	6
Pakistan	6
New Zealand	4
England	3
Bangladesh	2
India	2
South Africa	2
West Indies	1
Zimbabwe	1