Who was the 600th Test wicket of the top 4 leading wicket-takers in Tests?
English pacer Stuart Broad became only the fifth bowler to pick up 600 Test wickets during the fourth 2023 Ashes Test in Manchester.
He reached the landmark by forcing Australia's Travis Head into a pull-shot from outside the leg stump, which the left-hander could only get a thick top edge on. The ball flew to Joe Root at deep fine-leg who scampered in front to pouch a safe catch.
"It was a pretty decent day and there is something nice about getting a 600th pole from the James Anderson End!" Broad said on Sky Sports after the match. "It's a very special feeling"
Broad is now the fifth-highest wicket-taker in Tests. Let's look at who the four bowlers ahead of him in the chart got out as their 600th victim.
#4 Anil Kumble - India
It was on the 2008 tour of Australia. It was the series of Monkeygate, Steve Bucknor's poor umpiring, and an Indian team that galvanized after losing the first two Tests to win at the most challenging venue, Perth, in the third.
Captain Anil Kumble, was so much in the eye of the now-famous storm in press conferences and toss interactions, that his personal milestones were almost forgotten. In the Perth Test, he dismissed Andrew Symonds (who accused Harbhajan Singh to be a racist in the previous Test) to get his 600th Test wicket.
Symonds and Adam Gilchrist had put up a brilliant counter-attacking partnership to rescue Australia from 61/5 to 163/5. That's when Kumble broke through with a quick leg-break that took Symonds' edge, with the ball flying to Rahul Dravid at first slip via a deflection from MS Dhoni's wicketkeeping gloves.
Kumble, who had been expensive on the pacer-friendly wicket, punched the air in celebration before holding up the ball to acknowledge the crowd's applause.
#3 James Anderson - England
6️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ Test wickets for Jimmy Anderson 🎉🎉🎉
He becomes the first fast bowler to ever reach the mark!
#ENGvPAK pic.twitter.com/QCaEzxm4NS
In August 2020, James Anderson became the first pacer to join the 600 Test-wicket club. The most prolific seamer in the history of the sport reached the milestone in the final match of Pakistan's three-Test rubber in England at the Rose Bowl by making the opposition captain Azhar Ali edge one to slips to end his bulwarking knock of 31 runs off 114.
Pakistan salvaged a draw but Anderson also got rid of Abid Ali in the innings, taking his match tally to seven wickets. The first innings witnessed a classic Anderson spell, a display of late swing and accuracy, as he registered impressive figures of 5/56.
Anderson's wickets in that spell included four of Pakistan's top-five batters and their number 11, Naseem Shah. The only batter he couldn't get out then was Azhar who went to score an unbeaten 141 (272) in Pakistan's total of 187.
#2 Shane Warne - Australia
The greatest leg-spinner of all time, the late Shane Warne, inaugurated the 600-wicket club on August 11, 2005. The Australian reached the landmark on the first day of the third Test of the epochal 2005 Ashes, which, like in Anil Kumble's case, is now known for much more than a great personal milestone.
The series was leveled 1-1 and the third Test was in Manchester. England won the toss and batted first. Brett Lee got the early wicket of Andrew Strauss but Marcus Trescothick and Michael Vaughan built a brilliant 137-run partnership, with Warne being hit for 18 runs in his first four overs.
However, in his fourth over, Warne hurled the fifth ball way outside Trescothick's off-stump. The southpaw was perhaps pre-meditating the sweep shot and had to reach for it but missed the ball. In unbelievable luck for the bowler, the ball hit his pad to reach the back of his bat and then to Gilchrist's thigh pad and his gloves.
A bit anti-climactic and lucky for a 600th wicket, but if anyone deserved it, it was him. Warne picked up four more wickets in the innings but England reached 444. The match went tantalizingly close as Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath's final-wicket partnership on the last day helped them secure a draw.
#1 Muthiah Muralidaran - Sri Lanka
Stuart Broad is the slowest to reach 600 wickets in Tests, in terms of matches played.
By matches :-
101 - Muthiah Muralitharan 🇱🇰
124 - Anil Kumble 🇮🇳
126 - Shane Warne 🇦🇺
156 - James Anderson 🏴
166 - Stuart Broad 🏴 (today)
#Ashes #ENGvAUS
Shane Warne was the first but Sri Lankan ace and the highest Test wicket-taker in history, Muthiah Muralidaran, was the fastest to 600 Test wickets. He reached the milestone in March 2006, just 13 years and 192 days since his debut in 1992 and in only 101 Tests (Anil Kumble was the second-fastest but way behind at 124 Tests).
Muralidaran achieved the milestone with a doosra in the second Test against Bangladesh at Bogra. Wicketkeeper Khaled Mashud, who was on 12, tried to play a sweep on the tossed-up delivery at leg-stump but the ball looped in the air for an easy catch for Lasith Malinga at deep square leg.
This was not only Muralidaran's 600th Test wicket but his 50th against Bangladesh, making him the first bowler to have 50 wickets against all Test-playing nations of the time.