Jasprit Bumrah marked his 31st birthday with a memorable personal milestone, even as India had a day to forget on the opening tilt of the second Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test in Adelaide. Picking up the wicket of Australian opener Usman Khawaja, Bumrah reached the 50-wicket mark in Test cricket for the calendar year of 2024, becoming only the third Indian seamer to do so.
Bumrah found the edge of Khawaja’s bat, with Rohit Sharma hanging on to the sharp chance at slip for India’s only wicket on Day 1. Bumrah sits atop the standings for players with the most wickets in the calendar year now, ahead of spin-bowling teammates Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, as well as England duo Shoaib Bashir and Gus Atkinson.
He joined Kapil Dev and Zaheer Khan in the elite list of pacers with 50 wickets in a calendar year for India, continuing to grow his stocks as arguably the finest pacer that the country has ever produced. Zaheer picked up 51 wickets in 2021, while Kapil Dev had an incredible pair of seasons in 1979 and 1983, where he produced 74 and 75 wickets, respectively.
Bumrah will be in line to overtake Zaheer’s mark, but with three Tests left in the year, will find it tough going to haul down Kapil Dev’s remarkable totals.
The Indian seamer had a strong start with 8 wickets in Cape Town against South Africa, before 19 wickets in four Tests vs England. Strong performances against Bangladesh (11 wickets in two Tests), three wickets against New Zealand, and an 8-fer in Perth helped Bumrah reached this memorable mark.
Bumrah continues an excellent spell in international cricket
Bumrah also continues to lead the all-format leaderboard in 2024, with 65 wickets, including limited overs. He stays ahead of Wanindu Hasaranga and Alzarri Joseph, and will look to add to that number as well.
The mark for Indian seamers across formats is 100 on the dot, achieved by Kapil Dev in that World Cup winning year of 1983, while Zaheer Khan’s ODI exploits saw him take 85 wickets in 2002. The overall mark in Tests stands with Shane Warne, who had 96 wickets in 2005, and with Muttiah Muralitharan in all formats with 136 in 2001.
India are in some trouble heading into day two, with Marnus Labuschagne and Nathan McSweeney getting some runs behind them to shrink India’s lead down to 94 runs with 9 wickets still in the bank and good batting conditions expected in the opening session on day two.
Earlier in the day, Mitchell Starc registered career-best figures of 6-48, in his first five-fer against India, to bowl out India for 180 as a collapse restricted India to another low first innings total.
