The veteran Indian fast bowler, Ishant Sharma became only the third Indian pacer to scalp as many as 300 wickets in the longest format of the game after dismissing England batsman Daniel Lawrence in the ongoing first Test at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Monday. Kapil Dev and Zaheer Khan are the two fast bowlers ahead of him, with 434 and 311 wickets, respectively.
Anil Kumble is the highest wicket-taker for India in Tests with 619 scalps under his belt. Ishant, who returned to the playing XI after missing the Australia tour due to injury, has looked in fine form. In England’s first innings, the lanky pacer scalped a couple of wickets, giving away just 52 runs off 27 overs.
On Monday, the 32-year-old didn’t have the chance to bowl with the new ball as the Indian skipper, Virat Kohli had opened the bowling with Ravichandran Ashwin and Shahbaz Nadeem. But after being brought into the attack, Ishant struck in his second over, trapping Lawrence plumb in front of the stumps for his 300th Test scalp.
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Harbhajan Singh and current teammate Ravichandran Ashwin are the other Indian bowlers ahead of Ishant in the top wicket-takers’ list for India. The latter hadn’t played an international match for nearly a year before the ongoing Test against England in Chennai.
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
With young pacer Mohammed Siraj making an impressive debut during India’s historic Test series win in Australia, Ishant had a stiff competition to get into the playing XI. But the Indian team management decided to go with the veteran pacer and he repaid with two wickets on a placid batting track in England’s first innings.
After a slow start where Ishant Sharma found it difficult to get his rhythm in his first spell, Ishant bowled brilliantly thereafter causing a few problems for even Joe Root. His first wicket came in the 170th over, knocking over Jos Buttler, who for some reason decided not to offer a shot to an in-dipping delivery.
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Ishant didn’t have to wait much longer for his second, as Jofra Archer was castled on the very next ball.
