150 Test wickets for Saeed Ajmal

Pakistan’s off spin bowler Saeed Ajmal became 12^th Pakistani and 93^rd in overall history of Test cricket to complete 150 wickets in Test cricket. He achieved this feat in South Africa’s second innings of the first Test match at Abu Dhabi. His 150^th victim was South African captain Graeme Smith, stumped by wicket keeper Adnan Akmal on second attempt as he missed the ball on the first attempt but recovered soon to complete the dismissal.

93 bowlers who have captured 150 or more wickets in Test cricket include 22 from England, 20 Australia, 12 each from West Indies and Pakistan, 11 India, 7 South Africa, 5 New Zealand, 3 Sri Lanka and one bowler from Zimbabwe. 

Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan holds the World record for highest aggregate of wickets in Test cricket with 800 wickets in 133 matches. These include 795 wickets for Sri Lanka and 5 for ICC Test team. The top three wicket takers in history of Test cricket are great spin bowlers Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne and Anil Kumble.

Pakistan’s record of aggregate of Test career wickets is held by Wasim Akram who took 414 wickets in 104 matches. The top three wicket takers for Pakistan are great fast bowlers Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Imran Khan.

Born in Pakistan’s third biggest city Faisalabad, Saeed Ajmal turned 36 on the opening day of Abu Dhabi Test. He took 29 Test matches in little over four years to reach the milestone. His Test career started quite late at the age of 32 but has been very consistent since then. He has not played any Test match on ‘home’ soil and hence is the only bowler in history of Test cricket to take all his 150 wickets in other countries. His bowling average is 26.78 with 7 for 55 as his best bowling performance against England in Dubai. United Arab Emirates is his happiest hunting country where he has taken 48 wickets in 8 Test matches so far. 

Following is the complete list of 93 bowlers who have captured 150 or more wickets in Test career.

England: 22 bowlers. Ian Botham 383 wickets in 102 Test matches, James Anderson 329 in 87, Bob Willis 325 in 90, Fred Truman 307 in 67, Derek Underwood 297 in 86, Brian Statham 252 in 70, Graeme Swann 248 in 57, Matthew Hoggard 248 in 67, Alec Bedser 236 in 51, Andy Caddick 234 in 62, Darren Gough 229 in 58, Steve Harmison 222 in 62, Andrew Flintoff 219 in 78, Stuart Broad 217 in 62, John Snow 202 in 49, Jim Laker 193 in 46, Sydney Barnes 189 in 27, Angus Fraser 177 in 46, Tony Lock 174 in 49, Monty Panesar 164 in 48, Maurice Tate 155 in 39 and Fred Titmus 153 in 53 Test matches.

Australia: 20 bowlers. Shane Warne 708 wickets in 145 Test matches, Glenn McGrath 563 in 124, Dennis Lillee 355 in 70, Brett Lee 310 in 76, Craig McDermott 291 in 71, Jason Gillespie 259 in 71, Richie Benaud 248 in 63, Graham McKenzie 246 in 60, Ray Lindwall 228 in 61, Clarrie Grimmet 216 in 37, Merv Hughes 212 in 53, Stuart MacGill 208 in 44, Mitchell Johnson 205 in 51, Jeff Thomson 200 in 51, Alan Davidson 186 in 44, Geoff Lawson 180 in 46, Keith Miller 170 in 55, Terry Alderman 170 in 41, Peter Siddle 167 in 46 and Bill Johnston 160 wickets in 40 Test matches.

West Indies: 12 bowlers. Courtney Walsh 519 wickets in 132 Test matches, Curtly Ambrose 405 in 98, Malcolm Marshall 376 in 81, Lance Gibbs 309 in 79, Joel Garner 259 in 58, Michael Holding 249 in 60, Garry Sobers 235 in 93, Andy Roberts 202 in 47, Wes Hall 192 in 48, Fidel Edwards 165 in 55, Ian Bishop 161 in 43 and Sony Ramadhin 158 in 43 Test matches. 

Pakistan: 12 bowlers. Wasim Akram 414 in 104 Test matches, Waqar Younis 373 in 87, Imran Khan 362 in 88, Danish Kaneria 261 in 61, Abdul Qadir 236 in 67, Saqlain Mushtaq 208 in 49, Mushtaq Ahmed 185 in 52, Shoaib Akhtar 178 in 46, Sarfraz Nawaz 177 in 55, Iqbal Qasim 171 in 50, Umar Gul 163 in 47 and Saeed Ajmal 150 wickets in 29 Test matches. 

India: 11 bowlers. Anil Kumble 619 wickets in 132 Test matches, Kapil Dev 434 in 131, Harbhajan Singh 413 in 101, Zaheer Khan 295 in 88, Bishen Bedi 266 in 67, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar 242 in 58, Javagal Srinath 236 in 67, Erapalli Prasanna 189 in 49, Vinoo Mankad 162 in 44, Srinivas Venkataraghavan 156 in 57 and Ravi Shastri 151 in 80 Test matches.

South Africa: 7 bowlers. Shaun Pollock 421 wickets in 108 Test matches, Makhaya Ntini 390 in 101, Dale Steyn 335 in 66, Allan Donald 330 in 72, Jacques Kallis 287 in 162, Morne Morkel 176 in 50 and Hugh Tayfield 170 wickets in 37 Test matches. 

New Zealand: 5 bowlers. Richard Hadlee 431 wickets in 86 Test matches, Daniel Vettori 359 in 111, Chris Martin 233 in 71, Chris Cairns 218 in 62 and Danny Morrison 160 wickets in 48 Test matches.

Sri Lanka: 3 bowlers. Muttiah Muralitharan 795 wickets in 132 Test matches, Chaminda Vaas 355 in 111 and Rangana Herath 200 wickets in 47 Test matches. 

Zimbabwe: 1 bowler. Heath Streak 216 wickets in 65 Test matches. 

No bowler from Bangladesh has reached to 150 wickets milestone in Test cricket. The highest wicket taker is Shakib Al Hasan with 108 wickets in 31 Test matches.