Veteran Indian pacer Ishant Sharma took one for 24 in the second innings of the Chennai Test as England were bowled out for 178. They have set India a target of 420 to win. Taking that one wicket in the second innings, the lanky pacer became the sixth Indian bowler to get to 300 Test wickets. Ishant ended with three wickets in the game. Ishant was on 397 Test wickets and aimed at getting to the landmark in the very first Test which he finally did.
Ishant Sharma thus joins an elite list of Indian bowlers who have got to the landmark. Anil Kumble, Kapil Dev, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan are the other Indian bowlers with more than 300 Test wickets. Kumble is the third-highest wicket-taker overall in the history of Test cricket. England’s James Anderson with 608 Test wickets is inching closer to overtaking him.
Meanwhile, Ravichandran Ashwin took his 28th five-wicket haul to bowl out England in their second innings. He ended with 6 for 61. Shabaz Nadeem took two wickets as Ishant and Bumrah took one each.
Ishant Sharma Gets to 300 Test Wickets
Still relatively young in terms of his aging 32, Ishant Sharma still has a few years of cricket left in him. He should be eyeing to get to 400 Test wickets and join the likes of Kumble and Harbhajan in the list, Meanwhile, Ashwin’s six-wicket haul in the second innings takes him to 386 wickets, leaving himself 14 short to get to 400 wickets in whites himself.
Joe Root top-scored with 40 in the second innings. Ollie Pope (28), Dom Bess (25) and Jos Buttler (24) came up with important contributions in taking England to 178 in the second innings. With 420 to win, India are potentially chasing a record score to win the first Test in Chennai.
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