Visakhapatnam: India spinner Ravindra Jadeja picked up his 200th Test wicket at the ACA-VDCA Stadium Friday and in the process became the fastest left-arm bowler to reach the milestone.
He eclipsed the feat of Sri Lanka spinner Rangana Herath, who had reached the landmark in his 47th Test match, by reaching the feat in his 44th game — the first of the ongoing three-match series against South Africa.
Jadeja could have reached the feat in the first session of the third day itself, but Wriddhiman Saha dropped Dean Elgar. And it was Elgar who turned out to be his 200th scalp as the Proteas opener was caught brilliantly at the square-leg boundary by Cheteshwar Pujara.
While Herath had taken 47 Tests to reach the 200-wickets mark, he was followed by Australia’s Mitchell Johnson (49), Mitchell Starc (50) and Bishan Singh Bedi and Wasim Akram — both taking 51 Tests to reach the milestone.
The 30-year-old cricketer from Saurashtra had made his Test debut against England back in 2012. Jadeja has also scalped 178 ODI wickets from 156 games and 33 wickets in 44 T20Is. In fact, he has been India’s first-choice spinner in recent times in away games, as was witnessed in the series against West Indies in the Caribbean Islands.
IANS