When England fast bowler Stuart Broad dismissed Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan on Day 2 of the 5th Test at The Oval, he surpassed Kiwi great Sir Richard Hadlee to become the fifth highest wicket-taker among fast bowlers in history. Claiming the 432nd wicket of his career on the first ball of the Indian innings, Broad left behind Hadlee who at 431 wickets to his name was the first one to cross the 400 wickets tally.
The wicket meant that the Nottingham-born cricketer sits just two wickets behind Indian all-time great Kapil Dev who has 434 wickets to his name. So Broad can move into fourth place on this list at The Oval itself if he takes three more wickets during the match. Earlier Broad played a significant hand in rescuing England to a healthy total along with Jos Buttler. The duo added 98 runs for the ninth wicket in the process pushing their side across the 300-run mark even though the hosts were tottering at 198/7 when the day's play started.
Broad's teammate and fellow fast bowler James Anderson leads the list for England with 559 wickets till the time of writing this article. He is on the cusp of breaking Australian great Glenn McGrath's record of 563 wickets as he needs just five more scalps to become the leading Test wicket-taker among fast bowlers in history. Jimmy on his part would like to achieve the feat in the ongoing match itself with a possible 18 Indian wickets still on offer.
When it comes to the highest number of Test wicket-takers, the spin trio of Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne and Anil Kumble lead the way with 800, 708 and 619 wickets respectively to their names.
