Australia are dominating the ongoing third Test against India at the Gabba in Brisbane. After posting 445 runs in the first innings, the hosts are facing a race against time with rain around in Brisbane. Australia are desperate to enforce the follow-on on India. However, they are a bowler short with Josh Hazlewood ruled out of the remainder of the Test and the series with a calf strain.
Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc have taken up most of the workload with the ball with the Aussie captain stepping up. Cummins has picked up four wickets so far in the first innings with Ravindra Jadeja being his latest victim. However, with his third wicket of the innings, Cummins went past the West Indies legend Gary Sobers in the list of most wickets as the captain in Test cricket.
Cummins has now picked 119 wickets in 55 innings as captain at an average of 23.74 with eight five-wicket hauls and one ten-wicket match haul. Only Imran Khan of Pakistan and Richie Benaud of Australia are ahead of him on this list. The Pakistan legend accounted for a staggering 187 wickets in 48 Test matches (71 innings) as captain at an unreal average of 20.26 as he picked 12 five-wicket hauls and four ten-wicket match hauls. As for Benaud, the Aussie legend picked 138 wickets in 28 Tests (56 innings) as captain at an average of 25.78.
As for Sobers, the West Indies fast bowler picked up 117 wickets as captain in 39 Tests (69 innings) at an average of 34 with only three five-wicket hauls to his name.
Most wickets as captain in Tests
| Players (Country) |
Wickets |
| Imran Khan (Pakistan) |
187 |
| Riche Benaud (Australia) |
138 |
| Pat Cummins (Australia) |
119 |
| Gary Sobers (West Indies) |
117 |
| Daniel Vettori (New Zealand) |
116 |
Meanwhile, Kapil Dev is at the sixth place on this list having picked 111 wickets as the Indian Test captain when he was at the helm. His bowling average during this period was 26.35 as Kapil picked four five-wicket hauls as well.
