Stuart Broad’s remarkable route to 600 Proving Grounds

Stuart Broad became the fifth man to take 600 Test wickets with the scalping of Usman Khawaja and Travis Head in the Ashes Fourth Test at Old Trafford.

Broad joined longtime new ball partner James Anderson in the elite group and here, the Pennsylvania News Agency takes a look at how he measures up.

game destroyer

Broad’s wickets have come in 166 matches at an average of 27.57, with his Test debut coming in 2007 against Sri Lanka.

Known for his game-ruining flurries, Broad has 20 five-wicket hauls and three 10-wicket matches – a best-of-11 for 121 against Australia at Chester-le-Street in 2013 and two against the West Indies, at Lord’s in 2012. and Old Trafford in 2020.

He produced a brilliant best-of-eight innings for 15 at Trent Bridge to help win the 2015 Ashes and has twice taken hauls of seven wickets at Lord’s, in the aforementioned West Indies clash and against New Zealand the following year.

Broad is also the only England bowler with two Test hat-tricks to his name. The first came against India in 2011 as part of six-for-46 figures, and the second against Sri Lanka in 2014.

Australia starter David Warner is his favorite opponent with 17 dismissals in seven Ashes series dating back to 2013, including seven in 10 innings in 2019.

He has 11 dismissals each of Warner’s Australian teammates Steve Smith and Michael Clarke and has taken the wickets of New Zealand pair Ross Taylor and Tom Latham and South Africa’s AB de Villiers 10 times each.

Broad’s golden spell between 2013 and 2016 also saw him take six for 25 against India at Old Trafford and six for 17 at Johannesburg to eliminate South Africa for 83. Those four years brought him 196 wickets at 25.56, including nine fives for and four of his best five-innings figures.

However, he has shown little sign of slowing down with age, putting together an equally impressive stretch dating back to 2019, the year he turned 33. He has 165 wickets at 23.75 at the time and apart from a down year in 2021, with just 12 wickets in seven Tests, he has averaged 40 dismissals per year and is on pace to maintain that with 34 this year.

among the elite

Anderson and Broad sit third and fifth respectively in the list of the greatest Test wicket takers of all time, which is headed by two of the greatest spin bowlers of all time.

Muttiah Muralitharan’s 800 wickets – 795 for Sri Lanka and five for an ICC World XI – can never be matched, and the late Shane Warne is currently the only man inside the 100 after taking 708 for Australia.

Anderson is closing at 700 with 688, while former Indian spinner Anil Kumble’s 619 wickets is the next mark in Broad’s sights.

Retired closers Glenn McGrath and Courtney Walsh are the only other bowlers to take even 500 wickets: McGrath 563 for Australia and Walsh 519 for the West Indies.

Injury deprived Australian Nathan Lyon (496) of the chance to add his name to that list during the Ashes, while fellow spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (486) also has him in his sights.

Only Kumble of the current 500 club has a higher average than Broad, the Indian taking his wickets at 29.65. McGrath’s 21.64 beats Muralitharan (22.72) for the best average.

Broad surprisingly has the fewest five-wicket innings among the septet, although on 12 of those 20 occasions he has taken at least six, including two sevens and that eight-wicket barrage.