IND vs AUS: Jasprit Bumrah Achieves Unique Feat, Becomes First Bowler to Cross 200 Wickets With Below-20 Average

Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah on Sunday (December 29) achieved a unique feat after he crossed the 200 Test wickets milestone, becoming first bowler ever to reach that milestone with a sub-20 average during the fourth day's play of the fourth Test against Australia here.

Bumrah dismissed Travis Head (1) for his 200th victim in the post-lunch session, becoming the joint-second fastest Indian along with Ravindra Jadeja to reach the milestone of 200 wickets in Tests.

Both Bumrah and Jadeja achieved the feat in their 44th Test, and overall he is 12th Indian bowler in the format to complete the lanrmark. The recently retired Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was the quickest among Indians to have taken 200 wickets, a feat that he achieved in his 37th Test.

Among all bowlers who have crossed the 200-wickets mark in Test cricket, Bumrah is the only bowler with an average of under 20. The list includes some of the fearsome fast bowlers from the West Indies such as Malcolm Marshall (376 wickets), Joel Garner (259 wickets), Curtly Ambrose (405 wickets at 20.99).

The elite list also includes England's James Anderson (704 wickets at 26.45) and Australia's Glenn McGrath (563 wickets at 21.64). Here is a look at the bowlers with 200 wickets with low bowling averages:

Bowlers with below-20 average to cross 200 Test wickets

Jasprit Bumrah (India) - 19.44
Malcolm Marshall (West Indies) - 20.94
Joel Garner (West Indies) - 20.97
Curtly Ambrose (West Indies) - 20.99
Fred Truman (England) - 21.57
Glenn McGrath (Australia) - 21.64
Kagiso Rabada (South Africa) - 21.88
Alan Donald (South Africa) - 22.25
Richard Hadlee (New Zealand) - 22.29
Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka) - 22.72

The dismissal of Head followed by that of Mitchell Marsh's (0), caught behind the wicket, as Bumrah took his wickets tally in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to 28. He had earlier dismissed opener Sam Konstas (8) for his first wicket in Australia's second innings.

With this latest spell, Bumrah also became the third successful visiting bowler at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in Test cricket, going past several greats as he took his tally to 23 wickets at the iconic venue.