When Australia’s Travis Head was bowled by England’s Stuart Broad during the fourth Ashes Test at Old Trafford on Wednesday, Broad became only the fifth bowler in the history of the sport to reach the milestone of 600 Test wickets.
The 37-year-old paceman joined an elite group of bowlers when he had Head caught in the deep for 48 runs. Other members of the group include Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan (800), Australia’s Shane Warne (708), England’s James Anderson (688) and India’s Anil Kumble (619).
Only Broad and Anderson, the other current bowler in this group, have taken 600 wickets between them in tests; they are the only quicks to have done so.
Broad had already amassed 598 wickets prior to the start of this match, which was his 166th Test.
On Wednesday, though, England’s captain Ben Stokes won the toss and decided to field his team. Shortly thereafter, England’s Stuart Broad delivered an early punch to Australia by getting Usman Khawaja leg before wicket for three, which brought their score to 15-1.
Left-hander Head hooked a bouncer that he faced from him, and Joe Root took a low catch as he came in from the boundary at fine leg to take the landmark wicket. He had to wait till his 11th over to get the landmark wicket.
The loss of Head put Australia in a position of 189-5, while England, who are behind the series 2-1 with two more tests to go, are looking for the win they need to keep their chances alive of regaining the Ashes.
As a result of the two wickets that Broad took on Wednesday, he has now passed Ian Botham to become England’s top Test bowler against Australia with a total of 150 scalps.
Broad, who is the son of former England batsman Chris Broad, made his debut in a test match in 2007 at Colombo against Sri Lanka. Michael Vaughan was the captain of the team for that match.
Although Broad was a successful hitter during his time at Leicestershire, he did not begin bowling until a rather late stage in his high school career. Broad currently plays for Nottinghamshire.
But on the international stage, he has established a reputation for bowling spells that win matches thanks to the twenty occasions that he has taken five or more wickets in an innings.
His ability to generate late seam movement has often proven to be too much for the world’s finest batsmen, which has resulted in him taking at least 10 wickets in a Test match on three separate occasions.
Broad’s magnificent eight wickets for fifteen runs at Trent Bridge in England’s Ashes victory in 2015, a match that Anderson was unable to play in due to injury, is widely considered to be the highlight of Broad’s career.
Broad also made an excellent 169 against Pakistan at Lord’s in 2010, but his batting performance declined after he suffered a broken nose from a bouncer bowled by India’s Varun Aaron four years later. Before that, in 2010, Broad had scored 169 against Pakistan at Lord’s.
Broad is the only England bowler to have ever taken two hat-tricks in a test match. His wickets have come at an economical average of just over 27 per piece, and he is also the only player to have ever done it.
The first one was in 2011 when he took 6-46 against India, and the second one was in 2014 when he bowled an entire innings against Sri Lanka.