Fastest 50 Test wickets: Can Axar Patel become the fastest bowler to pick 50 wickets in Test cricket?

Axar Patel: The Indian all-rounder is in touching distance of breaking or equaling a bowling world record in Test cricket.

When New Zealand fast bowler Kyle Jamieson dismissed India opening batter Shubman Gill in the second innings of the ongoing first Test in Kanpur, he became the fastest bowler from New Zealand to pick 50 Test wickets.

Playing his ninth Test match, Jamieson is the joint fourth-fastest bowler to reach 50 wickets in this format. In what is his first-ever Test match in the Asian conditions, Jamieson has (so far) picked three wickets in each innings to further extend his stellar entry in Test cricket.

Before Jamieson, former fast bowler Shane Bond had held the record for New Zealand after reaching to 50 wickets in his 12th Test.

Can Axar Patel become the fastest bowler to pick 50 wickets in Test cricket?

In what is no mean feat to achieve, India all-rounder Axar Patel is in line to not just surpass Jamieson but many other greats of the game in the list of fastest to pick 50 Test wickets.

Playing his fourth Test, Patel has already dismissed 32 batters at an average and strike rate of 10.87 and 30.3 respectively. Patel, who had picked his fifth five-wicket haul at the Green Park yesterday, will be bowling on a Day 5 pitch tomorrow. Hence, high possibility of him adding to his Test wickets in his fourth Test.

It is worth mentioning that the record for picking fastest 50 Test wickets is currently held by former Australia fast bowler Charlie Turner. It was way back in 1888 when Turner had picked his 50th Test wicket in only his sixth Test.

Former England fast bowler Tom Richardson (1896) and former South Africa fast bowler Vernon Philander (2012) are next on the list for having picking their 50th Test wicket in their seventh Test.

Bowlers who had picked their 50th Test wicket in their eighth Test are Australia’s Frederick Spofforth (1883), Rodney Hogg (1979) and Tom Alderman (1981) and West Indies’ Alf Valentine (1951).

Nine years ago, much like Jamieson, India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin had also picked his 50th Test wicket in his ninth Test. Ashwin, who is the fastest Indian to achieve this milestone, might become the second-fastest if Patel surpasses him. Set to play in the second Test of the series in Mumbai, it will be intriguing to see if Patel registers a world record by reaching to 50 Test wickets in only his fifth Test or not. If the 27-year old player becomes successful in doing the same, he will break a 133-year old record set by Turner.