Stuart Broad: The stats behind England bowler’s 566 Test wickets
England teammate James Anderson is the only seamer to have taken more Test wickets than Broad
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Stuart Broad moved into the top-five wicket takers in Test history with his three for 45 against South Africa on Sunday.
With 566 wickets Broad now stands second only to his long-time new-ball partner James Anderson among all Test seamers, having passed his idol Glenn McGrath on the list.
Here we look at his record.
500 club
Broad, along with Anderson, is among only seven bowlers to take 500 or more Test wickets.
Spinners Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne, with 800 and 708 respectively, head the list with Anderson the top seamer on 667.
India spinner Anil Kumble took 619 wickets, with Broad rounding out the top five just ahead of McGrath (563). West Indies great Courtney Walsh completes the group with 519.
Broad’s wickets have come at an average of 27.77 – ahead of only Kumble (29.65) among the ‘500 club’ but impressive nonetheless. McGrath still boasts the best average of the septet with 21.64.
Game-changer
Broad is best noted for his innings-wrecking bursts, most famously the astonishing eight for 15 at Trent Bridge which clinched the 2015 Ashes.
He has twice taken seven-wicket hauls at Lord’s, against the West Indies in 2012 and New Zealand the following year, and is the only England bowler with two Test hat-tricks to his name. The first came against India in 2011 as part of figures of six for 46, with the second against Sri Lanka in 2014.
His golden period between 2013 and 2016 also saw him take six for 25 against India at Old Trafford and six for 17 in Johannesburg to bowl South Africa out for 83. Those four years brought him 196 wickets at 25.56, including nine five-fors and four of his best five-innings figures.
He surprisingly has the fewest five-wicket hauls among the 500 club, and ranks fourth among England bowlers behind Anderson (32), Ian Botham (27) and Sidney Barnes, with 24 in just 27 Tests. However, 12 of Broad’s 19 have seen him go on to take six or more wickets.
Taking on the best
The batters dismissed most often by Broad are some of the best in Test cricket in recent years, starting of course with Australia opener David Warner.
Broad’s dominance of the left-hander defined England’s 2019 Ashes win and, although Warner gained a measure of revenge in Australia’s consistent big wins Down Under, Broad has taken his wicket 14 times in all.
The three other batsman to fall 10 or more times to Broad are also headline names – he has dismissed former Australia captain Michael Clarke 11 times and Ross Taylor and AB de Villiers 10 apiece. Tackling New Zealand in his first full Test series in 2008, he removed Taylor twice inside his first 10 Test wickets.
Steve Smith is another Australian mainstay to struggle with Broad, with nine dismissals – the same as New Zealand’s Tom Latham. Broad has also dismissed Ashes rivals Chris Rogers and Shane Watson and De Villiers’ South Africa colleague Hashim Amla eight times apiece.
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