So far, Jasprit Bumrah has picked eight wickets at the Adelaide Oval in four innings of two matches
Having won the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Perth by a historic and record margin of 295 runs, India now gears up for the second game to be played in Perth. The first game witnessed two beautifully crafted 100s by Virat Kohli and Yashasvi Jaiswal, whereas Jasprit Bumrah grabbed a fifer.
However, India’s next match at the Adelaide could be tricky for multiple reasons. The return of Rohit Sharma and where does it leave KL Rahul in the playing eleven, or the fact that in 2020, this was the same venue where India was bundled for 36 runs—the country’s first day-night pink-ball Test on foreign soil against the Aussies.
There could be another problem that India may face, i.e., its bowlers’ abilities to take wickets at the Adelaide Oval. Going through decades-old statistics, we have been able to identify that only one Indian bowler has made it to the list of the top 20 bowlers with the most Test wickets at the Adelaide Oval, and he is not even an active Indian bowler.
Retired 20 years ago from Test cricket in 1994, the bowler in question is the Haryana Hurricane, i.e., Kapil Dev. The former World Cup-winning captain and one of India’s finest fast bowlers still holds the 20th rank when it comes to bowlers with the most Test wickets at the Adelaide Oval.
Dev’s Test career spanned from 1981 to 1994, and between this period, he played three Tests and six innings at the Adelaide Oval. In these three matches, he grabbed 19 wickets with a best figure of 8 for 106 while restricting his economy to 2.67.
In the six innings, he bowled 164 overs (984 balls), out of which 38 overs were maidens while conceding 439 runs.
After Kapil Dev, Ravichandran Ashwin is on the list, holding the 26th rank. His last Adelaide appearance was in 2020, while his first one was in 2012. In these eight years, he played three games and six innings, grabbing 16 wickets with a best figure of 4/55 at an economy of 2.64.
Ashwin is well within reach of surpassing Kapil Dev, but despite being on the squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, he was not selected to play XI for the Perth game. It must be noted, though, that in his last BGT on Australian soil, i.e., the 2020/2021 series, he was India’s second-best bowler after Mohammed Siraj, grabbing 12 wickets in the three matches that he played in that series.
It will be interesting to see if Ashwin gets a chance in Adelaide again.
Apart from Ashwin, India’s sensational bowler, Jasprit Bumrah is the only active player on the list. To be honest, Bumrah has had great results at the Adelaide Oval; so far, he has only played two matches, and yet, he has already picked eight wickets with a best figure of 3/47 and an economy of 2.55. If Bumrah keeps his ongoing positive form intact, he could certainly surpass Ashwin and Kapil Dev in the years to come.
