Taking wickets in any form of cricket at regular intervals is one of the most difficult feats to achieve, given the relentless precision and prolonged patience it demands from a bowler. In a game which has been batsman dominated for the longest period of time, the bowlers have been the underrated hero’s of the sport. 100 wickets is one of the major milestones for a new bowler as he enters the international circuit. So in this article lets discuss the fastest bowlers to reach 100 wickets in the different formats of cricket.
Let’s start with the father of all cricketing formats which is Test Cricket where Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Thursday joined an elite list of cricketers as he picked up his 400th wicket in the recently concluded Pink-ball Test in Ahmedabad. The fastest among all bowlers to scalp 100 Test wickets is legendary England bowler George Lohmann. He played only 18 matches for England in the 19th century, He scalped 112 wickets at the impressive average of 10.75, with his 100th scalp coming in only his 16th Test.
If we focus on the 20th century stats, Pakistan leg spinner Yasir Shah entered the record books when he cleaned up Miguel Cummins in the first-ever day-night Test in Asia. Playing in the first test, Shah returned with figures of 5/121 owing to which he reached the 100-wickets mark in Test cricket. He became the second fastest overall to reach the coveted milestone and the fastest one to do it in terms of time taken to achieve the record. It took him 17 matches in a total of 1 year and 357 days to complete the tally of 100 Test wickets and is closely followed by Indian Spin King Ravichandran Ashwin who achieved the feat in 18 matches.
Now moving on from Red ball cricket to White ball cricket which is the ODI format. When it comes to ODI’s, bowlers have 10 overs to ball and it’s a totally different skill set from test cricket. The name to start of the list is of a Pakistani legend Saqlain Mushtaq. He was the fastest player to reach the 100 wicket mark until 2016 and had notched up this record in just 53 matches over a duration of 1 year and 225 days. However on 21st August 2016, his record was broken by Aussie pacer Mitchell Starc. Starc bettered Saqlain’ record as he achieved the feat in just 52 matches.
Starc’s record appeared to be unbeatable until Rashid Khan did the unthinkable. In 2018 against the West Indies at Harare he scalped his 100th wicket in a record 48 matches and ensured that hia name pops up right at the top of the list bettering Starc’s record by a decent margin. He made his debut in October 2015 and required just less than three years to achieve this stellar feat. Rashid remains the fastest bowler to 100 wickets in One-Day cricket to the date.
Now let’s move on to the shortest and the latest form of white ball cricket ie. T20 cricket. Since the format permits bowlers to bowl just 4 overs per match it’s a situation of do or die for them so let’s discuss the bowlers who made it to the fastest 100 scalps in this format. In 2017 Rashid Khan added yet another feather in the cap as the leg-spinner from Afghanistan completed 100 wickets in the Twenty20 format.
The 18-year-old, who made his debut in this format in October 2015, took less than two years and 66 matches for completing the milestone and to become the youngest ever and the 2nd fastest player to reach the 100 wickets milestone in T20 format. However Rashid shared the second place honours in this list with former Sri Lankan spin master Ajantha Mendis who achieved the feat in 66 matches too. The one player who had already better their records and is considered to be the fastest to 100 T20 scalps is West Indian pacer Krishmar Santokie who leads the table and took just 53 matches to achieve this stellar feat.
