FEATURE: Long wait about to end as Kemar Roach approaches the milestone of 200 Test wickets

Jul 23, 2020

FEATURE: Long wait about to end as Kemar Roach approaches the milestone of 200 Test wickets Image

It was 26 years ago, in 1994, when the world saw a West Indies bowler achieving the feat of 200 Test wickets for the last time. Fast bowling legend Sir Curtly Ambrose was the one who reached the milestone that time and thus became the eighth, and also the last, among the West Indies bowlers to achieve the feat. Since then, no other bowler from the Caribbean has gone past the milestone but the wait is about to end as Kemar Roach is just three wickets short of joining the legendary club.

Roach was on 193 wickets when the ongoing series between England and West Indies started. Although he went wicketless, despite bowling well, in the first match at Southampton, Roach came back strongly in the second Test at Manchester to pick up four wickets.

As Roach goes into the third Test now, with the series level on 1-1, it would be a fitting way to reach his milestone if it comes in a winning cause as well.

Players Matches Wickets Average Strike-rate
Courtney Walsh 132 519 24.44 57.8
Curtly Ambrose 98 405 20.99 54.5
Malcolm Marshall 81 376 20.94 46.7
Lance Gibbs 79 309 29.09 87.7
Joel Garner 58 259 20.97 50.8
Michael Holding 60 249 23.68 50.9
Gary Sobers 93 235 34.03 91.9
Andy Roberts 47 202 25.61 55.1

 

Table: West Indies bowlers with 200 or more Test wickets

A total of eight West Indies bowler have achieved the feat of 200 Test wickets in the past and Roach will be the ninth one if he goes past the mark in the final Test of the series beginning on Friday at Manchester.

The 32-year-old has played 58 Test matches till date and his 197 scalps have come at an excellent average and strike-rate of 27.53 and 53.2 respectively.