Having started the Australia tour with 173 wickets from 40 Tests at 20.57, Bumrah claimed 21 wickets from the first three Test matches. His average kept dropping with every Test – to 20.06 after Perth, then 19.96 after Adelaide, then 19.52 after Brisbane. These are the best bowling averages for anyone after 41, 42, and 43 Test matches.

At Melbourne, Bumrah had 4-99 in Australia’s first innings of 474. He clean bowled Sam Konstas early in the second innings. Later in the day, he got the 200th wicket when Travis Head flicked him to square leg. His average, 19.56 at that point, dropped to 19.46 when he had Mitchell Marsh caught behind shortly afterwards. And when he bowled Alex Carey, it fell to 19.38.

Bumrah became the first bowler to reach 200 Test wickets while averaging below 20 in Test cricket. One man who came very close to achieving this was Waqar Younis, who had 199 wickets at 20.04 when he began his 38th Test, against New Zealand at Christchurch. An early wicket could have got him there, but Waqar went for 0-60 in the first innings and, though he got a wicket in the second, the average never dropped below 20 again.

Best bowling averages (200 Test wickets):

Bumrah’s numbers updated after Carey’s wicket

To demonstrate how good Bumrah has been, it should suffice to mention that he needs to concede 316 runs without taking another wicket to drop below Marshall on the above table.

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