On the first day at Adelaide Oval, Mitchell Starc took a career-best 6-68 against India to go past Daniel Vettori on the list of Test wicket-takers.
Starc returned career-best figures of 6-48 in the first innings of the Adelaide Test match against India. He began by trapping Yashasvi Jaiswal leg-before with the first ball, equalling Pedro Collins’s world record of starting three Test matches with wickets. Returning for a second spell before lunch, Starc had KL Rahul and Virat Kohli caught in the slip-and-gully cordon.
Rahul’s wicket took Starc past Daniel Vettori’s tally of 362 Test wickets. He finished the day on 367, behind only Rangana Herath (433) and Wasim Akram (417) among left-arm bowlers.
It is worth a mention that Starc now has 72 wickets in day-night Test matches at 17.81, and four five-wicket hauls, the most by any bowler of any kind. No one else has even 50 wickets or three five-fors.
Most wickets in Test cricket by left-arm bowlers
| Bowler | Type | Team | Wickets | Average | SR | 5WIs |
| Rangana Herath | finger-spin | Sri Lanka | 433 | 28.07 | 60 | 34 |
| Wasim Akram | pace | Pakistan | 417 | 23.62 | 55 | 25 |
| Mitchell Starc | pace | Australia | 367* | 27.53 | 48 | 15 |
| Daniel Vettori | finger-spin | New Zealand | 362 | 34.36 | 80 | 20 |
| Chaminda Vaas | pace | Sri Lanka | 355 | 29.58 | 66 | 12 |
| Ravindra Jadeja | finger-spin | India | 319 | 23.76 | 57 | 15 |
| Trent Boult | pace | New Zealand | 317 | 27.49 | 55 | 10 |
| Mitchell Johnson | pace | Australia | 313 | 28.40 | 51 | 12 |
| Zaheer Khan | pace | India | 311 | 32.94 | 60 | 11 |
| Derek Underwood | finger-spin | England | 297 | 25.83 | 74 | 17 |
*up to December 6, 2024, the first innings of the ongoing Adelaide Test
- Paul Adams (134) has the most wickets for a left-arm wrist-spinner, though Garry Sobers (235) used to switch between seam, finger-spin, and wrist-spin throughout his career
- Mary Duggan (78), the highest wicket-taker in women’s Test cricket for any bowler, used to bowl left-arm seam and left-arm finger-spin
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