Ravindra Jadeja dismissed Keshara Nuwantha on Day 3 of the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle to complete 350 Test wickets. The wicket arrived in bizarre fashion. Nuwantha drove a turning delivery that crashed straight into Yashasvi Jaiswal’s knee at silly point. The ball looped off the deflection to Shubman Gill at cover, who completed the catch.
🚨 Milestone Alert 🚨#TeamIndia all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja completes 3⃣5⃣0⃣ wickets in Test cricket 🫡🫡
Sri Lanka lose their 7th wicket
Updates ▶️ https://t.co/M9LVyCAp8y#SLvIND pic.twitter.com/mJI8XBLhEr
— BCCI (@BCCI) August 17, 2026
Jadeja is now the fifth Indian to 350 Test wickets, joining Anil Kumble (619), Ravichandran Ashwin (537), Kapil Dev (434), and Harbhajan Singh (417). He is the first Indian left-arm bowler to reach the number. Zaheer Khan, the next best Indian left-armer, finished with 311.
Globally, Jadeja is the third left-arm spinner to 350 Test wickets. Only Sri Lanka’s Rangana Herath (433) and New Zealand’s Daniel Vettori (362) sit above him.
The milestone also triggered a rarer double. Jadeja became only the fourth player in Test history to score 4,000 runs and take 350 wickets.
| Player | Runs | Bat Avg | Wickets | Bowl Avg | Avg Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kapil Dev | 5,248 | 31.05 | 434 | 29.64 | +1.41 |
| Ian Botham | 5,200 | 33.54 | 383 | 28.40 | +5.14 |
| Daniel Vettori | 4,531 | 30.00 | 362 | 34.36 | -4.36 |
| Ravindra Jadeja | 4,108 | 38.03 | 351 | 25.06 | +12.97 |
350 wickets for Ravindra ‘Rockstar’ Jadeja 💗 pic.twitter.com/f3fsWy8Twe
— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) August 17, 2026
The table tells the story. Jadeja’s gap of nearly 13 points between batting and bowling average is the largest on the list. He is the only player with a batting average above 34 and a bowling average below 28. Kapil Dev averaged 31 with the bat. Botham averaged 33. Vettori’s bowling average was higher than his batting average. Jadeja’s combination is the best all-round ratio of any player who has reached this double.
His home bowling average of 20.95 is better than both Ashwin’s (21.57) and Kumble’s (24.88) among bowlers with 200 or more home Test wickets.
Insider Read
Every Test wicket is earned. There are no free wickets in five-day cricket. A batter has time to settle, read conditions, and wait for the loose ball. To take 350 of them across 90 Tests, a bowler has to find ways to get good batters out on surfaces that do not always help.
What stands out about Jadeja is the absence of a prolonged dry spell. He never had three or four poor series in a row. Season after season, home or away, he delivered control and wickets both. At 37, that level of sustained output is what separates a very good bowler from a genuinely great one. 350 confirms where Jadeja belongs.
Also Read:
Hazlewood Reaches 300 Test Wickets for Australia
Kemar Roach 300 Test Wickets: the Craft Behind the Milestone
