Taking a hat-trick in international cricket is a big feat for any bowler. To take three wickets in three consecutive balls in any international match takes a lot of skills and luck to achieve and that’s the reason we see hat-tricks rarely. However, there are instances where bowlers have taken multiple hat-tricks as well, the most well-known instances being that of Lasith Malinga, who has a total of five hat-tricks across ODIs across ODI and T20I cricket, while Wasim Akram was the first to take two hat-tricks each in Tests and ODI cricket. Malinga is also the only bowler to take four wickets in four balls twice, once in ODIs and once in a T20I match.
As far as Indian bowlers are concerned, the country has three hat-tricks in Test cricket, five in ODIs and one in T20I. Let’s us take a brief look at all the hat-tricks taken by Indian bowlers in international matches.
Test Cricket
1 Harbhajan Singh vs Australia, Eden Gardens-Kolkata, 2001. Victims- Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne. By achieving this, he became the first Indian to take a hat-trick in Test cricket. Steve Waugh had hit a brilliant 110 as Australia took control in the Test in the first innings. However they could have made more than 445 if not for Harbhajan Singh, who in 72nd over of the innings, picked a historic hat-trick. He started by trapping Ricky Ponting plumb in front of stumps, then repeated the mode of dismissal with Adam Gilchrist, and Shane Warne was out caught at forward short leg by S Ramesh.
2 Irfan Pathan vs Pakistan, Karachi 2006. Victims Salman Butt, Younis Khan, Mohd Yusuf.
It was the first over of Pakistan’s first innings, the first three balls went without much action, but on the fourth ball, Pathan had Butt caught by Dravid in slips, then Younis Khan misread an inswinger was caught in front stumps. Mohd Yousuf missed a similar delivery and was cleaned bowled. Pathan became the first-ever bowler to take hat-trick in the first over of the Test match and remains the only bowler to achieve this fate to date.
3 Jasprit Bumrah vs West Indies, Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica, 2019. Victims- Darren Bravo, Shamarh brooks, Roston Chase.
He removed Darren Bravo to a catch in the slips by KL Rahul, while Shamarh Brooks and Roston Chase were trapped LBW with sharp in-cutters. However third wicket must be credited to captain Virat Kohli, who called for DRS review despite Bumrah being not so sure.
ODI Cricket
1 Chetan Sharma vs new Zealand, Nagpur 1987 world Cup. Victims Ken Rutherford, Ian Smith, Ewen Chatfield.
He was the first Indian Bowler to take hat-trick in international cricket. Batting first New Zealand was looking for a decent score when Chetan Sharma removed Ken Rutherford, Ian Smith and Even Chatfield. The interesting part of this hat-trick was that all the batsmen were clean bowled by Chetan Sharma.
2 Kapil Dev vs Sri Lanka, Kolkata, 1991. Victims Roshan Mahanama, Rumesh Ratnayake, Sanath Jayasuriya.
Kapil Dev removed Roshan Mahanama as he edged to Kiran More on the last ball of an over and then came back to take the wickets of Rumesh Ratnayake, caught by Sanjay Manjrekar and Sanath Jayasuriya was trapped LBW to take his one and an only hat-trick in international cricket.
3 Kuldeep Yadav vs Australia, Kolkata, 2017. Victims Matthew Wade, Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins.
In the match, India batted first and scored 252 runs. In the 33rd over of Australian innings, Yadav had Wade playing onto his stumps and then caught Ashton Agar in front of his stumps, next he had Pat Cummins caught by Dhoni .
He achieved this feat once again vs West Indies at Vizag in Dec 2019, and his victims were SD Hope caught, Jo Holder stumped and As Joseph caught. In the process he became first Indian bowler who has got 2 hat-tricks in international cricket.
4 Mohd Shami vs Afghanistan, Southampton, UK. 2019 World Cup. Victims Mohd. Nabi, Aftab Alam, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
In reply to India’s 224 runs, team Afghanistan was doing quite well with Mohd. Nabi batting brilliantly. The first ball of Shami’s over was hit for a four by Nabi, but the had Nabi caught by Hardik Pandya on boundary going for the same shot and then clean bowled Aftab Alam and Mujeeb Ur Rahman with Yorkers to complete match- winning hat-trick.
T20I Cricket
Deepak Chahar vs Bangladesh, Nagpur, 2019. Victims Shafiul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Aminul Islam.
The three T20I match series was tied at 1-1, when this happened. In replying to India’s score of 174, Bangladesh was cruising well at 110 in the 13th over. But then first Shivam Dube picked three quick wickets and then Chahar took the center stage as he removed Shafiul Islam on the last ball of 18th over and then returned in the final over to take the wickets of Mustafizur and Aminul Islam on the first two balls of the over, to claim hat-trick. He ended up with figures of 6/7, the best ever in T20I cricket.
I hope you must have enjoyed going through the above information on the Indian bowlers who have taken hat-tricks in the international cricket matches.
Waiting for your view on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
11th March 2022.