Legendary Australian leg spinner Shane Warne was the first to reach the 600-wicket milestone in test cricket when he reached it on August 11, 2005 in his 126th test match.
Shane Warne was the first bowler to pick up 700 test wickets before he was overtaken by Muttiah Muralitharan. Warne is still placed at the second spot in the list of all-time top wicket takers in test cricket with 708 wickets from 145 test matches.
He reached the 600-wicket milestone at the Old Trafford in the third test of the 2005 Ashes. It was the same ground on which Warne bowled the ball of the century to Mike Gatting, flummoxing him around the legs to make a mark in the entire cricketing universe.
The 600th dismissal was nowhere close to the corker that Warne bowled to Gatting. As Michael Trescothick attempted a sweep, the ball took the back part of his bat and lobbed in the air. Wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist finally caught it after juggling it off his thigh and Trescothick was given out on field.
As all of Warne's teammates gathered around him to celebrate the wicket, the spinner raised both his hands in the air and soaked in the atmosphere. Warne kissed a white rubber wristband on his right arm, which was gifted to him by his eight-year-old daughter Brooke. The wristband had ‘Strength’ etched on it.
“She said you’ve got to be strong, daddy,” Warne disclosed. “That was my inspiration. Every time I looked at it, it gave me some inspiration.”
The BBC quote Warne saying, “To get to 600, no one has ever done that before and I feel pretty proud of that achievement. To do it at this ground is obviously pretty special as well, and with my parents here to top it off.”
This was Warne's 126th test match and he went on to play just 18 more matches after this, adding more than 100 test wickets.
Warne was in great rhythm in the series and had pocketed figures of 10 for 162 in just the last match, the second test of the Ashes series, to become the first-ever bowler to pick up 100 wickets in a single country other than Australia.
Warne had claimed 16 wickets in the first two games of the series at 15.31 with the best of 6/46. At Edgbaston, he picked up four wickets in the first innings en route to the milestone.
