Kaneria reaches 200 Test wickets

While more celebrated fast bowlers around him hog the limelight in the Pakistan team, Danish Kaneria has quietly, efficiently found his way to 200 Test wickets. Over the last six years, Kaneria has been both the stock and shock bowler and it's no wonder that he's the team's leading wicket-taker in Tests since 2000.

Kaneria becomes the third Pakistan spinner to take 200 Test wickets after Abdul Qadir and Saqlain Mushtaq.

One of Kaneria's qualities has been his performances home and away and it comes as no surprise that his record is fairly similar in Pakistan and outside. Thirteen of his away scalps have come at just 14.15 apiece against Bangladesh.

One of the concerns about Kaneria's bowling has centred around how expensive his wickets have been. His bowling average is in the 20s only against two established teams - Sri Lanka and South Africa - while he's relished playing Bangladesh, with 34 wickets from five matches at an average of 16.41. Remove his statistics against Bangladesh, however, and Kaneria's career bowling average shoots up to 35.99.

The other concern is over his strike rate. Predictably, he has prospered against Bangladesh (36.1), while his overall strike-rate is 66.2. To put things in perspective however, his strike-rate is still better than established, legendary Pakistan spinners before him - Abdul Qadir (72.5), Saqlain Mushtaq (67.6) and Mushtaq Ahmed (67.7).

He also performs remarkably better whenever his team has won, his bowling average and strike-rate showing considerable improvement in contrast to draws and defeats.

Kaneria has come in for some fearsome punishment from Brian Lara in recent years (who hasn't?) but that is part of a broader pattern which shows that he struggles against left-handers in general.

A majority of Kaneria's victims have been caught; 12.5% were bowled and 14% leg-before. In contrast, the percentage of victims bowled for Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan and Anil Kumble is 16.38%, 21.85% and 15.19% respectively, while 19.49%, 19.00% and 24.91% of their wickets have been leg-before. Kaneria, however, has had 18 batsmen stumped - 9% of his 200 - while the corresponding percentage for the top three spinners is 5.08, 5.28 and 3.53.

Since the time he made his Test debut, Kaneria is one of only five spinners to have taken 200 wickets. Perhaps, Pakistan's inconsistent record in Tests can be explained by the fact that he is the only Pakistani bowler from 13 to take 200 wickets since 2000.