Lance Gibbs — 309 Test Wickets, Passes Trueman, Melbourne 1976

Gibbs had toured Australia twice before — in 1960-61 with Worrell's hat-trick side, and in 1968-69 with Sobers. His record against Australia, 18 wickets at 50 in 1968-69, had been one of the few weak entries on his card; the 1975-76 tour was, in some respects, his final attempt to correct it. He took 16 wickets at 40, modest by his standards, but enough at the MCG to push past Trueman.

Trueman, retired since 1965, had held the record since taking his 300th in 1964 against Australia at the Oval. The transition from a Yorkshire fast bowler's figure to a Guyanese off-spinner's underlined how much had changed in the cricket of the intervening decade.

Gibbs had reached 300 Test wickets earlier in the series at the WACA in December 1975, dismissing Gilmour for the milestone. He approached the MCG one wicket short of Trueman's record. In Australia's first innings he bowled the first short delivery of an off-spinner's second-innings spell at Ian Redpath, who edged it to Murray; Trueman's record was equalled. In the second innings, the wicket of Gilmour — caught Fredericks — moved him to 309 and the record outright.

The sixth Test was Gibbs's seventy-ninth and final Test. He had played his first in March 1958 against Pakistan. His Test economy rate of 1.99 — under two an over for an entire career — remained, even by 2024, the lowest by any post-war specialist with more than fifty Tests.

Gibbs returned to Guyana after the tour and concentrated on his career as a West Indian selector and later coach. The record stood until 28 December 1981, when Dennis Lillee took the wicket of Larry Gomes at the MCG to pass it. Lillee, who had been on the field as a fast bowler when Gibbs reached the record, was the first to acknowledge the symmetry.

Gibbs's record holds particular significance in the West Indian cricketing tradition: he was the last specialist spinner of any nationality to lead the all-time Test wicket-takers list until Muralitharan in the 2000s.