The journey from Josh Hazlewood's 200th Test wicket to his 250th was long and arduous.
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But more than three years after the Bendemeer Bullet reached his double century with an incredible haul of 5-8 against India at Adelaide Oval, he ticked off the next milestone in a storied career at the same venue today against the West Indies.
"It puts you in a fairly elite class," Josh's father, Trevor, said.
"And all four bowlers have 250 wickets at least ... naturally he wanted to achieve that, because the other three boys got their 250 and he was the last one of the group to get there."
The years since 2020 were stop-start for Hazlewood, who was kept from the field by a number of injury setbacks.
But in the last seven months, he has remained fit and reaped the rewards. Of course, this came as no surprise to his father.
"All fast bowlers go through [injury periods]," Trevor said.
"We feel for him when he's down and out, but we always know he's going to come back. He's very level-headed and he doesn't frustrate himself."
It only took Hazlewood six overs to snare his 250th wicket when the opposition number four, Alick Athanaze, left a straight ball which barrelled into the top of off stump.
Three more wickets soon followed as the 33-year-old, who celebrated his birthday just over a week ago, picked up 4-44.
Trevor said he the rest of the Hazlewood clan are "very proud" of their Australian representative's efforts today.
But his biggest highlight of the summer came during the Sydney Test against Pakistan, when Josh tore through the visitors' batting lineup in the third innings.
"I went to the Sydney Test, and to sit down and watch him get that wicket, dot, wicket, dot, wicket, dot, mate that whole place was shaking under your feet," he said.
"The whole grandstand was erupting. That was probably one of my happiest moments since he debuted with five-for."
Along with their status as the only bowling attack in Test history to have more than 250 wickets each, Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Nathan Lyon are also the most successful bowling quartet to be found anywhere in the game's records.
Their 428 wickets by the end of the match in Sydney (now 438 after today's performance) went past the previous landmark of 415 collected by Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ben Stokes, and Moeen Ali for England.
"Not bad for a little boy from Bendemeer," Trevor said.
