Top 10 bowlers with most number of international wickets in cricket history

Cricket, ‘the gentleman’s game’ has always been known as a game dominated by the batsmen, but there have been many outstanding bowlers who have made life hard for the batsman at the crease. No matter how many runs a team scores in a Test match, they need to pick up 20 wickets to win the match. The case in ODI’s and T20s is not much different with the bowlers playing a crucial role in restricting the opposition by picking up wickets at crucial intervals.Also read: Who has highest T20I wickets?Here is the Top 10 bowlers with the most number of international wickets in cricket history. Longevity plays a crucial role in players making the list, but no matter how long you play, you need to possess the skills to make it big. The players who have made it proves exactly that.Though the majority of the bowlers here have called time on their international career, there are quite a few who are still playing and other few who can break into the Top 10 soon.Daniel Vettori finished his career with 705 wickets, one of the best left-arm spinner cricketing world had ever seen. Vettori is in the 11th spot in the list. The Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and the England spearhead James Anderson are the two current players who could make into the list in the near future. Harbhajan Singh is 14 short of the 10th spot, whereas Anderson needs 18 more wickets.Have a look at the elite list here.

#10 Brett Lee (Australia) - 718 wickets

The former Australian pace bowler Brett Lee was recognized as one of the fastest bowlers in the world of cricket. He finished his career as Australia’s fourth-most successful bowler with 310 wickets in 76 matches in Tests. Along with Warne and McGrath, Lee was a vital member of the Australian bowling attack that played a key role in the Aussies dominating the cricketing world in the early 2000s.

Lee’s importance can be gauged by the fact that in the nine Tests following McGrath’s departure, he picked up 58 wickets at a strike rate of 21.55 and also won the Allan Border Medal in 2008.

If not for injuries and spells where he was kept out of the playing eleven, Lee would have finished higher than 10th . He reitired in 2012 with 718 international wickets.

Tests	ODI	T20	Total
310	380	28	718

#9 Courtney Walsh (West Indies) - 746 wickets

Courtney Walsh was the one who broke Kapil Dev’s long-standing record of 434 Test wickets and the West Indian legend went on to retire as the bowler with the most Test wickets. He had a long and illustrious career with the two-time world cup champions and represented them from 1984 to 2001. He also led the West Indies side for 22 Test matches.

Despite bowling close to 5000 overs in Test cricket, he was one of those rare bowlers who bowled consistently through out his career with high pace. With 746 overall wickets, he is the leading wicket taker in international cricket for West Indies.

Walsh formed a potent partnership with another of the greatest fast bowlers Curtly Ambrose with the pair accounting for 421 wickets from just 49 Tests.

Tests	ODI	Total
519	227	746

#8 Chaminda Vaas (Sri Lanka) - 761 wickets

Chaminda Vaas is highly regarded as the best fast bowler Sri Lanka has ever produced but one feels his achievements were overshadowed by the legendary Muttiah Muralitharan. He holds the world record for best figures in an ODI match, picking up 8 wickets and giving away just 19 runs in a match against Zimbabwe.

He also claimed a hat-trick with the first three balls of the match against Bangladesh in the 2003 World Cup. In fact, Vaas’ tally of 400 ODI wickets is the fourth highest in the format.

He was a pretty useful batsman as well down the order and scored his maiden century in his 97th Test match.

Tests	ODI	Total
355	400	755

#7 Waqar Younis (Pakistan) - 789 wickets

Waqar Younis, one of the greatest fast bowlers in cricket history and arguably the greatest exponent of reverse swing makes it to the list at the No 7 spot. At his prime, Younis was virtually unplayable with bastmen helpess to keep out the toe-crushing yorkers from hitting the stumps.

He is also credited as the one who change the bowling trend in the 1980s of dropping in fast and short and instead pitching it fast and full. The combination of Waqar and Wasim Akram proved a nightmare for many batsmen. He has 789 wickets against his name, but taking into consideration the injuries he had in his career, he might have finished a lot higher.

He is second only to Dale Steyn, in terms of strike rate among fast bowlers with more than 350 Test wickets.

Tests	ODI	Total
373	416	789

#6 Shaun Pollock (South Africa) - 829 wickets

With 829 wickets, South African Shaun Maclean Pollock is the leading wicket-taker for his country in international cricket. From 2000 to 2003 he was the captain of the South African cricket team and also played for Africa XI, World XI, Dolphins and Warwickshire.

He was also a leading all-rounder and played some crucial knocks for his team with the bat, including two Test centuries. Pollock was known for his immaculately consistent line and length and his ability to move the ball both ways at a lively pace which made him one of the toughest bowlers to put away.

On a perfect batting pitch at Adelaide in 1998, he showed his stamina and courage in abundance when he toiled on hour after hour in blazing heat to take 7 for 87 in 41 overs, one of his best ever bowling spells.

Tests	ODIs	T20	Total
421	393	15	829

#5 Wasim Akram (Pakistan) - 916 wickets

Perhaps the best left-arm fast bowler of all time, Wasim Akram could make the ball walk and talk like no one else did. Nicknamed the ‘Sultan of Swing’, he is undoubtedly Pakistan’s greatest bowler.

In the 1992 Cricket World Cup, held in Australia and New Zealand which Pakistan won, Akram was a key figure winning the Man of the Match award in the final against England shining with both bat and ball.

Overall, Akram won 22 MoM awards in 104 Tests and a further 17 in ODIs and reached the 500-wicket landmark in ODIs during the 2003 World Cup. He finished with 502 ODI wickets, the second highest in history.

Tests	ODI	Total
414	502	916

#4 Glenn McGrath (Australia) - 949 wickets

The former Australian fast bowler Glenn Donald McGrath is the 4th leading wicket-taker in the history of the game and tops the list when it comes to the faster bowlers. McGrath was destined to great things at a young age as described by Mike Whitney - “thin – but Ambrose-thin, not Bruce Reid-thin”.

He ended his career on a high in both the Test and ODI format leading Australia to a 5-0 Ashes whitewash as well as bagging the player of the tournament award at the 2007 World Cup. In fact, he is the leading wicket-taker in World Cup history and holds the record for best bowling in a match at the sport’s biggest tournament with figures of 7 for 15 against the Namibians in the 2003 edition.

Tests	ODI	T20	Total
563	381	5	949

#3 Anil Kumble (India) - 956 wickets

The former Indian skipper Anil Kumble is the third leading wicket taker in the history of the game. Arguably, the best spin bowler India had ever produced, Kumble has won more matches for India than any other bowler in Test matches.

The pinnacle of his career was undoubtedly in 1999 when he picked up all ten wickets in an innings against Pakistan. In December 2001, at his home ground in Bangalore, Kumble became the first Indian spinner to take 300 Test wickets. A year later he did the same in one-dayers.

In August 2007 at The Oval, he went past Glenn McGrath’s 563 wickets and in January 2008 he went past the landmark of 600 wickets, to stand behind only Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan, emphasizing his contribution to spin’s golden era.

Test	ODI	Total
619	337	956

#2 Shane Warne (Australia) - 1001 wickets

Shane Keith Warne is widely regarded as one of the best bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century and retired from Test cricket with 708 wickets, the most at that time.

His bag of tricks was immense and he was the bowler who reintroduced the importance of leg spin in international cricket. He often saved his best for the biggest occasions like winning the Man of the Match award in the final of the 1999 World Cup final against Pakistan.

He has bowled some iconic bowls in cricket history with the ball of the century to Michael Gatting and ‘the ball that spun a mile’ against Andrew Strauss in 2005 Ashes. Shane Warne retired in 2007 before playing any international T20 match for Australia but his 293 ODI wickets helped him reach the milestone of 1000 international wickets.

Test	ODI	Total
708	293	1001

#1 Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka) - 1347 wickets

Muttiah Muralitharan, the off-spinner from Sri Lanka is the leading wicket-taker in international cricket history with 1347 wickets from all formats of the game. The spin wizard was rated the greatest Test match bowler ever by Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack in 2002.

He is head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to topping the Test and ODI wickets list with 800 and 534 wickets respectively. He was a part of the World Cup-winning side in 1996 and averaged less than 30 with the ball in every country except India and Australia. He finished a remarkable Test career with more than 100 wickets against India, England and South Africa.

Muralitharan also picked up 13 T20 wickets and ended his international career with a runners-up medal in the 2011 World Cup which India won.