Top 5 bowlers who were quickest to reach 150 wickets in ODIs

#5 Ajantha Mendis

Unlike the rest of this list, who have succeeded to get to their first 150 scalps at a fairly uniform pace, Ajantha Mendis is an anomaly. The Sri Lankan spinner’s ascension to 150 career wickets was stop-start and frankly rather bizarre. Mendis burst on to the scene in 2008 and made an immediate impact. A ‘mystery-spinner’ whose deadliest weapon was a carrom-ball which no one could read, Mendis looked set to be the natural successor to Muralitharan. He was picking wickets for fun, most notably tearing through the Indian lineup for a six-for in the Asia Cup final, and soon became the fastest-ever bowler to 50 ODI wickets in just 19 matches within 6 months of his debut, shattering the previous record with ease.

Sri Lanka v Netherlands - ICC World Twenty20 Bangladesh 2014

However, Mendis hit quite a slump after that as opponents adapted to his variations very well and he failed to keep up, requiring 44 more games to get to his next 50, taking well over 5 years which saw him getting dropped repeatedly due to poor form. However, he picked up his pace by quite a bit after that, getting to 150 career wickets in a total of 84 games in late 2015, almost eight years after his debut. Once touted to top this list by a huge margin, Mendis comes in at number 5 here.