Top five wicket-takers in the Asia Cup tournament

#1 Lasith Malinga (SL)

Lasith Malinga

Fans across the globe call him ‘Slinga Malinga". In his 15 Asia Cup games (14 ODIs and a T20I), he picked up 33 wickets to feature at the top of this list. He registered two four-wicket hauls and three five-wicket hauls in his 15 games in this tournament. Malinga is also the only bowler till date to pick up three five-wicket hauls in this Asia Cup tournament!

All his three five-wicket hauls resulted in wins for Sri Lanka in crucial games. Among the three, Malinga’s 5 for 36 against Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2014 final has to be his best. Pakistan, batting first in that game, lost only five wickets in their innings and all the five wickets were picked up by Lasith Malinga!

In the recently-concluded Asia Cup 2018 season, Malinga picked up four wickets in his comeback match against Bangladesh and with that spell he surpassed Muralitharan to become leading wicket-taker in Asia Cup tournament. He was not a regular in the Sri Lankan ODI side in the recent past, however, with such a brilliant spell he certainly booked his place in the struggling Sri Lankan side for the World Cup next year.