Top 10 greatest bowlers of all time
1. Muttiah Muralitharan (SRI LANKA)
Test Matches: 800 wickets
ODI Matches: 534 wickets
- Murlitharan is a legend when it comes to bowling. He is the greatest bowler of all time.
- Muralitharan is the bowling boss when it comes to test format Murlitharan took 800 Test wickets at an average of 22.72 and ended up being the highest wicket-taker in the format.
- Murlitharan was part of a tide of great spinners who ruled the game at the turn of the century; his record of 534 wickets in 350 ODIs is an irony of his fortitude.
- The off-spinner developed a new type of ball delivery, which is called the “doosra.”
- He took 10 five-wicket trails and 15 four-wicket trails in ODIs.
2. Shane Warne (AUSTRALIA)
Test cricket : 708 wickets
ODI cricket : 293 wickets
- One of the greatest leg spinners of all time, this legendary man showed his skills multiple times in the game.
- he made 145 Test appearances, took 708 wickets, which shows his irony, and he was the most wicket taker in test cricket; he held the record until 2007.
- Warne was a proud member of the Australian cricket team that won the Cricket World Cup in 1999.
- Warne set the world record for scoring the most runs without making a single century. The record still stands at 3,154 runs.
3. Sydney Barnes (ENGLAND)
Test matches: 189 wickets
First-class matches: 719 wickets
- Sydney Barnes played for England between 1901 and 1914. he was a significant bowler in test cricket.
- Barnes is probably the most surprising choice among all the bowlers he is the first Englishman on this list.
- Barnes did not have too much wickets in his basket but Barnes’ Test match average remains the best in the cricket history.
- Barnes only played in 27 Test matches and took 189 wickets. That’s an average of a remarkable43 this record shows his testimony toward the game and his excellent bowling skills.
- Barnes’ greatest bowling performance in an innings came against South Africa in 1913, when he took 9 wickets for 103 runs.
- In his first-class career with an average of just over 17, recording 719 wickets in 133 matches.
4. Malcolm Marshall (WEST INDIES)
Test matches: 376 wickets
ODI matches: 157 wicket
- Malcolm Marshall was a Barbadian cricketer. Malcolm was primarily a fast bowler; Marshall is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most outstanding fast bowlers of the modern era in Test cricket.
- Malcolm, with a test bowling average of 20.94, has the best stats of a bowler who has taken 200 or more wickets.
- Marshall was baptized into the ICC Cricket ‘Hall of Fame’ in 2009.
- He reserved the place for 150 years of the Cricketers’ Almanack; Wisden named him in an all-time Test World XI.
5. Glenn McGrath (AUS)
Test matches: 563 wicket
ODI matches: 381 wicket
- McGrath was a fast-medium-pace bowler and is considered one of the greatest bowlers of all time. This bowler was mainly known for his firm line, length, and accuracy.
- Glenn McGrath took 944 wickets in 374 matches with an average of 21.64.
- McGrath was a proud member of the Australian team that reserved three consecutive World Cup trophies in a row: Cricket World Cup 1999, 2003, and 2007.
- He was baptised into the ‘ICC Hall of Fame’ in January 2013.
- McGrath went on to surpass Courtney Walsh’s 519 wickets to take the most fast bowler wickets, making him the best Australian fast bowler of all time.
6. Sir Richard Hadlee (NZ)
Test matches: 431 wicket
ODI matches: 154 wickets
- He was named the second-greatest Test bowler of all time by Wisden in December 2002.
- He is a former cricket player from New Zealand as of March 2009.
- He was one of the best fast bowlers ever and one of the four greatest all-rounders in the world from 1975 to 1995.
- Sir Hadlee was recognised as one of the greatest all-rounders in cricket history.
- Hedlee, Imran Khan, Kapil Dev, and Botham are four individuals that were picked as greatest all-rounders of all time.
- Sir Richard Hadlee was admitted to the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame on April 3, 2009.
- Only two players have scored 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in first-class games since 1969; Hadlee hit 1,179 runs and claimed 117 wickets in 1984.
7. Dennis Lilee (AUS)
Test matches: : 355 wicket
ODI matches : 103 wicket
- Lilee is a retired Australian cricketer rated as the “astonishing fast bowler of his generation”.
- Lilee represented Australia between 1971 and 1984.
- He took 355 wickets in 70 Test matches at an average of 23.92. He also took 103 wickets in 63 ODIs at an average of 20.82
- By the time he retired from international cricket in 1984, he had taken 355 Test wickets, breaking the previous record.
- Lillee was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame on December 17, 2009.
- He was one of the ten cricketers inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 1996.
- He was chosen as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1973.
8. Curtly Ambrose (WEST INDIES)
Test matches: 405 wicket
ODI matches : 225 wicket
- Curtly Ambrose is a former cricketer from Antigua who participated in 98 Test matches for the West Indies.
- In just 98 Test matches, Curtly Ambrose 6’7″ Titan bowled nearly 1,000 maiden overs and claimed 405 wickets.
- His average of merely 20.99 shows why his collaboration with Courtney Walsh was a feared one.
- Having a good height also support him to bounce the ball on every surface he played on.
- He is regarded as one of the best fast bowlers of all time. Ambrose has taken 405 Test wickets at an average of 20.99 and dominating the ICC Player Rankings for the majority of his career.
9. Wasim Akram (PAKISTAN)
Test matches : 414 wickets
ODI matches : 502 wicket
- Wasim Akram is known as one of the best fast bowlers ever and one of the best left-arm fast bowlers in cricket history.
- Akram holds the world record for most wickets in List A cricket, with 881, and is the second bowler after Sri Lankan off-turn bowler Muttiah Muralitharan regarding ODI wickets, with 502 altogether.
- He is viewed as one of the pioneers and the best example of reverse swing bowling.
- He was the principal bowler to arrive at the 500-wicket mark in ODI cricket, and he did so during the 2003 World Cup. In 2002, in the list of Wisden’s best players ever Wasim was positioned as one of the best bowler in ODI.
- On September 30 ,2009 Akram was one of five new individuals taken into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
10. Courtney Walsh (WEST INDIES)
Test matches : 519 wickets
ODI matches : 227 wicket
- He is a fast bowler who is regarded as one of the all-time greats. Curtly Ambrose was a fellow West Indian, and he had a
- legendary opening bowling line for many years. Walsh got 519 and 227 wickets in 132 Test matches and 205 one-day internationals while playing for the West Indies.
- In 49 matches, he and Ambrose combined for 421 Test wickets.
- In 1987, Walsh was selected as one of the ‘Wisden Cricketers of the Year’.
- He was admitted to the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in October 2010. After breaking Kapil Dev’s record in 2000, he held the record for the most Test wickets. Later, Shane Warne broke this record in 2004.
- He was the first bowler in Test cricket to record 500 wickets.