Bowling in Test cricket is never easy. The bowlers have to toil hard in every over, to take wickets. The batsman, after getting set, becomes quite tough to dismiss in Test cricket.
There have been several greats to grace the oldest format of the game. The bowlers like Muttiah Muralitharan, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, James Anderson and several others have shown their sheer brilliance in the red-ball game. Several bowlers like bowling against the left-handed batsmen, largely.
This article features a summarized list of the bowlers with the highest number of wickets in Test cricket:
Ravichandran Ashwin (IND):
The first bowler to become the part of this list is the Indian bowler, Ravichandran Ashwin. The 34-years old has taken 192 wickets in 134 innings in Tests. Ashwin has an excellent average of 20.1 and a decent strike rate of 47.9 against the southpaws.
His carrom balls have proved to be quite potent over the years. Among all the batsmen he has dismissed in Tests, David Warner and Alistair Cook (9 each) have been his most frequent victim. The bowling all-rounder has taken 51.2% of the career wickets against the left-handed batsmen.
Muttiah Muralitharan (SL):
Muttiah Muralitharan is probably the best off-spinner ever to play Test cricket. The Sri Lankan legend has taken 800 wickets in Test cricket, with 191 coming against the left-handed batsmen. Among all the left-handed batsmen he has dismissed, Sourav Ganguly has been his most frequent (9) wicket in Tests.
The 48-years old has a Wickets/Innings ratio of 1.43 against the left-handed batsmen. Muralitharan has dismissed 17 left-handed batsmen on a duck in the red-ball game. He is also one of the four players to take a five-wicket haul against nine different teams in Tests.
James Anderson (ENG):
The highest wicket-taker among the pacers, James Anderson, is the third bowler in this article. The England pacer has taken 600 wickets in the longest format of the game. Of the 600 wickets, 186 have been against the left-handed batsmen.
The 38-years old has a bowling average of 27.5 against the southpaws. He takes around 58 balls to dismiss a left-hander in Tests. He has dismissed 33 southpaws on duck in Test cricket, with David Warner (9) being his prey most often.
Glenn McGrath (AUS):
Glenn McGrath holds the record of being the pacer with second-most wickets (563) in the Test Cricket. He has taken 172 wickets against the left-handers in the five-days cricket. His tight lines and lengths on the stumps were arduous to play.
The pacer has dismissed 23 left-handers on the duck in the Test cricket. His most common left-hander wicket was Brian Lara, dismissing him 15 times in Test cricket. McGrath’s 30.6% of the total career wickets have been against the left-handed batsmen.
Shane Warne (AUS):
Arguably the greatest leg-spinner in Test Cricket, Shane Warne is the fifth and the last bowler to become the part of this elite list. Warne has also taken 172 wickets against the southpaws in the Tests. The leg-spinner has dismissed only 8 left-handed batsmen on a duck in the Test cricket.
Despite being the part of the list with 172 wickets, the 51-years old wasn’t that effective against the southpaws. Of 708 career wickets, only 172 have been of the left-handers – 24.3% only in Test format. In spite of being mediocre against the left-handed batsmen, he is one of the greatest bowlers ever to play the game.
