The 10 Best Spin Bowlers In The World Of Cricket
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Cricket is a world-renowned sport that is very popular across many regions of the world. Apart from being an exciting sport to watch and play, cricket is also one of the highest paying professions for athletes and in general. The main cricket-playing regions include India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Australia, England, South Africa, West Indies, New Zealand and others, which offers numerous talents to watch, along with massive fan bases and viewer counts. Cricket has always been a popular sport, and within its recent few years, it has accumulated huge growth. This benefits the players and the athletes to expand on their ventures and gain new options of income.
The rising popularity of cricket has also introduced new forms and club leagues like the Indian Premier League (IPL), which makes the sport to be no longer bounded to just the official international matches. The more these playing opportunities arise, the more these cricketers gain the chance of getting paid. And playing the game is not the only way of income for the players, as a lot of brand endorsements, collaborations, secondary business ventures and other investments are some of the reasons behind the huge increment of some of the prominent cricketer's net worth. In this article, we will take a look at some of the richest cricketers in the world with reference to their net worth as of the current time in 2022.
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Top Spin Bowlers of All Time
1) Shane Warne
Shane Warne, the Australian cricket legend, who had bowled several right-arm leg break deliveries throughout his career, is often considered to be the best spin bowler in the world of all time. He made his international cricket debut with team Australia back in 1992. He quickly became a prominent and vital member of his team, taking up numerous wickets and changing the course of matches. Out of Warne’s greatest moments in the history of cricket, his one delivery against Mike Gatting on June 4th, 1993 during an Ashes game, became very significant in the history of the sport, both in the context of the match and as the revival of leg-spin bowling style. In the total 145 Test matches that he played, he took 708 wickets, followed by 293 wickets in 194 ODI matches. Warne’s best bowling in a Test match was 12/128 and in ODI was 5/33. With such statistics and many records that he achieved, Shane Warne is truly worthy of the title of best spin bowler in the world of all time.
2) Muttiah Muralitharan
The second name in this list of top spin bowlers in the world of all time is Muttiah Muralitharan, the Sri Lankan cricket legend. He is considered the world's best spin bowler in cricket from Sri Lanka, during his era. His bowling style was right-arm off-break and with this, he made his debut back in 1992 in Test cricket, followed by his ODI debut in 1993. Since then he played numerous matches in both Test and ODI formats and gained a lot of recognition as the world's number 1 spin bowler of his time. In the 133 Test matches that he played, he took 800 wickets, alongside 534 wickets in 350 ODI matches, and 63 wickets to his name in 66 IPL matches. His 800 wickets statistics in Test cricket is still the highest record, which makes Muttiah Muralitharan the all-time highest wicket-taker in men’s Test cricket. This is one of the many reasons why Muralitharan is regarded as the world’s best spinner bowler of all time.
3) Anil Kumble
Retired Indian cricket legend, Anil Kumble, takes the third spot as the best spin bowler in the world of cricket. Anil Kumble’s name often reverbs around as the ”greatest match-winner” for team India and with his bowling style of right-arm leg break, he successfully continued his nearly two-decades-long cricket career. Out of his many career bowling records, his 10 wickets draw against team Pakistan in 1999 at the Feroz Shah Kotla, has won him the title of the greatest spin bowler in cricket in India during his era. In the total 132 Test matches that he played, he took 619 wickets and made a 337 wicket haul from the 271 ODI matches. Anil Kumble is truly the greatest spin bowler in cricket in India and one of the greatest spin bowlers in the world ever.
4) Daniel Vettori
Daniel Vettori is one of the greatest spin bowlers in the history of cricket from New Zealand. His bowling style leans towards the slow left-arm orthodox, with which he took a lot of wickets for his international team throughout his career. He was also the team’s skipper between 2007 and 2011. In his entire international career, Vettori took 362 wickets from 133 Test matches, 305 wickets from 295 ODI matches and 38 wickets from 34 ODI matches. He is also the eight-player in the history of Test cricket, who has managed to pull 300 wickets and score 3000 runs in their career.
5) Saqlain Mushtaq
Saqlain Mushtaq, the retired right-arm off-break Pakistani bowler, ranks fifth in the list of the top 10 best spin bowlers in the world of all time. He is better known in cricket for inventing an unconventional off-spin bowling delivery, called the “doosra”, which he both created and mastered to great extent. Another one of his top achievements is that he was the quickest bowler to ever reach the 100 wickets milestone in ODI cricket history. He has exceptional bowling career statistics that read 208 wickets in just 49 Test matches, along with 288 wickets in 168 ODI matches. His best bowling in an innings is 8/164 in Test and 5/20 in ODI cricket.
6) Harbhajan Singh
The currently retired Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh is well-known for his exceptional performance at the bowler's end for team India. He made his Test debut against Australia back in 1998 and his ODI debut against New Zealand in the same year. His recent retirement from all cricket in 2021 had been an “end of an era” of the Indian spin bowling history. He has a lot of career achievements and records under his belt, including the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup, the second-ranking for the highest Test wickets taken by an off-spinner and the first-ever Indian bowler to have achieved a Test cricket hat-trick. He has an amazing overall bowling career statistics with 417 wickets in 103 Test matches, 269 wickets in 236 ODI matches, 25 wickets in 28 T20I matches and 150 wickets in 163 IPL matches. Harbhajan Singh genuinely dominates the list of best spinners in cricket from India, with his best spin bowling deliveries during his career’s prime.
7) Abdul Qadir
Widely considered to be a genius on the pitch, former Pakistani cricketer Abdul Qadir, holds the seventh spot in the list of top spin bowlers in cricket of all time. His right-arm leg-spin bowling had drawn numerous wickets and fan appreciation. He was a master of many different bowling variations, including leg-break, topspin, flipper and googly. Graham Gooch, the former captain of team England, considered Qadir to be a finer bowler than even Shane Warne. In his international career, Qadir took 236 wickets from 67 Test matches and 132 wickets from 104 ODI games. Abdul Qadir thus deserves the title of one of the most versatile and varied spin bowlers in cricket of all time.
8) Lance Gibbs
Lance Gibbs was a West Indian cricketer back in the mid and later part of the 1900s. His bowling style was right-arm off-break and with that, he is at the eighth spot on the list today. He made his international cricket debut with Team West Indies back on February 5th, 1958 against team Pakistan at the Queen’s Park Oval stadium and played Test cricket till 1976 with his last Test match against team Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. In his lifetime cricket career, he had played a total of 79 Test cricket matches, in which he managed to pull 309 wickets, His best bowling in an innings is 8/38 and his best bowling in a match is 11/157, both in Test format. His Test cricket bowling average was 29.09 with an economy rate of 2.14.
9) Ravichandran Ashwin
The ninth spot in the list of best spin bowlers in cricket definitely goes to the Indian phenomenal bowler, Ravichandran Ashwin. He is the only active bowler currently playing, to be on this list. His bowling style is right-arm off-break and his primary role for team India is of a bowling allrounder. He entered the cricket scene with his exceptional smart plays that were totally unconventional, He started his journey with limited cricket format and eventually made it to the Test cricket, representing team India. His international debut was against Sri Lanka in an ODI match back in 2010, followed by his Test cricket debut against West Indies back in November 2011. As of the current time, Ravichandran Ashwin has taken 442 wickets in 86 in Test matches, 151 wickets in 113 ODI games, 61 wickets in 51 T20I matches and 157 wickets in 184 IPL games. It is widely considered that Ravichandran Ashwin is the world's top spinner bowler in cricket in India in recent years.
10) Rangana Herath
The former Sri Lankan cricketer, Rangana Herath is the tenth player to be on this list of greatest spin bowlers of all time in cricket. Apart from helping his team to draw wickets, he also led them as their captain during several instances. Looking at his career bowling statistics, it becomes clear why he is regarded as one of the best spin bowlers of all time. With his left-arm orthodox bowling style, Herath managed to pull off 433 wickets in 93 Test games, along with 74 wickets in 71 ODI matches. These are truly phenomenal career statistics that make Herath the tenth player on the list of best spinners in cricket of all time.
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