Most ODI Wickets in Cricket: All-Time Records and Top Bowlers

Muttiah Muralitharan took his 534th and final ODI wicket in a career that ran from 1993 to 2011, spanning nearly two decades of 50-over cricket across every kind of pitch Sri Lanka’s schedule threw at him. Nobody else has come within striking distance of that number since, and the gap tells you something about how rare his combination of skill and longevity actually was.

What Makes a Great ODI Bowler?

Bowling in ODIs asks for something different than Test cricket. Restricting the powerplay, squeezing the middle overs, then holding nerve at the death are three separate skills, and few bowlers are genuinely good at all three. The names at the top of the wicket-taking list tend to share:

• Control over how many runs go for each over, which builds pressure toward a wicket
• A toolkit of cutters, slower balls, and yorkers that keeps batters guessing
• Wickets that actually mattered, in finals and knockout games, not just dead rubbers
• Careers that lasted ten to twenty years without losing effectiveness

All-Time ODI Wicket Leaders

Bowler	Country	ODI Wickets	Career Span
Muttiah Muralitharan	Sri Lanka	534	1993–2011
Wasim Akram	Pakistan	502	1984–2003
Waqar Younis	Pakistan	416	1989–2003
Chaminda Vaas	Sri Lanka	400	1994–2008
Shahid Afridi	Pakistan	395	1996–2015
Glenn McGrath	Australia	381	1993–2007
Brett Lee	Australia	380	2000–2012
Lasith Malinga	Sri Lanka	338	2004–2019

Career wicket totals reflect retirement figures. Active players’ tallies continue to grow.

Muttiah Muralitharan: The ODI Record Holder

Murali’s off-spin, and the doosra that went with it, worked just as well over 50 overs as it did in Tests. He picked up wickets in the middle overs against batters who thought they’d settled, which made him the most dangerous spinner ODI cricket has seen. He took three-wicket hauls on pitches offering nothing for spin, relying on deception rather than conditions.

Wasim Akram: The Greatest ODI Pace Bowler

Wasim Akram’s 500-plus ODI wickets still set the standard for left-arm pace in limited-overs cricket. He swung the ball both ways at real pace, which made him close to unplayable with the new ball, and he closed out innings with yorkers and slower balls under pressure that coaches still use as a teaching model for death bowling today.

Waqar Younis and Reverse Swing

Waqar Younis, Akram’s new-ball partner for Pakistan, brought a different kind of threat: toe-crushing in-swingers and reverse swing that ran through tailenders and exposed top-order batters in the closing overs. His 416 wickets put him third on the all-time list.

Modern Bowlers Approaching Long-Standing Records

Lasith Malinga’s slingy action and mastery of the yorker made him the best death bowler of his generation. His 338 wickets came largely in an era shaped by T20 batting, which arguably makes them harder to compare with totals from the 1990s, when batters scored more conservatively.

Key ODI Bowling Milestones

• 100 wickets confirms a bowler as a genuine international contributor.
• 200 wickets places a bowler among the best of their generation.
• 300 wickets is an elite career achievement that few reach.
• 400 or more wickets puts a bowler in all-time great territory.