Bowlers with most wickets in Test cricket always have one thing in common. They have wonderful home conditions suitable to them for picking wickets.
Spinners in Asia and Pacers in England, Australia, West Indies & South Africa has been the most successful contenders in Test Cricket with the ball.
So how do you find “Who is the best Test bowler in home conditions?”
Here we have listed down the top 10 wicket-takers in Home Tests:
Most Test Wickets at Home
| Bowler | Matches | Innings | Wickets | BBI | 5W/10W |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Muttiah Muralitharan (SL) | 73 | 134 | 493 | 9/51 | 45/15 |
| James Anderson (ENG) | 106 | 202 | 438 | 7/42 | 24/3 |
| Stuart Broad (ENG) | 98 | 188 | 398 | 8/15 | 14/3 |
| Ravichandran Ashwin (IND) | 65 | 127 | 383 | 7/59 | 29/6 |
| Anil Kumble (IND) | 63 | 115 | 350 | 10/74 | 25/7 |
| Shane Warne (AUS) | 69 | 129 | 319 | 8/71 | 15/4 |
| Glenn McGrath (AUS) | 66 | 131 | 289 | 8/24 | 11/2 |
| Rangana Herath (SL) | 49 | 92 | 278 | 9/127 | 26/7 |
| Nathan Lyon (AUS) | 72 | 133 | 268 | 7/152 | 9/2 |
| Harbhajan Singh (IND) | 55 | 103 | 265 | 8/84 | 18/4 |
Key Insights
Muttiah Muralitharan has taken the most wickets in home Tests. The former off-spinner minted 493 Test wickets in Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lankan has also picked up the most five-wicket hauls and ten-wicket hauls in home Tests. In fact, he is the only one with more than 30 five-fors and 10 ten-fors at home. Murali bagged 45 five-fors and 15 ten-fors in Sri Lanka.
James Anderson, meanwhile, has picked up the most Test wickets on home soil among pacers. The former seamer made the most of the helpful English conditions to rack up 438 scalps.
Jim Laker has the lowest bowling average in home Tests (minimum 100 wickets). He averaged 18.08 while taking 135 wickets in 55 innings (29 Tests) in England.
Kagiso Rabada, Waqar Younis, and Dale Steyn are the three bowlers to have a strike rate of 40 or less in home Tests (minimum 100 wickets).
Muralitharan delivered 25061 balls in Sri Lanka, the most by a bowler at home. Anderson (22926) and Anil Kumble (20792) are the other two bowlers with more than 20000 deliveries on home soil.
Laker has logged the best bowling figures in a home Test innings. The former English off-spinner returned with an innings haul of 10 for 53 against Australia in the 1956 Manchester Test. Laker’s 10 for 53 is also the best innings figure in the format.
Kumble is the other bowler to wrap up all 10 wickets in a home Test innings. The Indian leggie achieved the feat against Pakistan with his figures of 10 for 74 in the 1999 Delhi Test.
Before his ten-for, Laker had picked up nine wickets for 37 runs in the second innings, which combined to give him a match haul of 19 for 90. This is the best match haul by a bowler at home and in overall Tests.
166 of Muralitharan’s 493 wickets came at the Colombo (SSC) Ground, the most by a bowler at a home venue in Tests. This is also the highest Test wicket tally by a bowler at a single venue.
Muralitharan is, in fact, the only bowler to pick up 100-plus wickets at three home venues, with the other two grounds being Kandy (117) and Galle (111). (Check Murali’s complete Test stats here.)
Anderson (123 at Lord’s), Stuart Broad (113 at Lord’s), and Rangana Herath (102 in Galle) are the other three bowlers with 100-plus Test wickets at a home venue.
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