Test cricket is all about building steady partnerships to take on opponents. Most of the time, everyone talks about the partnerships stitched by batters, but a few talk about the formidable alliances formed by bowlers.
Bowling in tandem and picking up wickets match after match is a testament to the camaraderie 2 bowlers share between them. The pair of James Anderson and Stuart Broad wreaked havoc on the batters, scalping the most wickets while bowling together.
On that note, here are the top 10 bowling pairs with the most wickets in Test cricket.
Most Wickets by a Bowling Pair in Tests
| Bowling Pair | Team | Matches | Wickets |
|---|---|---|---|
| James Anderson (537), Stuart Broad (502) | England | 138 | 1039 |
| Shane Warne (513), Glenn McGrath (488) | Australia | 104 | 1001 |
| Muttiah Muralitharan (586), Chaminda Vaas (309) | Sri Lanka | 95 | 895 |
| Curtly Ambrose (389), Courtney Walsh (373) | West Indies | 95 | 762 |
| Mitchell Starc (332), Nathan Lyon (337) | Australia | 84 | 671 |
| Ravi Ashwin (317), Ravindra Jadeja (270) | India | 58 | 587 |
| Wasim Akram (282), Waqar Younis (277) | Pakistan | 61 | 559 |
| Shaun Pollock (377), Jacques Kallis (170) | South Africa | 93 | 547 |
| Trent Boult (277), Tim Southee (264) | New Zealand | 65 | 541 |
| Makhaya Ntini (350), Jacques Kallis (188) | South Africa | 93 | 538 |
Key Insights
1039: The duo of James Anderson and Stuart Broad hold the record for picking up the most wickets as a bowling pair in Tests. Dubbed the most successful bowling pair, they took 1039 wickets while bowling together. And this is the only pair with both bowlers picking up 500+ wickets each.
1: The pace-spin combination of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne became the first bowling pair to grab over 1000 wickets in Tests. The lethal blend gave batters a hard time in the middle, and the duo ended up with 1001 wickets.
138: Anderson and Broad played together in 138 Test matches. This is the most by a bowling pair and the overall second-most Tests played together after the duo of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid (146 Tests).
Also Read | Stuart Broad – A Rookie to a Journeyman to a Veteran
4: There are 3 bowlers — Anderson, Broad, and Ravi Ashwin — who share 350+ wickets with 4 bowling partners each. The English duo have grabbed 350-plus wickets while bowling in tandem with Graeme Swann, Ben Stokes, and Moeen Ali, apart from their bowling pair. Ashwin, on the other hand, has partnered with Ravindra Jadeja, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, and Mohammed Shami to gulp 350+ wickets.
10: The spin duo of Ashwin and Jadeja have the best rate of scalping wickets per match. When both of them bowl together in a Test match, they go on to pick up an average of 10 wickets per match.
12: Moreover, they became the 12th bowling pair to share 500 Test wickets among them and the second Indian pair after Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh (501 wickets).
