Though batsmen put a team in the driver’s seat in a Test match, the bowlers win you matches by picking 20 wickets. For an elite Test series like the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where two of the strongest cricketing nations meet, the bowlers play a significant role in the sides’ victories.
Both Australia and India have generated multiple world-class bowlers. However, the bowlers mentioned below were able to perform in high-octane scenarios.
Note: The India-Australia Test matches have been named Border-Gavaskar Trophy only since 1996, and you can find out why here.
This article below will list the top ten cricketers who have picked the most wickets in Border-Gavaskar Trophy. (You can find the leading run-scorers in BGT in the chart here)
| PLAYERS | WICKETS | INNS | BEST BOWLING | STRIKE RATE | ECONOMY | AVERAGE | 5-FORS | 10-FORS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nathan Lyon | 125 | 54 | 8/50 | 64.9 | 3.02 | 32.72 | 9 | 2 |
| Ravichandran Ashwin | 115 | 43 | 7/103 | 63.2 | 2.71 | 28.58 | 7 | 1 |
| Anil Kumble | 111 | 38 | 8/141 | 58.7 | 3.09 | 30.32 | 10 | 2 |
| Harbhajan Singh | 95 | 35 | 8/84 | 61.1 | 2.94 | 29.95 | 7 | 3 |
| Ravindra Jadeja | 89 | 34 | 7/42 | 51.0 | 2.40 | 20.46 | 5 | 1 |
| Pat Cummins | 71 | 30 | 6/27 | 49.4 | 2.91 | 24.01 | 2 | 0 |
| Jasprit Bumrah | 64 | 23 | 6/33 | 39.9 | 2.57 | 17.15 | 4 | 0 |
| Mitchell Starc | 62 | 41 | 6/48 | 64.2 | 3.34 | 35.77 | 1 | 0 |
| Zaheer Khan | 61 | 34 | 5/91 | 63.2 | 3.37 | 35.59 | 3 | 0 |
| Ishant Sharma | 59 | 46 | 4/41 | 80.1 | 3.15 | 42.20 | 0 | 0 |
Kapil Dev (79), Erapalli Prasanna (57), Bishan Bedi (56), and Shivlal Yadav (55) missed out from this list as it includes only the BGT series that started in 1996.
Among the current cricketers, Ravi Ashwin and Nathan Lyon can reach the 100-wicket milestone in the days to come.
Ravindra Jadeja, with the best strike rate on the list, is a dark horse to lead the table in the coming days. Jaddu also has the best economy rate among any bowler, who has more than 2 BGT wickets.
Here you can briefly understand how the Bowling Averages, Strike Rates & Economy Rates are calculated.
Four bowlers have picked an 8-wicket haul in BGT, where you can find three in the table above. The other is Jason Krejza, who picked 8/215 in Nagpur Test in 2008.
Anil Kumble, the first to pick 100 wickets in the Tests between India and Australia, also tops the 5-for list with a double-digit number of 10. And he looks unbeatable!
Read Now: Most 5-fors in Test Cricket
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