Muttiah Muralitharan
Shane Warne
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Muttiah Muralitharan leads 4 of 4 categories. Our all-time ranking places Muttiah Muralitharan at #4 and Shane Warne at #5.
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The case for Muttiah Muralitharan
Muttiah Muralitharan is the most successful bowler in history, with 800 Test wickets and 534 in ODIs, 1,347 international wickets, a total no one else approaches. Bowling off-spin with a uniquely flexible wrist and a doosra that turned the other way, the Sri Lankan took five wickets in a Test innings 67 times and ten in a match 22 times, both records. He claimed his 800th and final Test wicket with his last delivery, against India at Galle in 2010. His action was scrutinized and twice cleared by biomechanical testing, controversy that shadowed but never diminished his output. For two decades he was Sri Lanka's match-winner, capable of running through sides on turning pitches and containing on flat ones. Sheer volume of wickets, across formats and conditions, makes him the benchmark against which all spin bowlers are measured.
The case for Shane Warne
Shane Warne revived the dying art of leg-spin and became one of the game's supreme match-winners. He took 708 Test wickets, second only to Muralitharan, plus 293 in ODIs. His first ball in Ashes cricket, in 1993, spun sharply from outside leg stump to clip Mike Gatting's off bail, instantly dubbed the Ball of the Century and a recruiting poster for wrist-spin worldwide. Warne combined vicious turn with drift, a well-disguised flipper, and relentless psychological pressure on batters. He was central to Australia's dominance and took 40 wickets in the classic 2005 Ashes even in defeat. A gifted lower-order batsman who finished with over 3,000 Test runs without a century, he was a showman whose cricket brain matched his fingers. No spinner did more to make the craft box-office.