Most wickets in 2021: The year 2021 is now over and SportsRush brings you the top-5 wicket-takers of all three formats of the year.
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The year 2021 is over for International cricket, and we saw some brilliant cricket all over the world. After a challenging 2020 year due to Covid-19, cricket was in full flow in 2021. New Zealand won the inaugural WTC, whereas Australia won the ICC T20 World Cup.
The year started with India’s historic win at the Gabba, whereas it ended with a historic win at Centurion. Apart from the teams, some individual performers also performed extremely well and made a name for themselves. The ODI cricket was the least favoured format of this year due to the WTC final and ICC T20 World Cup. Let’s have a look at all the top wicket-takers of all three formats of the game this year.
Most wickets in 2021
List of leading wicket-takers in Test cricket in 2021
Ravichandran Ashwin dominated the test cricket this year. He was unplayable at home, whereas he had some good outings in Australia. There are as many as four Indian bowlers in the top-10 list. The Pakistani duo of Shaheen Afridi and Hasan Ali also took wickets, but they played against some easy opponents. Ollie Robinson turned out to be the shining star of the test cricket this year. Australia and New Zealand played very few games this year.
| Rank | Bowlers | Wickets | Average | BBM |
| 1 | Ravichandran Ashwin | 54 | 16.64 | 9/207 |
| 2 | Shaheen Afridi | 47 | 17.06 | 10/94 |
| 3 | Hasan Ali | 41 | 16.07 | 10/114 |
| 4 | James Anderson | 39 | 21.74 | 6/46 |
| 5 | Ollie Robinson | 37 | 21.16 | 7/81 |
🔥 Highest wicket-taker
💥 Top five run-getter
🖐️ Three fifers
💯 One hundredAnother masterful series for R Ashwin and he is the man of the series 👏 #INDvENG pic.twitter.com/hMSbIDtqcf
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) March 6, 2021
List of leading wicket-takers in T20Is in 2021
The 2021 year was dominated by the T20Is due to the World Cup. Wanindu Hasaranga emerged as the next big thing of the T20 format with his leg-spin. A lot of associate nations also played a lot of T20Is this year, and there are some surprises. Dinesh Nakrani of Uganda and Waseem Abbas of Malta are in the top-5 list of wicket-takers. India played very few games this year, and that’s why no Indian players even make the top-20 list.
| Rank | Bowlers | Wickets | Economy | BBM |
| 1 | Wanindu Hasaranga | 36 | 5.44 | 4/9 |
| 1 | Tabraiz Shamsi | 36 | 5.72 | 4/25 |
| 3 | Dinesh Nakrani | 35 | 5.05 | 6/7 |
| 4 | Waseem Abbas | 29 | 7.22 | 5/37 |
| 5 | Mustafizur Rahman | 28 | 7.00 | 4/12 |
List of leading wicket-takers in ODIs in 2021
ODI format was the least favoured format of the 2021 season. Most of the big teams played nominal games throughout the year. Sri Lanka played a lot of games, and Dushmantha Chameera emerged as the highest wicket-taker of the year. The spin duo of Simi Singh and Sandeep Lamichhane also impressed this season. Shakib’s return to the ODI format was excellent, whereas Mustafizur also continued his domination with the white-ball.
| Rank | Bowlers | Wickets | Economy | BBM |
| 1 | Dushmantha Chameera | 20 | 5.51 | 5/16 |
| 2 | Simi Singh | 19 | 3.67 | 5/10 |
| 3 | Sandeep Lamichhane | 18 | 3.17 | 6/11 |
| 3 | Mustafizur Rahman | 18 | 5.03 | 3/16 |
| 5 | Shakib al Hasan | 17 | 3.67 | 5/30 |
| 5 | Joshua Little | 17 | 4.68 | 4/39 |
