Most wickets in 2021: List of leading wicket-takers in Test cricket in 2021

Rishikesh Sharma | 31/12/2021
Most wickets in 2021: List of leading wicket-takers in Test cricket in 2021

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.

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

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
Post Edited By: Rishikesh Sharma
Most wickets in 2021 R Ashwin Wanindu Hasaranga

About the author

Rishikesh Sharma

An engineering graduate and an ardent sports fan, Rishikesh Sharma is covering cricket for three years now after not making peace with a corporate life and has written more than 5000 articles. While Sourav Ganguly made him fall in love with the sport, Brendon McCullum and Gautam Gambhir enhanced it. Apart from cricket, Rishikesh is a huge fan of Liverpool FC. When not watching sports, you will find him riding around Jaipur.

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