Indian Bowlers Who Have Picked 200+ Wickets In Both Test And ODIs

Indian cricket has produced a plethora of great batsman over the years, who, with their prodigious talent and exemplary work ethic and temperament, have continued to enthrall the folklore over the years. From Vijay Merchant, Tiger Pataudi to Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Vishwanath, Dilip Vengsarkar, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly and now Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, the list goes on and on and on.

But, it is the bowlers who win you games, right? Over the years, Indian cricket has been blessed with some brilliant bowler- spinners and fast bowlers. But, only five of them have gone to take more than 200 wickets in both Test and ODI cricket.

Here’s a look at Indian bowlers who have picked 200+ wickets in both Tests and ODIs-

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Javagal Srinath

Javagal Srinath. If there is ever a list made of the most underrated bowlers of all times, the Mysore Express Javagal Srinath will always be the first name that would come to mind. In many ways Srinath is the New Zealand of fast bowlers; overshadowed by his more celebrated contemporaries and left in the wilderness in his prime years and then reduced to a lone warrior in a team bloated by medium pacers.

For cricket fans, who didn’t see Javagal Srinath bowl in his youth, just search ‘unplayable deliveries’ on Youtube, and one of the first recommendations that will pop up will be Srinath’s inswinger yorker that cleaned up Keith Arthurton in 1992 in Australia.

Srinath had to wait for a long period of time to break into the Indian team on a regular basis as the team-management continued to persist with the duo of Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabhakar. It was only in 1994 that the Mysore Express played his maiden Test at home against the West Indies.

Srinath soon impinged himself as the leader of the bowling attack, often toiling away as a lone warrior. The right-hander was plagued with injuries during the second half of his career which led to a significant drop in pace but the prodigiously talented cricketer added enough variations in his repertoire to continue tormenting the batsmen.

Srinath, who announced his retirement post the 2003 World Cup, played in 67 Tests and 229 ODIs, claiming 236 and 315 wickets respectively. He still remains the only Indian fast bowler to claim more than 300+ ODI wickets.

Zaheer Khan

If Javagal Srinath was the leader of the Indian pace attack in the 90s, the same can be said about Zaheer Khan as far as the first decade of the 21st century.

Having burst on the scene in the 2000 ICC Knockout Trophy where he made a name for his himself courtesy his unplayable yorker, Zaheer grappled with constant injuries and inconsistency in the first five years of his career, and it was only after his county cricket that saw the left-arm fast bowler at his absolute best.

Between 2006 till the 2011 World Cup, Zaheer Khan was arguably the best fast bowler in the world and it was not only because of the number of wickets he took, it’s also because of the absolute mastery and control that he had over his craft. Peak Zaheer was someone who could make the ball talk whichever way he wanted. Zaheer was probably the most important member of the Indian team during that period and he was the chief orchestrator in two of the Men in Blue’s greatest triumphs- Test series win in England in 2007 and the 2011 World Cup win at home.

Post the 2011 World Cup, Zaheer’s career went downhill due to a consistent surge in his injuries. The southpaw played his last international fixture for India during the 2014 tour of New Zealand, post which he was once again sidelined due to injury, forcing him to call time on his career. Zaheer Khan represented India in 92 Tests and 200 ODIs and he remains one of the five bowlers from the country to take more than 200 wickets in both the formats- 311 in Tests and 282 in ODIs.

Harbhajan Singh

Harbhajan Singh was contemplating moving to Canada to pursue as a truck driver to support his family following the death of his father. Harbhajan had made his debut as a teenager back in 1998 but he couldn’t cash in on the opportunity and was soon dropped from the set-up.

Things only got worse when he was thrown out of the National Cricket Academy on disciplinary grounds. It was at this stage that then Indian captain Sourav Ganguly showed confidence in Bhajji and went out of his way to ensure he got selected in the 2001 Test series against Australia after Anil Kumble was ruled out due to injury.

The rest, as they say, is history. Bhajji not only went on to become the first-ever Indian bowler to take a Test hat-trick, but he also ended up as the highest wicket-taker in the series -32 in 3 matches- as India scripted a historic series win. Harbhajan impinged himself as a permanent member of the Indian set-up for the next decade where he along with Anil Kumble scripted many memorable triumphs for the country.

The third Indian bowler to claim more than 400 Test wickets, Harbhajan Singh represented the country in 103 Tests and 234 ODIs, in which he claimed 417 and 265 wickets respectively.

Anil Kumble

He was downplayed for not spinning the ball. He was almost ridiculed of being a medium-pace bowler masquerading as a spinner. But,

Anil Kumble just kept converting the stones hurled on him into milestones, finishing his career as probably the biggest match-winner alongside Kapil Dev that India has ever produced.

Having made his debut back in 1990, Anil Kumble enjoyed great success at home in the first decade of his career but he largely struggled to emulate those feats in overseas conditions [50 wickets in 52 Tests at an average of 37.30]. But, a keen student of the game that Kumble was, he compensated substantially for his struggles overseas during the second phase of his career. In the last eight years of his career, Anil Kumble was the most successful Indian bowler in away conditions. He claimed a total of 168 wickets in 40 Tests at an average of 34.43 with the 2003-04 Australian tour undoubtedly his finest hour.

Such was Kumble’s brilliance in Test match cricket that people often tend to forget how good a bowler he was in limited-overs cricket. He is still the highest wicket-taker [334 in 269 ODIs] and his record of best figures in an innings [6-12 vs West Indies, Hero Cup final 1993] stood the test of time for 21 years until Stuart Binny broke it courtesy his outrageous 4-6 against Bangladesh.

Kumble, who remains only the second bowler in the history of the game to claim all 10 wickets in an innings, called time in his career in 2008 after having taken 619 and 337 wickets [three ODI wickets were for Asia XI] respectively.

Kapil Dev

Whenever the history of the evolution of Indian fast bowling is written, it will basically be divided into two eras- Pre-Kapil Dev and Post-Kapil Dev.

India is blessed with a great fast bowling attack currently but I can’t help but wonder what would have been the case had Kapil Dev not arrived on the scene in the late 70s.

Indian attack till Kapil Dev’s entry International cricket in 1978 was predominantly dominated by the famed spin bowling quartet of Bedi-Prassana-Chandrashekhar-Venkataraghavan.

That all changed with the entry of the ‘Haryana Hurricane’. Kapil Dev’s success gave wings of dream to all the budding Indian cricketers to take up fast bowling.

During the course of the entire 1980s, Kapil Dev was not the leader of the Indian bowling attack, he was also one of the leading all-rounders in the world.

The ‘Haryana Hurricane’ represented India in 131 Tests and 225 ODIs, and was the first bowler from the country to breach the 200 wicket mark in both formats- 433 in Tests and 253 in ODIs.