Muttiah Muralitharan
Muttiah Muralitharan (Credits - AP Photo)
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Spinners’ role has often stayed underrated in all forms of cricket, especially Tests. Apart from the sub-continent cricketing nations, the rest barely trust spinners to make the desired impact. Most teams use spinners to either hold an end or giving rest to the fast bowlers, reducing the chances of causing low-over rate. However, beyond these basic reasons, there are reasons to utilise the spin-bowlers.

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Apart from being able to bowl longer spells, when the rough gets created, they have a massive role to play. Also, not all batsmen fare well against spinners and tend to fall to the trap when served flighted deliveries. And even as most sides have nurtured fast bowlers more, spinners have cashed in on the chances too. For a handful of cricketing nations, spin bowlers have remained their highest wicket-takers by a mile.

On that note, we take a look at the highest wicket-takers among spinners for each Test team:

Ray Price (Zimbabwe) – 80 wickets

Spinners With Most Test Wickets For Each Country
Ray Price. (Credits: Twitter)

Ray Price was once Zimbabwe’s best spinner after Paul Strang. Having made his debut in 1999, he picked up seven wickets only in the second Test and indeed appeared as an excellent prospect for red-ball cricket. Price kept rising along the ranks by picking up consecutive five-wicket hauls, one against India in 2001-02 and a six-for against Australia in 2003.

The 43-year old wasn’t a big spinner of the ball. Instead, the left-arm spinner relied on deceiving the batsmen in the air, depending on the pitch to do the rest. He retired from international cricket in 2013, having represented Zimbabwe in 22 Tests, 102 ODIs, and 15 T20Is. In the longest version, Ray Price accumulated 80 scalps at 36.06.

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