The first edition of the Cricket World Cup took place in 1975 under a different name and with different playing rules as well. Today, the ODI World Cup has got a long and rich history, with several countries claiming the crown and many individual players also going down in the competition’s history, with both bat as well as ball. Earlier, we pointed out the top 10 batters in ICC World Cup history.
On this page, we’re going to run you through some of the leading wicket-takers in ODI World Cup history. While batters are the more flamboyant ones, it’s usually the bowlers who win teams matches. We’ve covered the ODI World Cup most wickets list below, which includes both former players as well as a couple of current international cricketers.
ICC World Cup 2023 most wickets list
Topping the list is legendary Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath who was known for his Test line and length but his ODI World Cup stats clearly shows that he was brilliant in limited overs cricket as well. With 71 wickets in only 39 Cricket World Cup matches, we don’t see any overtaking him anytime soon on our ODI World Cup most wickets list, last updated on 3rd Nov 2023, during the ICC World Cup 2023:
| Bowler | Career span | Wickets (Matches) | 4-fers/5-fers | Best spell |
| Glenn McGrath 🇦🇺 | 1996-2007 | 71 (39) | 0 /2 | 7/15 |
| Muttiah Muralitharan 🇱🇰 | 1996-2011 | 68 (40) | 4 / 0 | 4/19 |
| Mitchell Starc 🇦🇺 | 2015-2023 | 56 (24) | 3 / 3 | 6/28 |
| Lasith Malinga 🇱🇰 | 2007-2019 | 56 (29) | 2 / 1 | 6/38 |
| Wasim Akram 🇵🇰 | 1987-2003 | 55 (38) | 2 / 1 | 5/28 |
| Chaminda Vaas 🇱🇰 | 1996-2007 | 49 (31) | 1 / 1 | 6/25 |
| Trent Boult 🇳🇿 | 2015-2023 | 49 (26) | 3 / 1 | 5/27 |
| Mohammed Shami 🇮🇳 | 2015-2023 | 45 (14) | 4 / 3 | 5/18 |
| Zaheer Khan 🇮🇳 | 2003-2011 | 44 (23) | 1 / 0 | 4/42 |
| Javagal Srinath 🇮🇳 | 1992-2003 | 44 (34) | 2 / 0 | 4/30 |
McGrath is not the only Australian pacer on the all-time ODI World Cup wicket-takers list as there’s also Mitchell Starc right up there in third place, and the highest ranked player from current international cricketers. With an economy rate of 5.04 in the ICC World Cup, he’s the mos expensive player on this ODI World Cup top wicket-takers list, but he’s still a massive weapon for Australia in these big competitions.
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Nine out of ten players on the ICC World Cup top wicket-takers list are pacers with the sole exception being Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan. He has 68 wickets in his Cricket World Cup career and like McGrath, we don’t see him being touched on this ranking anytime soon. Shakib al Hasan (41 wickets) and Imran Tahir (40 wickets) are two other spinners who narrowly miss out on this top 10 list.
A special mention goes out to India’s Mohammed Shami who has played the least number of matches on this list. No one else has played less than 20 World Cup games but he’s still managed to impress one and all in this competition while also maintaining the lowest strike rate (15.75) and lowest bowling average (12.91) among players on this CWC top wicket-takers list.
Mohammed Shami , what a guy.
A World Cup great, 45 wkts in 14 games is stunning. Our highest wicket taker in World Cup cricket. Deserves so much more credit than he gets. pic.twitter.com/b4TdDbTLwH— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) November 2, 2023
Shami and Muralitharan are the only players to have four 4-fers each while in terms of getting 5-wicket hauls, it’s Starc and Shami who lead the pack with three 5-fers each in ODI World Cup cricket. For more updates on ICC World Cup 2023 and on overall cricketing news from around the world, stay tuned to ReadScoops.com…
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