Will anyone reach to 800 Test wickets? Sri Lankan legend Muttiah Muralitharan opines
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Muralitharan went on to explain why there may not be another golden era in spin cricket in Tests.
Sri Lanka's spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan is the only bowler in the history of Test cricket to scalp 800 wickets. Former Lankan legend achieved this feat after dismissing Pragyan Ojha at Galle in 2010, which was also his final Test match.
Ten years since the record and no bowler has neared the record. However, in the current generation, India's Ravichandran Ashwin and Australia's Nathan Lyon have had a prolific career in Test cricket for their respective countries. When asked on who could break this record, Muralitharan replied that India's R Ashwin has a chance at it.
"Will anyone reach to 800 wickets? Ashwin has a chance because he is a great bowler," Muralitharan told the Sydney Morning Herald. "Other than that, I don't think any younger bowler coming in will go to 800. Maybe Nathan Lyon is not good enough to reach it. He is close to 400 but he has had to play many, many matches to get there."
Muralitharan went on to explain why there may not be another golden era in spin cricket in Tests.
"The problem in Test cricket is that Twenty20s and one-day internationals have changed the dynamics. When I played, the batsmen were technically so good and wickets were flat; now, they try to finish matches in three days," the former off-spinner added.
"The bowlers in my day had to do extra work to get spin and do something magic to get results. Nowadays, if you bowl line and length over a period of time, you will get five wickets. It is guaranteed because batsmen cannot stay for long without attacking.
"You have a better chance of taking wickets, which is why spinners only have to set the field properly, bowl line and length and let the pitches and batsmen do the rest. Spinners used to have to work hard for wickets, which is why they worked hard on developing other deliveries. Now they do that in T20 cricket instead. They bowl different variations because batsmen are coming after them. But in Test cricket you don't need to do it."