Shane Warne: From 1000-plus international scalps to most wickets in a calendar year, a look at spin legend's career in numbers

He was the wizard, he was like that once in a generation player who not only walked the talk with his fingers but also showed time and again by making batsmen dance and his ball to Mike Getting on 4 June, 1993, then referred to as the ‘’Ball of the Century’’ is a testament to it.

From his famous flipper to his mind games, Warne not only conquered Tests, but he equally showed his skills in ODI cricket, and 1999 World Cup was undoubtedly his World Cup.

He created many world records during his playing days, and had many a famous duel with some of the world’s best batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara etc.

Looking back at the late spin legend's trophy-laden career, let us look at some of his major achievements through numbers:

Only Muttiah Muralitharan has taken more wickets than him in international cricket and in Test cricket. He is also at the second place in the list of players taking most five-wicket hauls and 10-wicket hauls in Test cricket behind Muralitharan. The interesting thing is that he took 319 wickets out of his total Test haul of 708 in Australia.

His best year in Test cricket came in 2005 where he picked up 96 wickets which is the most by any bowler in a calendar year in Tests till date. Australia lost only two out of 15 Tests during that year. He took 70-plus wickets in a calendar year in Tests four times — 1993, 1994, 2004 and 2005. In ODI cricket, he is at the joint-third place in the list of players taking most wickets in a calendar year.

If there is any tournament which has the greatest importance in Australian cricket in the Test cricket, it is the Ashes, and no player has taken more wickets in its history than Warne. Period.

And on top of that, his 195 wickets against England is also the most by a player against an opponent in Test cricket. The next on the list is Dennis Lillee who took 28 fewer wickets than Warne.

He played on tough wickets in Australia where the pacers had an upper hand but he is still at the fifth place in the list of players taking most wickets in a country in Test cricket. He took 455 wickets in international cricket in Australia — the most by any player in Australia and also the fourth most by any player in a country in international cricket.

He took the second most wickets for Australia in ODIs. His favourite bunny in ODI cricket was Daryll Cullinan. He dismissed him eight times while in Test cricket, it was Alec Stewart. He dismissed him 14 times.

Warne and Tendulkar met 29 times in international cricket and the leg-spinner dismissed him four times — three times in Tests and once in ODIs.

He also helped Rajasthan Royals win the inaugural season of IPL as a captain and helped Indian cricket identifying talents like Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja.

The records are meant to be broken but the legacy which SK Warne created will be remembered forever.

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