Muttiah Muralitharan Profile – ICC Ranking, Age, Career Info & Stats

Deshabandu Muttiah Muralitharan is a former professional cricketer who used to play for Sri Lankan international cricket team. He is the most successful bowler of all time. The player is the only bowler in cricket history to take 800 test wickets and 534 wickets. He has the highest wickets in both test and ODI. He is also a member of the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

Full Name: Deshabandu Muttiah Muralitharan

Born: April 17, 1972

Age: 50

Height: 5 ft 7 in (170cm)

Nationality: Sri Lanka

Bowling Style: Right Arm Offbreak

Batting Style: Right handed

Batting Career

Check out Muralitharan’s batting stats.

Format	Matches	Inningss	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100s	50s	4s	6s
Test	133	164	56	1261	67	11.67	1794	70.28	0	1	146	29
ODI	350	162	63	674	33*	6.80	869	77.56	0	0	50	130
T20I	12	2	0	1	1	0.50	5	20.00	0	0	0	0
FC	232	276	83	2192	67	11.35	–	–	0	1	–	–
List A	453	205	76	945	33*	7.32	–	–	0	0	–	–
T20	164	38	14	81	11	3.37	110	73.63	0	0	3	2

Bowling Career

Check out Muralitharan’s amazing bowling career.

Format	Matches	Inningss	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	5w	10w
Test	133	230	44039	18180	800	9/51	16/220	22.72	2.47	55.0	67	22
ODI	350	341	18811	12326	534	7/30	7/30	23.08	3.93	35.2	10	0
T20I	12	12	282	297	13	3/29	3/29	22.84	6.31	21.6	0	0
FC	232	–	66933	26997	1374	9/51	–	19.64	2.42	48.7	119	34
List A	453	–	23734	15270	682	7/30	7/30	22.39	3.86	34.8	12	0
T20	164	164	3705	3945	179	4/16	4/16	22.03	6.38	20.6	0	0

Early Career

Muralitharan started his international career in 1992 when he was only 20 years old. The match was against Australia at the Khettarama Stadium. He took three wickets by giving 141 runs, and his first wicket was Craig McDermott. Though there were so many controversies regarding his bowling action, he took the wicket of Tom Moody by dislodging his leg stump.

In 1992-93, Muralitharan showed his strength, and this led Sri Lanka to victory against New Zealand and England. This was the time that he was successful in making a good rapport with the captain of the Sri Lankan captain, Arjuna Ranatunga. And from that day onwards, Ranatunga had no doubt about Muralitharan. In 1993, he was successful in taking 5 wickets against South Africa.

Career Breakthrough

Later, in 1993-94, Muralitharan showed amazing stats and was the only player to stand still. When the Sri Lankan team was unsuccessful in having to victory, Muralitharan took 12 wickets, including the wickets of Vinod Kambli, Navjot Sindhu, Sachin Tendulkar, and Mohammed Azharuddin. In 1995, he showed his brilliance on foreign soil. Sri Lanka defeated Pakistan by 2-1 in a three-match series, and Muralitharan took 19 wickets in the series.

His statistics were amazing at that time. Within a couple of years since his debut, with an average of 32.74, he was successful in taking 8 wickets in 22 Test matches. In 1996, there was an incident where Muralitharan was detected throwing the ball. Then Sri Lankan Cricket Board requested ICC to investigate the matters. After investigating ICC’s biomechanical analysis by the University of Western Australia, Muralitharan was cleared. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology stated the same as well. The conclusion of both analyses was that,

“Optical illusion of throwing.”

Mid Career

In 1996, Sri Lanka won the ICC Cricket World Cup. Later that year, Muralitharan was the first cricketer to take 100 test wickets in Sri Lankan Cricket history. In the Hamilton test, Murali took the wicket of Stephen Fleming. In 1998, Murali got his first ten-wicket haul at Kandy. Sri Lanka won against Zimbabwe by 8 wickets. In the same year, he was able to produce his best career start by taking 16 wickets in two innings by giving 220 runs.

In 1998, Murali succeed in taking 200 wickets. Within two years, and after playing only 58 matches, Murali was successful to complete his 300th wicket. And with time, Murali took acceleration in taking wickets. In his 72nd test, Murali reached the 400 wicket landmark. At that time, he was the fastest and youngest player who reached 400 wickets. In 2004, Murali reached 500 wickets. Again he was the youngest and fastest bowler in taking 500 wickets.

Passing Warne And Walsh

As of 2004, the highest wicket-taker in test cricket was Courtney Walsh. He was a West Indian Cricketer, and he had a record of taking 519 wickets. Murli passed his record in May 2004. At this time, Warne and Murli were competing with each other in the race of highest test wicket takers.

In 2006, Murli was in the World Test XI by ICC. In 2007, Murli reached the 700-wicket milestone and became the second player to cross the 700-wicket boundary.

World Record

The day came when Murli could put his name in the history of cricket. In 2008, Sri Lanka faced India. And India’s batting was furious at that time. But both Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajanta Mendis were tremendous in the first game. Sri Lanka won by a record 239 runs and innings. Murli took 11 wickets by giving 110 runs in both innings.

First, he crossed Warne by taking the wicket of Paul Collingwood. Then his 750th wicket was Sourav Ganguly. And finally, in 2010, their match was against India, and Murli was eight wickets away from the milestone. And he took the last wicket of Pragyan Ojha, this completed the 18-year journey where he took 800 wickets.

Final Words

Other than taking wickets and being at the top of the highest wicket-takers in both ODI and Test formats, Murli has been a humble person. Many Sri Lankan cricketers have said that he is really humble and a good person. Right now, he is into coaching. Other than taking the highest wickets, there are other records that he has.