Hyderabad: In Test cricket, where bowling and batting both have equal weightage, some of the bowlers have etched their names in the history books with unique feats. While batters put in hard yards to score runs, some of the bowlers have mastered the art of taking wickets.
Usually, a cricketer has more number of runs scored next to him as compared to the wickets he has taken in his career. However, there are some exceptions to the norm and some of the players have amassed more wickets than runs taken in Test cricket.
This list of unique cricketers indicated bowlers who had an excellent wicket-taking ability and that culminated in them taking regular wickets.
Bowlers with more wickets than runs taken in Test cricket
Bhagwath Chandrasekhar (India) - 242 wickets, 167 runs
The great Indian spinner was a part of the spin bowling quarter in the Indian team in the 1960s and 1970s. The quartet included himself, Erapalli Prasanna, S. Venkatraghavan and Bishen Singh Bedi. The Indian spin quartet produced some historic wins with the battery of such quality spin bowlers.
Chandrasekhar’s art of taking wickets is evident from the fact that there is a difference of 75 between his runs and wickets. The leg-spinner played 58 Tests taking 242 wickets and accumulating 167 runs throughout his career.
Chris Martin (New Zealand): 233 wickets, 123 runs
The medium pacer for New Zealand, Chris Martin is at the second spot in the list of the cricketers with more wickets than runs scored. Martin was one of the lead bowlers for the national side in the 2000s. The right-arm pacer showed immaculate precision during his red ball.
Martin played in 71 fixtures taking 233 wickets from them while scoring 123 runs. Martin was an effective bowler and a gap of 110 between runs and wickets highlight it.
Bruce Reid (Australia): 113 wickets, 93 runs
The tall left-arm fast bowler, Bruce Reid played his first international game for Australia against India at Adelaide in 1985. Two of the best moments in his career came around 1990. He took 13 wickets against England at Melbourne in 1990 and took 12 wickets a year later at the same venue against India.
Reid picked 113 wickets with an average of 24.63. He scored 93 runs in his Test career. In 27 matches, the pacer scalped 113 wickets with an average of 24.63. Apart from that, he has amassed 93 runs in his Test career.
Pragyan Ojha (India): 113 wickets, 89 runs
The left-arm orthodox spinner made his Test debut against Sri Lanka in November 2009. Ojha was regarded to be one of the quality spinners in Indian cricket, but he always remained in the shadows of Harbhajan Singh who was the lead spinner for the Indian team.
Ojha picked 113 wickets from 24 Test matches while racking up 89 runs with the bat.
Jack Saunders (Australia): 79 wickets, 39 runs
Former Australian left-arm spinner made his Test debut against England in 1902. During six years of his career for the national side, Saunders featured in 14 Test matches taking 79 wickets and amassed 39 runs.
Saunders had a bowling average of 22.73 with the ball which includes four or more wickets in an innings on 12 occasions. He has scored 39 runs and so the difference between the two metrics is 40 which indicates his ability to dismiss the batters.
