The race for the top wicket-taker in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 is heating up.
The T20 Cricket World Cups are mostly held biannually and achievements in the tournament hold great significance.
With nine scalps from two games, Afghanistan’s Fazalhaq Farooqi has the most wickets in the T20 World Cup 2024.
A total of seven bowlers, including four from Asia, have finished as the top wicket-takers in T20 World Cup cricket. Pakistan’s Umar Gul in 2007 and 2009, and Sri Lanka’s Wanindu Hasaranga, in 2021 and 2022, are the two bowlers who have topped the wicket-taking charts twice.
South Africa’s Imran Tahir and the Netherlands’ Ahsan Malik were the joint-highest wicket-takers in 2014 with 12 wickets each.
Hasaranga’s tally of 16 wickets at the 2021 edition held in the UAE and Oman is the most wickets any bowler has taken in any single edition. The right-arm leggie picked up 15 wickets in Australia in 2022.
Pakistan’s Umar Gul took 13 wickets in seven matches at the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007 and was the first player to become the top wicket-taker at back-to-back editions when he repeated the feat in 2009 with the same tally.
Interestingly, 2009 was the only time that the highest wicket-taker came from the team who eventually became champions.
Australia’s Dirk Nannes (2010), Sri Lanka’s Ajantha Mendis (2012) and Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi (2016) are the other three bowlers who have been the top wicket-takers at T20 World Cups.
Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan has picked up 47 wickets from 37 innings at an average of 19.4 and is the highest wicket-taker in the T20 World Cup history.
The 2024 T20 World Cup began on June 1 and the final will be played at the Kensington Oval in Barbados on June 29
Here’s an updated list of which bowler has taken the most wickets in the T20 World Cup 2024.