Three Shane Warne Records That Will 'Never' Be Broken


image-lettzocrWarne picked up 708 Test wickets [Twitter]

March 4, 2022 will always be considered a dark day for cricket lovers. Arguably one of the greatest spinners of all-time, Shane Warne passed away due to a sudden heart-attack.

Warne left behind a great cricketing legacy and was one of the shrewdest brains in the history of this game. Having made his international debut in 1992, Warne started slowly, but once he got hold of the international stage, there was no looking back for the leg-spinner.

By the time Warne retired after the Ashes 2006-07, he had scalped 708 Test wickets, and 293 ODI wickets. So, on his death anniversary, we look at some of the Shane Warne records which will never be broken.

Most Test wickets in a calendar year

2005 was a special year for Shane Warne. There were times when he single-handedly won matches for Australia, and was their best player by a country mile. He picked up 96 wickets in that year, which still remains a record and perhaps will stay intact.

Out of the 96 wickets, Warnie picked up a whopping 40 wickets in the 2005 Ashes series and finished as the highest wicket-taker in the series.

Most wickets by a leg spinner

Warne was a wizard and no one came close to him. He was the second bowler after Muttiah Muralidaran to pick 700 wickets in Test cricket. Since then, no other bowler has reached closer to breaking that record, with James Anderson the only worthy contender left.

The art of leg-spin is getting diminished. They are largely dependent on batters making a mistake, which doesn't happen often. So keeping all of this in mind, it is highly unlikely that this long-standing record will ever be broken by a spinner.

Most wickets in The Ashes

When talking about Warne and his love-story with The Ashes, everyone knows his famous 2005 series, wherein he picked up 40 wickets and was miles ahead of the other bowlers. He last played an Ashes series in the 2006-07 season, which the Aussies won 5-0.

To keep this in record, out of his 708 wickets, 195 have come up against England in The Ashes. His former teammate, Glenn McGrath comes second with157 wickets, and amongst the active players, only Stuart Broad and James Anderson makes the list with 131, and 112 wickets respectively.