5 Cricketers With Most Wickets Across Formats In 2024
![Most wickets across all formats in 2024 [Source: @cricketcomau/x]](https://onecricketnews.akamaized.net/parth-editor/oc-dashboard/news-images-prod/1735594760773_jasprit_bumrah.jpg?type=mq)
Most wickets across all formats in 2024 [Source: @cricketcomau/x]
The year 2024 witnessed some extraordinary bowling displays across all formats, with one particular Indian bowler even shaping the course of the year’s sole ICC event, the 2024 T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the USA. Celebrating some of the world’s most renowned bowlers, we take a look at five cricketers who finished the year as its highest wicket-takers across all international formats.
5. Matt Henry – 59 wickets
New Zealand fast bowler Matt Henry picked up 59 wickets in 25 innings, spanning 16 matches throughout the year 2024. The speedster collected 48 of them in his nine Test appearances for New Zealand at an impressive average of just 18.58, which included 10 wickets during his team’s historic 3-0 series win in India.
The 33-year-old claimed his remaining 11 wickets in seven T20I matches, including four across two different match-winning spells against Sri Lanka at the Bay Oval during the final week of the year. Matt Henry also snared three five-wicket hauls, each of them with the red ball, and finished 2024 as the fifth most successful all-format bowler and the fourth-highest wicket-taker of the year in Tests.
4. Alzarri Joseph – 63 wickets
Tearaway paceman Alzarri Joseph aced every single international format for the West Indies throughout the year 2024. In seven Tests, he picked up 26 wickets at an average of 33.61, with an impressive strike rate of 43.61. The cricketer picked up another 15 scalps in nine ODI innings and his remaining 22 victims in 19 T20I matches to finish his 12-month journey with an astonishing collection of 63 wickets, Joseph’s second-best yearly haul since claiming 70 wickets in the 34 matches of 2022.
Alzarri Joseph’s all-format dexterity elevated him to becoming one of the leaders of the West Indies’ pace bowling attack, especially in white-ball cricket, where he constantly operates with the new ball.
3. Taskin Ahmed – 63 wickets
Bangladesh speedster Taskin Ahmed also picked up 63 wickets in international cricket, albeit in 34 innings across 30 matches in 2024. The 29-year-old maintained an annual all-format average of 19.23 and delivered his team a wicket every 24 balls. Ahmed snared 19 wickets in four Tests, 14 in seven ODIs, and an astonishing 30 scalps in just his 19 T20I matches, which included eight during the 2024 T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the USA.
Taskin Ahmed seems to have flourished the most in T20Is, considering he harvested 30 wickets at an average of just 16.60. Moreover, Ahmed’s seven-wicket series haul against the West Indies in December engineered Bangladesh’s stunning 3-0 T20I triumph in the Caribbean.
2. Wanindu Hasaranga – 64 wickets
Sri Lankan spin wizard Wanindu Hasaranga finished his 12-month period as ODI cricket’s highest wicket-taker of the year with 26 scalps and as T20I cricket’s third highest wicket-taker with 38 wickets. Moreover, Hasaranga’s 38-wicket haul in T20Is makes him the most effective bowler of the year among Test-playing nations, leaving behind even India’s 2024 T20 World Cup-winning speedster Arshdeep Singh (36 wickets) and Pakistan pace demon Shaheen Afridi (36 wickets).
With 64 scalps overall in 30 matches, Hasaranga was undoubtedly the best bowler of 2024, specifically in white-ball cricket. The 27-year-old maintained an average of 14.72 and conceded runs at just 6.24 an over despite bowling on some high-scoring surfaces.
1. Jasprit Bumrah – 86 wickets
Without playing a single ODI match in 2024, India’s all-format pace master Jasprit Bumrah finished the year as its highest wicket-taker by a landslide. The speedster picked up 71 wickets in just 13 Tests for India to catapult his career tally past the 200-wicket mark in the process. Moreover, Bumrah maintained an average of just 14.92, the best among all bowlers of the year, with more than 50 wickets to their names.
The 31-year-old snapped his remaining 15 wickets in eight T20I matches, all during India’s triumphant 2024 T20 World Cup crusade in the West Indies and the USA, where his sheer brilliance also earned him a ‘Player of the Tournament’ award. In the title clash against South Africa, he knocked over Reeza Hendricks and Marco Jansen with dream deliveries and conceded just 18 runs from his four overs.
With 86 wickets throughout the year at an average of 13.76 and a strike rate of 26.97, Jasprit Bumrah finds himself an astonishing 22 wickets ahead of the year’s second-most successful bowler, Wanindu Hasaranga.
 "Aakash Saini")
