5 Players With Most ODI Wickets In 2024

Bhargav Dixit

Wanindu Hasaranga celebrates a wicket. [Source: @TheYorkerBall/X]Wanindu Hasaranga celebrates a wicket. [Source: @TheYorkerBall/X]

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Four spinners and a lone pacer are among the five highest ODI wicket-takers in 2024. If the Top 10 players are taken into consideration, only three pacers make the list.

Interestingly, seven out of the 10 highest wicket-takers of the year belong to Association Nations. For context, only one player belonging to an Associate Nation was part of the same list in 2023. A major reason behind the same is the lack of ODI cricket played by Test Playing nations in spite of ICC Champions Trophy to be played in February 2025.

Nosthusha Kenjige (USA)

Nosthusha Kenjige has become the third USA cricketer to pick 20 wickets in ODIs in a calendar year. Having bowled 101 overs across 12 ODIs this year, the left-arm spinner dismissed batters at an average of 21.90, an economy rate of 4.33 and a strike rate of 30.30. Kenjige, who played all his matches within 13 weeks, peaked with bowling figures of 10-0-52-4 against Nepal in Dallas.

Aryan Dutt (Netherlands)

Among the wickets last year as well, Netherlands spinner Aryan Dutt bettered him numbers on the back of picking 21 wickets at an average of 18.71, an economy rate of 3.85 and a strike rate of 29.14. Readers must note that Dutt’s economy rate is the best among these five names despite leaking 44 runs in just three overs in his first match of the year against Nepal.

Facing Namibia a couple of days later at the same ground, Dutt registered career-best bowling figures of 9-0-34-6 in a match-winning effort. As the year progressed, there were two instances of him conceding runs at less than 2 runs per over in spite of bowling more than five overs.



AM Ghazanfar (Afghanistan)

With all his 11 ODIs coming this year, AM Ghazanfar, the latest name to erupt from Afghanistan’s spin-bowling factory, has had a terrific start to his international career. Having also dismissed 21 batters in 2024, Ghazanfar’s average of 13.57 is the best in this list.

Having secured an opulent INR 4.8 crore Indian Premier League deal at the age of 18, Ghazanfar caught five-time champions Mumbai Indians’ scouts’ attention for a reason. For the unversed, he is the only bowler to pick a couple of five-wicket hauls in this format this year.


Dilon Heyliger (Canada)

The fact that a Canadian cricketer is the joint-highest ODI wicket-taker in a calendar year is in itself a achievement to boast for the years to come. Having played 14 matches, the most among these players, pacer Dilon Heyliger picked 26 wickets at an average of 22.23, an economy rate of 4.95 and a strike rate of 26.92.

Therefore, also becoming the first Canadian bowler to pick more than 20 ODI wickets in a year. While Heyliger couldn’t pick a wicket in his first and last ODI of 2024, he picked at least one in all the remaining 12 outings including career-best bowling figures of 10-0-31-5 against Nepal in King City.

Wanindu Hasaranga (Sri Lanka)

Joint-highest wicket-taker in ODIs this year, Sri Lanka all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga is the only player to have not played more than 10 matches among the 10 best bowlers in 2024. Hasaranga, whose 26 wickets have come at an average of 15.61, an economy rate of 5.36 and a strike rate of 17.4, is the only bowler to strike at less than 20 (min. 15 wickets).



The leg-spinner’s year can be further analysed by the fact that he’s the only bowler to register one seven-wicket haul and three four-wicket hauls in what has been a career-best year for him.