5 of the most prolific bowlers in world cricket across all formats so far in 2016

2016 has been a year that has produced some riveting cricket. Some of the highlights being West Indies becoming the World T20 Champions, India defeating Australia 3-0 in T20Is in their own backyard, Sri Lanka whitewashing Australia 3-0 in Test matches at home, India winning the first ever Asia Cup T20 and Pakistan becoming number one in Test rankings.

Though the year has been highly dominated by the batsmen, yet there are bowlers who have stood out with wonderful performances across all the three formats. Here are the top 5 leading bowlers who have done well in all formats:

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#5 Mitchell Santner

The left-arm spinner from New Zealand is one of the brightest young talents to have emerged from the nation off late. He made his international debut only last year and is already making a mark in the game. After the retirement of the legendary Daniel Vettori, he seems to be the ideal prospect in the spin department for the Kiwis.

He had a wonderful outing in the World T20 where he picked up 10 wickets in 5 matches at an economy rate of just 6.27 and finished 4^th amongst the leading wicket-takers of the tournament. His best performance came against India in the inaugural match of the tournament as he took 4 wickets for just 11 runs and bundled India out for only 79 runs.

Overall in T20Is this year, he has 15 wickets in 9 matches which has been the most fruitful format for him so far. He has played 4 Tests so far and grabbed 9 wickets in 6 innings. As New Zealand plays India in 3 Tests in the days to follow, he has a great chance to climb up with the turning wickets in India.

In ODIs, he has 8 wickets in 6 matches and is going for just under 6 runs per over. Across all formats, he has 32 wickets to his name so far.

Santner’s bowling stats this year:

Format	Matches	Innings	Wickets	Average	Economy	Best
Tests	4	6	9	28.00	2.44	16/2
ODIs	6	5	8	24.12	5.96	47/3
T20s	9	9	15	12.53	6.23	11/4

#4 Mohammad Amir

The feisty fast bowler from Pakistan made a comeback to international cricket this year after having a terrible time in the last few years due to spot-fixing scandal. He returned bigger and better and his pace and swing are still intact. There could not have been a better aid to the Pakistan team and the result is that they are sitting pretty on top of the Test rankings.

The left-hander troubled one and all with his fast swinging deliveries in the Asia Cup T20 and then later in the World T20. His best bowling figures of 18/3 in the format came against India in the Asia Cup where he made the strong batting line-up of India sweat in chasing a total of mere 84.

A lot was expected of him to exploit the swing-friendly conditions when Pakistan travelled to England. He did turn up with decent performances and bagged 12 wickets in the series as Pakistan put up a spirited performance to draw a 4 match series 2-2.

He has also picked up 10 wickets in the 7 ODIs he played so far which takes his wickets tally to a total of 33 across all formats.

Amir’s bowling stats so far:

Format	Matches	Innings	Wickets	Average	Economy	Best
Tests	4	8	12	42.41	3.13	39/2
ODIs	7	7	10	26.80	4.68	28/3
T20s	12	12	11	30.18	7.21	18/3

#3 Ravichandran Ashwin

The witty off-spinner from India is constantly doing well across all formats and surely has become the best bowler from the nation. Recently in the Caribbean, he grabbed 17 wickets in 4 Tests as India clinched the series 2-0. He also won his 6^th Man of the Series award of his career and in doing so, became the player with most Man of the Series awards for India.

He also became the number one bowler in Test rankings for a period and is currently number 3 on the list.

Not only Tests, he has been magnificent in the T20s too. He has 23 wickets to his name in the format, second only to Jasprit Bumrah amongst the leading wicket-takers. He registered his career-best figures of 8/4 against Sri Lanka which gave India a series win earlier this year and propelled them to number one in T20I rankings at that time.

India haven’t played too many ODIs this year and hence he has only 2 wickets to his name and a total of 42 across all formats. But he certainly would fancy his chances to bag heaps of wickets as India is to play a number of Test matches at home in the coming months.

Ashwin’s bowling stats so far:

Format	Matches	Innings	Wickets	Average	Economy	Best
Tests	4	7	17	23.17	3.00	83/7
ODIs	2	2	2	64.00	6.74	68/2
T20s	17	17	23	18.82	6.62	8/4

#2 Michell Starc

The tall left-arm fast bowler from Australia is being regarded as amongst the best bowlers in the world currently following his performances in the World Cup last year for which he won the Player of the Tournament award. His deadly pace combined with late swing is a lethal weapon against the batsmen.

He was injured for a certain part of this year and missed the World T20. He made a stunning comeback recently against Sri Lanka as he picked 24 wickets in just 3 Tests which included 3 fivers. He was the only bright spot in the Australian campaign in the Test series as they lost all the 3 matches.

He finished as the second highest wicket-taker behind Rangana Herath. For a fast bowler to put up such a performance in sub-continent conditions is truly commendable.

In ODIs too, he has turned up with good numbers with 20 wickets in 10 matches. In 2 T20s recently against Sri Lanka, he picked up 4 wickets to help Australia clinch the series 2-0. He has a total of 48 wickets in the year so far and is expected to get plenty more.

Starc’s bowling stats so far:

Format	Matches	Innings	Wickets	Average	Economy	Best
Tests	3	6	24	15.16	3.52	50/6
ODIs	10	10	20	19.45	4.47	32/3
T20s	2	2	4	14.50	7.25	26/3

#1 Kagiso Rabada

Perhaps the brightest young talent from South Africa, Rabada has been absolutely superb since his debut in the international career. He played the Under-19 World Cup a couple of years ago and the 21-year old is now shining in the senior team.

He started the year with a bang against England at home where he picked up 22 wickets in just 3 Tests and ended up being the leading wicket-taker of the series. Though South Africa lost the series 2-1, Rabada was the biggest positive to have emerged from it.

In the ODI series that followed against the same opposition, he continued the good work as he got 9 wickets in 5 matches and became the second highest wicket-taker of the series as South Africa won the series 3-2.

His T20I performances are also no different as he has 13 wickets in 8 matches. Overall, he has 56 wickets across all the 3 formats and is the most prolific bowler in the world so far in the year gone by.

Rabada’s bowling stats so far:

Format	Matches	Innings	Wickets	Average	Economy	Best
Tests	5	8	27	22.14	4.29	112/7
ODIs	10	9	16	23.06	4.68	45/4
T20s	8	8	13	20.84	8.64	25/2