Five bowlers who have more wickets in IPL than international cricket

Several players make their name in the IPL before going to play for their country. While there are also players who are superstars for their country before coming to the IPL to ply their trade. But it is not often that players fare much better in IPL than they do for their cricket.

Even more rare is to see players having better records in the IPL than they do in international cricket. However, there have been bowlers who have played more consistently in the IPL than they have for their country and as a result have a better record. As a result, there are bowlers who have more wickets in IPL than international cricket. In this list, only bowlers who have played more than just a handful of games have been considered.

Here are five bowlers who have more wickets in IPL than international cricket:

Mohit Sharma

Mohit Sharma walked away with the Man of the Match on his ODI debut, was an integral part of the Indian bowling attack that helped India reach the semis of the 2015 World Cup but still has more wickets in the IPL than he does in international cricket (both ODIs and T20Is combined).

While he has represented India in both ODIs and T20Is, the emergence of Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and the evolution of Bhuvneshwar Kumar has meant that he hasn't played for India since October 2015. In total, he has played 26 ODIs and eight T20Is picking up 34 wickets in international cricket in total.

However, in the IPL, the right-arm pacer has been far more prolific picking up 83 wickets in 75 matches for Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab.

Piyush Chawla

Chawla has been incredibly consistent in the IPL

Piyush Chawla may have only played 35 matches for India but he has done something few players manage to achieve throughout the course of their entire career. The leg spinner has won both the World T20 and the World Cup while also representing his country across all three formats.

While he only has 43 wickets in 35 matches, his last appearance for India came in 2017. Still only 28, Chawla still has a chance of playing for India again but it will take a long time before he comes close to his tally of wickets in the IPL.

The leggie is the fourth-leading wicket-taker in the tournament's history and has 126 scalps in 129 matches. He has been an ever-present since the start of the IPL, whether it was for Kings XI Punjab or Kolkata Knight Riders.

Vinay Kumar

Vinay Kumar has played for India across all three formats

Despite a stellar domestic record that has consistently seen him among the leading wicket-takers among pacers, Vinay Kumar has played just 41 matches across all three formats for India. While he still harbors hope of representing India again, the quality of the current Indian pace attack, makes that unlikely.

However, the right-arm pacer does have 49 international wickets to his name, 38 of those have come in ODIs and 10 in T20Is. However, he has continually been among the wickets when it comes to the IPL. Although he has been moved around quite a bit, he is still one of only 10 bowlers to have picked up 100 wickets in the tournament.

Overall, he has played for four different IPL teams (Kochi Tuskers Kerala, Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore) and has 103 wickets in 103 matches.

Albie Morkel

Despite being a regular in the side, Albie has just 77 international scalps

Unlike many others on list, Albie Morkel was a regular for South Africa, evident from the fact that he has played at least 50 ODIs and T20Is apiece. For the Proteas, their strong bowling line-up often meant that Albie was used an all-rounder who was there to provide the final flourish with the bat and only contribute when needed with the ball, especially in T20Is.

That meant that despite playing 50 T20Is, he only picked up 26 wickets while he had 50 in 58 ODIs. Overall, he picked up 77 wickets in 109 matches for his country across all three formats.

In the IPL, however, he was used predominantly as a bowling all-rounder. With CSK, he opened the bowling and regularly among the wickets. In 91 matches for four different teams (Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils, Rising Pune Supergiant and Royal Challengers Bangalore), the all-rounder has 85 wickets, which is more than his international tally.

Lakshmipathy Balaji

Balaji had several memorable moments against Pakistan

In a career that was riddled with injuries, the right-arm pacer from Tamil Nadu played 43 matches for India across all three formats. While his international career wasn't long and successful, he still had plenty of memorable moments, especially against Pakistan. Balaji did finish with 71 wickets in his international career.

However, his IPL career was arguably more memorable as he was part of two separate IPL-winning sides and was the first player in the history of the tournament to take a hat-trick. That came against the Kings XI Punjab when he get rid of Irfan Pathan, Piyush Chawla and VRV Singh to help CSK win the match by 19 runs in the inaugural edition of the IPL.

In total, Balaji played seven seasons of the IPL, three each with CSK and KKR and solitary season with KXIP, with whom he played his final IPL match in 2014. He finished with 76 wickets in 73 matches, which is five more than his international tally.