Most ducks in international cricket: Muttiah Muralitharan’s 59 leads the list

He was dismissed without scoring 59 times in 495 internationals — 33 in Tests, 25 in ODIs and once in a T20I. Courtney Walsh is next on 54.

Most ducks in international cricket: everyone on 43 or more

These figures combine Tests, ODIs and T20Is.

Player	Team	Span	Mat	Ducks
Muttiah Muralitharan	Sri Lanka	1992-2011	495	59
Courtney Walsh	West Indies	1984-2001	337	54
Sanath Jayasuriya	Sri Lanka	1989-2011	586	53
Stuart Broad	England	2006-2023	344	49
Glenn McGrath	Australia	1993-2007	376	49
Mahela Jayawardene	Sri Lanka	1997-2015	652	47
Daniel Vettori	New Zealand	1997-2015	442	46
James Anderson	England	2002-2024	401	45
Wasim Akram	Pakistan	1984-2003	460	45
Chris Gayle	West Indies	1999-2021	483	44
Zaheer Khan	India	2000-2014	309	44
Shahid Afridi	Pakistan	1996-2018	524	44
Shane Warne	Australia	1992-2007	339	44
Lasith Malinga	Sri Lanka	2004-2020	340	43
Younis Khan	Pakistan	2000-2017	408	43

James Anderson is the newest name on it. He was not on this page’s previous list at all; he retired in 2024 on 45, and Stuart Broad finished a year earlier on 49.

It is not only a list of tail-enders

Ten of the fifteen are bowlers, and the reason is obvious: they bat last, they bat against the new ball only when the innings collapses, and nobody minds. The other five are the interesting ones. Jayasuriya, Jayawardene, Gayle, Shahid Afridi and Younis Khan all finished with more than 10,000 international runs, and Jayawardene with nearly 26,000.

Long careers and attacking cricket both cost ducks. Jayasuriya batted in 433 ODI innings and Gayle in 294; play that many times at the top of the order and some of them end at nought.

The record in each format

Courtney Walsh has the most Test ducks, 43, from 185 innings. Stuart Broad is second on 39 and Chris Martin third on 36.

Sanath Jayasuriya has the most in ODIs, 34, ahead of Shahid Afridi’s 30 and 28 each for Jayawardene and Wasim Akram.

The T20I record belongs to Dasun Shanaka, on 16, and he is still playing. The format has only existed since 2005, which is why its numbers are so much smaller than the other two.

India’s list

Zaheer Khan has the most ducks of any India player, 44 — 43 of them for India and one for an Asia XI. Virat Kohli is next on 40 and is still playing, level with Ishant Sharma, and Jasprit Bumrah and Harbhajan Singh follow on 37 each.

Format	India record	Ducks
Tests	Ishant Sharma	34
ODIs	Sachin Tendulkar	20
T20Is	Rohit Sharma	12

Ishant’s 34 Test ducks put him joint-fifth on the all-time Test list, alongside James Anderson and Shane Warne. Sanju Samson has the most T20I ducks among India’s current players, on eight.

For the other end of the batting record, see our list of the players with the most centuries in Test cricket.

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Featured photo: PAUL ELLIS / AFP