Most wickets in the Asia Cup: Kuldeep Yadav leads on 36
Kuldeep Yadav has 36 Asia Cup wickets across both formats, more than anyone. Muttiah Muralitharan leads the ODI list on 30. Full bowling records, 1984 to 2025.
Sep 11, 2022 · Updated Aug 31, 2026
Kuldeep Yadav has taken 36 wickets in the Asia Cup, more than any bowler in the tournament’s history, and he does not top either of the two lists it is made of. Muttiah Muralitharan’s 30 is the record in the 50-over Asia Cup; Kuldeep’s 17 in 2025 is the record in the Twenty20 version, level with Haris Rauf. Add the two halves of Kuldeep’s career together and nobody else gets close.
Most wickets in the ODI Asia Cup, 1984 to 2023
Fourteen of the 17 Asia Cups have been played over 50 overs, and they produced this list. Sri Lanka’s bowlers dominate the top of it.
| Player | Span | Mat | Wkts | Best | Ave | Econ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Muttiah Muralitharan (SL) | 1995-2010 | 24 | 30 | 5/31 | 28.83 | 3.75 |
| Lasith Malinga (SL) | 2004-2018 | 14 | 29 | 5/34 | 20.55 | 4.65 |
| Ajantha Mendis (SL) | 2008-2014 | 8 | 26 | 6/13 | 10.42 | 3.98 |
| Saeed Ajmal (PAK) | 2008-2014 | 12 | 25 | 3/26 | 19.40 | 4.21 |
| Ravindra Jadeja (IND) | 2010-2023 | 20 | 25 | 4/29 | 26.28 | 4.34 |
| Chaminda Vaas (SL) | 1995-2008 | 19 | 23 | 3/30 | 27.78 | 4.19 |
| Irfan Pathan (IND) | 2004-2012 | 12 | 22 | 4/32 | 27.50 | 5.54 |
| Sanath Jayasuriya (SL) | 1990-2008 | 25 | 22 | 4/49 | 30.31 | 4.48 |
| Abdur Razzak (BAN) | 2004-2014 | 18 | 22 | 3/17 | 36.18 | 4.67 |
| Shakib Al Hasan (BAN) | 2010-2023 | 18 | 22 | 4/42 | 36.95 | 4.74 |
| Kuldeep Yadav (IND) | 2018-2023 | 11 | 19 | 5/25 | 17.89 | 3.93 |
Most wickets in the T20 Asia Cup, 2016 to 2025
Three editions have been played as Twenty20 tournaments — 2016, 2022 and 2025 — which is why the totals are smaller and why a bowler can reach the top of this list in a single good fortnight.
| Player | Span | Mat | Wkts | Best | Ave | Econ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kuldeep Yadav (IND) | 2025 | 7 | 17 | 4/7 | 9.29 | 6.27 |
| Haris Rauf (PAK) | 2022-2025 | 11 | 17 | 3/29 | 18.70 | 8.29 |
| Hardik Pandya (IND) | 2016-2025 | 14 | 15 | 3/8 | 21.80 | 7.51 |
| Rashid Khan (AFG) | 2016-2025 | 11 | 14 | 3/22 | 19.64 | 6.39 |
| Bhuvneshwar Kumar (IND) | 2016-2022 | 6 | 13 | 5/4 | 9.46 | 5.34 |
| Jasprit Bumrah (IND) | 2016-2025 | 10 | 13 | 2/18 | 17.61 | 6.33 |
| Taskin Ahmed (BAN) | 2016-2025 | 11 | 13 | 3/28 | 21.15 | 7.05 |
| Mustafizur Rahman (BAN) | 2016-2025 | 11 | 13 | 3/20 | 23.46 | 7.26 |
| Amjad Javed (UAE) | 2016 | 7 | 12 | 3/25 | 14.08 | 7.34 |
| Al-Amin Hossain (BAN) | 2016 | 5 | 11 | 3/25 | 12.18 | 7.96 |
How Kuldeep Yadav gets to 36 without leading either table
Nineteen wickets in the 50-over Asia Cups of 2018 and 2023, and 17 more in the Twenty20 tournament of 2025. That is 36, and it is six clear of Muralitharan, who never played a Twenty20 Asia Cup — the format only arrived in 2016, five years after he retired from international cricket.
The rest of the ODI top order cannot close that gap either. Both lists above are published with a cut-off of five wickets, and Malinga, Mendis and Jadeja do not appear on the Twenty20 one at all, so their Twenty20 tallies are four or fewer. That caps Malinga at 33, Mendis at 30 and Jadeja at 29. Shakib Al Hasan, the only man near the top of the ODI list with a Twenty20 return of his own, has 22 and six for 28.
It is a record built the way modern Asia Cup records now get built: two formats, one career, and a tournament that changes shape every couple of years.
Seventeen wickets in one Asia Cup, and it has happened twice
Kuldeep’s 2025 is the most wickets any bowler has taken in a single edition of the tournament — and it matches exactly what Ajantha Mendis did in 2008.
| Player | Edition | Mat | Wkts | Best | Ave | Econ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ajantha Mendis (SL) | 2008 (ODI) | 5 | 17 | 6/13 | 8.52 | 3.45 |
| Kuldeep Yadav (IND) | 2025 (T20) | 7 | 17 | 4/7 | 9.29 | 6.27 |
Mendis did it in two fewer matches and in a format that gave him ten overs a game rather than four. His 6 for 13 against India in the 2008 final at Karachi is still the best analysis anyone has produced in an Asia Cup match, and only one other bowler has taken six in an innings: Mohammed Siraj, 6 for 21 against Sri Lanka in the 2023 final. Kuldeep’s was the compressed version — 25.1 overs across the whole tournament, 17 wickets, and India’s ninth title.
The older half of the record belongs to Sri Lanka
Four of the top six wicket-takers in the ODI Asia Cup are Sri Lankan, and they are four different kinds of bowler: Muralitharan’s off spin, Mendis’s carrom ball, Malinga’s yorkers and Vaas’s left-arm swing. Between them they took 108 Asia Cup wickets.
The Twenty20 list has gone the other way. Four of its top eight are India bowlers, and the two names above all of them are a wrist spinner who has played one edition of it and a fast bowler who has played two.
For the tournament’s team record rather than the bowling one, see most wins in the Asia Cup, and for every champion since 1984, the Asia Cup winners list.
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Featured photo: DIBYANGSHU SARKAR / AFP