Former Sri Lankan cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan is the greatest spinners of all the time and his numbers also speak the same. He is the highest Test wicket-taker, picking 800 wickets in 133 Tests. What Murali has done in bowling is akin to what Sachin Tendulkar has done in batting. His former teammate Mahela Jayawardene has said that he is incomparable because he had a different approach towards the game.
Jayawardene has also pulled down the comparison with Australia’s great spinner Shane Warne, saying that Warne didn’t have the variations that Muttiah Muralitharan had in his book.
Muttiah Muralitharan has confused several batsmen with his impressive spin bowling and variations. He has been the one-man army at several occasions for Sri Lanka. Being the strength of the bowling department for over a decade, he has played 350 ODIs and 12 T20Is in his career and picked up 534 and 13 wickets respectively.
Mahela Jayawardene Draws Comparison between Muttiah Muralitharan And Shane Warne:
In the recent interaction, Mahela Jayawardene said that Murali believed in grinding the batsmen down. He added that Shane Warne and Murali were two different personalities.
Warne believed in provoking batsman and then picked the wicket. On the other hand, Murali believed to grind down the batsman even if he had to wait for a longer period.
“Murali was a champion bowler, he went about his game differently to others. Warne did not have the variety that Murali did. Murali knew what he was doing and believed in grinding a batsman down. If he had to wait for ten overs to get a batsman out, he will do that,” Jayawardene told Sanjay Manjrekar in a videocast hosted by ESPNCricinfo.
“Warne and Murali are two different personalities, Warney is a steady leg-spinner but he probably played much more with the tactical honours of you come and attack me, I will get you out, he probably knew that he did not have the variety that Murali had,” Mahela Jayawardene added.
Shane Warne also finished his career as the second-highest Test wicket-taker, picking up 708 wickets in 145 matches.