Muttiah Muralitharan
Among the genuine bowlers (excluding the all-rounders), the legendary Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan played most of the international matches. However, the long-time Sri Lankan cricketer never earned the leadership cap of the Sri Lanka national cricket team.
Muralitharan served for the Sri Lankan team between 1992 and 2011, where he played 495 international matches in overall (133 Tests, 350 ODIs and 12 T20Is). He is the most wicket-taker in international cricket history (1347 wickets) as well as in the Test (800 wickets) and ODI (534 wickets) history. Moreover, in T20I career, he also managed to claim 13 wickets. He was also a member during Sri Lanka’s winning the ICC Cricket World Cup 1996 trophy where the youngster managed to pick up seven wickets in six games.
Despite some controversies with his bowling action, Muralitharan never gave up and returned to the game more strongly and cleanly. Though he played a huge role for Sri Lanka’s success in international cricket, he never led his national side being amongst those legendary cricketers.