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Former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene has spoken on the bowling style of spin greats Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne. Muralitharan and Warne are 2 of the most embellished spinners in the history of cricket. While Muralitharan is the highest wicket-taker in Tests, Warne follows him at second.
Muralitharan ended his remarkable Test career with an incredible 800 wickets while Warne got 708 wickets in the longest format of the game. India legend Anil Kumble is 3rd in the list with 619 wickets.
Even in ODIs, the two made their mark. Muralitharan picked up a record of 534 wickets in 350 games while Warne picked up 293 wickets in 194 ODI games. And while both the bowlers took pleasure in extraordinary success throughout their marvelous careers, Jayawardene thinks that Warne did not have the variety that Muralitharan did.
Mahela Jayawardene also stated that Murali believed in grinding the batsmen down. Discussing Warne, Mahela Jayawardene stated that the former leg-spinner used to invite batsmen to attack him in order to get rid of them.
“Murali was a champion bowler, and 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 is 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 honors of you come and attack me, I will get you out, he probably knew that he did not have the variety that Murali had,” he added.
