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Stats Analysis

Kumble tops the lbw charts

With Paul Collingwood's dismissal in England's first innings at Lord's, Anil Kumble became the bowler with the highest number of lbw dismissals in Test cricket

Mathew Varghese
23-Jul-2007
With Paul Collingwood's dismissal in England's first innings in the first Test at Lord's, Anil Kumble became the bowler with the highest number of lbw dismissals in Test cricket. Kumble has now trapped 139 batsmen leg-before, ahead of Shane Warne, who held the record with 138 such wickets.
Bowlers with highest number of leg-before dismissals in Tests
Player Test wickets Lbw dismissals
Anil Kumble 555 139
Shane Warne 708 138
Muttiah Muralitharan 700 133
Wasim Akram 414 119
Glenn McGrath 563 113
More than a quarter of Kumble's Test victims have been dismissed leg-before - a significantly high proportion - though he ranks way below Australia's pacer Terry Alderman, who has 34.12% of his 170 Test wickets coming by way of lbws.
Bowlers with highest percentage of lbw dismissals in Tests (Min 150 wickets)
Player Matches Test wickets Leg-before dismissals Percentage
Terry Alderman 41 170 58 34.12
Waqar Younis 87 373 110 29.49
Wasim Akram 104 414 119 28.74
Chaminda Vaas 98 319 89 27.89
Matthew Hoggard 64 240 64 26.66
Graham Gooch has been dismissed lbw the highest number of times in Tests. Incidentally, Alderman accounted for five of those dismissals. Three of Gooch's England opening partners - Alec Stewart, Michael Atherton and David Gower (one innings only) are not far behind.
Batsmen dismissed lbw most times in Tests
Player Matches Innings Leg-before dismissals
Graham Gooch 118 139 50
Alec Stewart 133 235 40
Sachin Tendulkar 138 222 39
Brian Lara 131 232 37
David Gower 117 204 36
As a proportion of total dismissals, Roshan Mahanama figures in the list for both Tests (minimum 50 matches) and ODIs (minimum 100 matches). Other batsmen to have been trapped in front often include Craig McMillan and Michael Holding, who would have preferred appearing in the bowlers' list.
Highest proportion of lbw dismissals for a batsman in Tests (Min 50 Tests)
PlayerMatchesInningsLeg-before dismissalsPercentage
Craig McMillan55912429.63
Roshan Mahanama52892528.41
Michael Holding60761827.27
Younis Khan53952325.84
Dean Jones52892025.64
Daren Ganga missed out on the above table since he's only played 45 Tests. Of the 78 times that he's been out, lbws have accounted for 25, a percentage of 32.05. In the recently concluded Test series against West Indies, Ganga was out lbw to Ryan Sidebottom in both innings of the second Test at Headingley while Steve Harmison had him stuck in front of the stumps twice during the third Test at Old Trafford.
The ODI table is topped by West Indies' Roger Harper, while New Zealand's lower-order batsmen, Chris Harris and Brendon McCullum, have been trapped in front plenty of times as well.
Highest proportion of lbw dismissals for a batsman in ODIs (Min 100 ODIs)
PlayerMatchesInningsLeg-before dismissalsPercentage
Roger Harper105731222.64
Roshan Mahanama2131983419.43
Brendon McCullum114901419.71
Chris Harris2502132617.22
Javed Miandad2332182916.38
The current crop of left-arm bowlers show remarkable success with lbw decisions in ODIs, with Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Chaminda Vaas and Mohammad Rafique having the highest percentages of leg-before dismissals (minimum 100 wickets). Surprisingly, Wasim Akram misses out and so does Waqar Younis, the man famous for his toe-crushing yorkers.
Highest proportion of lbw dismissals for a bowler in ODIs (Min 100 ODIs)
PlayerMatchesWicketsLeg-before dismissalsPercentage
Irfan Pathan731152622.61
Damien Fleming114902619.40
Zaheer Khan1271843519.02
Mohammad Sami831182218.64
Mohammad Rafique1251252318.40
Another left-arm spinner from Bangladesh, Abdur Razzak, has 19 leg-before dismissals in his career-haul of 76 dismissals. Pathan's ability to swing the ball into the right-handers makes him successful with leg-before appeals in both forms of the game, with 30.77% of his 91 Test wickets coming in the same manner.