Best bowling average in Test cricket
Top 20 men's Test career leaders for best bowling average, ranked from the players tracked on WicketOut, with matches played and links to each player.
| Rank | Player | Country | Matches | Best bowling average |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Axar Patel | India | 15 | 19.66 |
| 2 | Jasprit Bumrah | India | 52 | 19.79 |
| 3 | Malcolm Marshall | West Indies | 81 | 20.94 |
| 4 | Curtly Ambrose | West Indies | 98 | 20.99 |
| 5 | Marco Jansen | South Africa | 21 | 21.12 |
| 6 | Glenn McGrath | Australia | 124 | 21.64 |
| 7 | Pat Cummins | Australia | 74 | 21.91 |
| 8 | Kagiso Rabada | South Africa | 73 | 22.03 |
| 9 | Allan Donald | South Africa | 72 | 22.25 |
| 10 | Richard Hadlee | New Zealand | 86 | 22.29 |
| 11 | Kuldeep Yadav | India | 17 | 22.42 |
| 12 | Muttiah Muralitharan | Sri Lanka | 133 | 22.72 |
| 13 | Imran Khan | Pakistan | 88 | 22.81 |
| 14 | Dale Steyn | South Africa | 93 | 22.95 |
| 15 | Shaun Pollock | South Africa | 108 | 23.11 |
| 16 | Lungi Ngidi | South Africa | 20 | 23.37 |
| 17 | Waqar Younis | Pakistan | 87 | 23.56 |
| 18 | Wasim Akram | Pakistan | 104 | 23.62 |
| 19 | Dennis Lillee | Australia | 70 | 23.92 |
| 20 | Ravichandran Ashwin | India | 106 | 23.95 |
Men's cricket only, ranked among the players tracked on WicketOut, not every cricketer in history. Minimum 50 Test wickets. Figures come from each player's Wikipedia cricketer infobox and may lag recent matches.
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