Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne are two of the legendary spinners to play the game. Ther achievements are unparalleled and both of them share most of the bowling records. Recently, former Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene differentiated between Warne and Muralitharan.
Both of them were a nightmare for the batters during their playing days. But Jayawardene believes Shane Warne did not have the variety that Muttiah Muralitharan did. Jayawardene also said that Murali believed in grinding the batsmen down.
Jayawardene differentiates between Warne & Muralitharan
“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,” Jayawardene told Sanjay Manjrekar in a videocast hosted by ESPNCricinfo.
Muttiah Muralitharan has represented Sri Lanka in 133 Tests in his career and ended up taking 800 wickets. He is the highest wicket-taker in the history of Test cricket followed by Australia’s Shane Warne (708) and India’s Anil Kumble (619).
The off-spinning legend also played 350 ODIs and 12 T20Is in his career and picked up 534 and 13 wickets respectively. Mahela Jayawardene also hailed his teammate Muralitharan for the champion bowler he is.
“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,” he added.
Mahela Jayawardene played 149 Tests, 448 ODIs, and 55 T20Is for Sri Lanka. He recently slammed the former Sri Lanka sports minister who claimed that 2011 World Cup as fixed. Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka government has initiated a probe into the allegations.
