Most wickets in Ranji Trophy: Rajinder Goel tops charts, only bowler with 600+ scalps

India has produced some outstanding bowlers since the beginning of its cricketing journey and Ranji Trophy has been the platform where this top talent has developed. 

Some of these bowlers have shown exceptional skills and dominated at the highest level.

Rajinder Goel has taken the most wickets in Ranji Trophy history, picking 637 wickets. Only 11 bowlers have scalped more than 400 wickets in the tournament. 

Meanwhile, Sunil Joshi and R Vinay Kumar are the only bowlers in Ranji Trophy history to have played in the 21st century. Hailing from Karnataka, they both make the top five.

Bishan Singh Bedi, the former Indian captain, completes the top 10, courtesy of his exploits with Delhi.

Most wickets in Ranji Trophy history

Rajinder Goel - 637 wickets in Ranji Trophy

Haryana-born left-arm spinner Rajinder Goel is the leading wicket-taker in Ranji Trophy history with 637 wickets. In fact, he is the only bowler with more than 600 scalps in the tournament. He broke the record previously held by Vaman Kumar (418 wickets) in the 1978/79 season.

Goel represented Patiala in his maiden season, followed by Southern Punjab for three, Delhi for nine and Haryana for 11 editions. 

The spinner scalped 25 Ranji wickets in a season on fifteen occasions, including his last nine. He retired after taking 39 wickets in the 1984-85 season.

Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan - 530 wickets in Ranji Trophy

Popularly known as ‘Venkat’, the former Indian cricket team captain is the only other bowler with 500+ wickets in the Ranji Trophy. He represented Madras and Tamil Nadu between the 1963/64 and 1984/85 seasons, picking 530 wickets.

He was also the captain of South Zone in the Duleep Trophy while leading Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy.

Venkataraghavan, a right-arm off-spinner, made his Test debut aged 20, picking 156 wickets in the longest format for India.   

Sunil Joshi - 479 wickets in Ranji Trophy

Former Indian cricketer Sunil Joshi took 479 wickets in the Ranji Trophy between the 1992/93 and 2010/11 seasons. He represented Karnataka throughout his domestic career, spinning a web around the opposition batters.

Joshi achieved the double of 500 runs and 50 wickets in the 1995-96 season of the Ranji Trophy. He was also handy with the bat, scoring 5,129 runs in First Class cricket.

Along with R Vinay Kumar, Sunil Joshi is the only cricketer in the top 10 of this list to feature in the T20 format for Karnataka. 

Photo credit: Alamy