Top 5 bowlers with most wickets between 2003 and 2007 World Cup
Cricket may be a batsman's game with the willow dominating the ball in general, but bowlers have also shown that they can decide matches on their own as well.
The period between the 2003 and 2007 ODI World Cup saw a number of changes being brought into the game of cricket with the most significant one being the arrival of T20 cricket at the international stage.
The abridged version of the game meant that the bowlers had to alter their style to meet the demands of modern day cricket and it kind of brought about an aggressive change from the bowler's point of view as well with the focus towards picking up wickets and not just containing runs.
It had a ripple effect on the ODI format as well with the batsmen becoming more aggressive and bowlers started picking up more wickets than earlier.
Let's take a look at the bowlers with the most ODI wickets during the above mentioned period and as one would see, it is one dominated by the fast bowlers.
#5 Ajit Agarkar (India) - 106 wickets
Ajit Agarkar was a maverick in the ODI format for India and was even touted as Kapil Dev's successor when he started out. Though he failed to live up to those hefty expectations, Agarkar did have a fruitful Indian career, especially in the ODI format.
With 288 ODI wickets to his name, Agarkar is India's third highest wicket-taker in the 50-over format and was a part of the 1999. 2003 and 2007 World Cup squads.
However, he didn't get to feature in any of the matches in the 2003 edition of the tournament and his performances since the tournament showed that the Indian team management might have missed a trick by not playing Agarkar in South Africa.
In 70 matches leading up to the 2007 World Cup in West Indies, Agarkar picked up 106 wickets at an average of 25.69.
His economy rate of 4.92 during the period was better than his overall career economy of 5.07 - something which has always been held against the all-rounder.
Agarkar picked up two five-wicket hauls during the period including his career-best figures of 6/42 against Australia during the 2003/04 VB series at Melbourne.
