Mustafizur Rahman breaks into all-time top-five list of wicket-takers in T20Is

Published - 17 Jul 2025, 17:14 IST | Updated - 17 Jul 2025, 19:00 IST

On Wednesday, July 16, Mustafizur Rahman made it into the top-five wicket-takers as far as T20 Internationals are concerned. The left-arm pacer acheived this feat after he picked up the wicket of Jeffrey Vandersay during the third and final T20I of the series against Sri Lanka at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

In the process, Mustafizur overtook Adil Rashid's tally, even if temporarily, to rank fifth on the all-time list, after he ended with figures of 1/17 in his four-over spell on Wednesday. Bangladesh won the match by eight wickets and 21 deliveries to spare to clinch the three-match series, and naturally, his economical spell played a huge part in the do-or-die game.

The clever medium-pace bowler did not feature in the series opener. However, he was brought into the mix for the second and third ones in place of Taskin Ahmed. Mustafizur was quite impressive in the second T20I too. His three overs only yielded 14 runs. He also managed to take a wicket on the final delivery of his third over.

The Bangla Tigers have a list of 20-over games lined up. They are set to play two three-match series against Pakistan. Mustafizur, who is a part of the squad for this assignment, has an ideal opportunity on his hands to increase his tally and come close or maybe even surpass Shakib Al Hasan, who has already called his retirement from the format and only features in ODIs. This will also take him closer to the landmark 150 T20I wickets.

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Rashid, on the other hand, will have to wait a while, though. The Three Lions' next series in the shortest format of the game is against the Proteas at home before they head over to New Zealand to take on the BlackCaps. Both of these series comprise three T20Is each.