Destructive Khan can be top World Cup wicket taker
Published:Punters fancying India to win their Cricket World Cup quarter final with Australia may also want to take advantage of Zaheer Khan’s betting odds of 3/1 to end the tournament with the most wickets.
Khan has been India’s most destructive bowler in the tournament to date, taking 15 wickets at an average of 14.86, which also means he has taken the most wickets out of any fast bowler at the World Cup.
Shahid Afridi currently leads the way in terms of wickets with 17, but it is unlikely that he will be able to maintain this strike rate now that the group stages are over.
Meanwhile, there is every chance that Khan will play more games than Afridi with India expected to go further in the competition than Pakistan.
The fact that Khan is a left-arm fast bowler means that is likely to cause problems for any batsman, as players of his calibre and bowling his style are few and far between.
Arguably, Australia’s Mitchell Johnson is the only other left-arm seamer in the world who comes anywhere close to being on par with Khan and therefore batsmen get little chance to practice playing against this style.
Another factor is that Khan opens the bowling for India, meaning that he is running in when the ball is doing the most and when batsmen are looking to play aggressive shots to take advantage of the early-over enforced powerplay.
Afridi is currently 6/4 to finish as top wicket taker, but punters looking for someone at bigger odds to consider could do worse than opt for Australia’s Brett Lee.
After a slow start to the tournament, Lee has started to turn the screw with four wickets in each of his last two games against Canada and Pakistan.
If Lee can stay fit and Australia can get the upper hand over India, the 34-year-old has the speed and experience to carry on with this form.
Lee is 12/1 in the Cricket World Cup betting to be top wicket taker and he is currently five behind Afridi.
A £20 stake on Lee taking the most wickets at the Cricket World Cup would return £240. New customers can sign up here to take advantage of free bets totalling up to £60.
