On this day in 1972, Sri Lankan legend Muttiah Muralitharan was born

Image Credits: Twitter/@ICC

Legendary Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan , who represented his national side in a total of 495 matches across the three formats of the game, was born on this day in 1972.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) took to its official Twitter handle to extend its greetings to the ‘most prolific bowler in cricket history’ Muralitharan on his 48th birthday.

Posting a picture of the Sri Lankan great, the world's cricket governing body also shared Muralitharan’s bowling  figures with the followers along with the wish.

 Test wickets
ODI wickets

The most prolific bowler in cricket history!

Happy birthday to Sri Lanka legend Muttiah Muralitharan  pic.twitter.com/FIgK4XH5Of — ICC (@ICC) April 17, 2020

Muralitharan made his international debut for Sri Lanka during a Test match against Australia at R.Premadasa Stadium in Colombo in August 1992. A year later, the former off-spinner made an ODI debut against India at the same venue, while he first received the T20I cap in December 2006 during a series against New Zealand.

Muralitharan bagged a total of 800 wickets in 133 Tests he played for Sri Lanka besides claiming 534 wickets in 350 One-Day Internationals (ODIs). The Sri Lanka also notched up 13 wickets in 12 Twenty20 international appearances.

Muralitharan, who played his last match for the national side during an ODI series against India in April 2011, holds the world record for the most wickets in both Test and one-day cricket. He also became the only player from his country to be inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame in 2017.

Besides this, Muralitharan continues to remain the leading spin bowling wicket-taker in ICC Men's Cricket World Cups and second overall with a total of 68 wickets.