Most wickets in women's T20Is, and why the list looks like that

Deepti Sharma of India is the leading wicket-taker in women's Twenty20 Internationals with 171 wickets from 150 matches, as at 31 August 2026. She passed Thailand's Thipatcha Putthawong, on 170, with a spell of 3 for 0 in Dubai on 30 August 2026. Rwanda's Ishimwe is third on 164.

Deepti Sharma became the leading wicket-taker in women's Twenty20 International cricket on 30 August 2026, taking three wickets for no runs against Thailand in Dubai to reach 171. It was her 150th T20I.

The list she now heads is one of the most misread in cricket. Nine of the twenty bowlers on it play for countries that had no T20I cricket at all before 2018. What follows is the complete list, an explanation of why it looks the way it does, and a note on what the wicket column is actually measuring. Every figure here comes from ESPNcricinfo's Statsguru, checked on 31 August 2026.

Who has taken the most wickets in women's T20Is?

Names appear as ESPNcricinfo records them. "BRB-W/WI-W" against Hayley Matthews means Statsguru counts her matches for both Barbados and West Indies in the one career total.

How did Deepti Sharma take the record?

India met Thailand in Dubai on 30 August 2026. Deepti took two wickets in the ninth over to draw level with Thailand's Thipatcha Putthawong on 170, then returned in the 17th over and struck with her first delivery, removing the wicketkeeper Nannapat Koncharoenkai. Her figures were 3 for 0.

India made 159 for 9, bowled Thailand out for 65 and won by 94 runs. It was Deepti's 150th T20I. She is the third India player to reach that mark, after Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana.

Why are Thailand, Rwanda and Hong Kong so high on the list?

Because the fixture list changed. Meeting in Kolkata on 26 April 2018, the ICC Board awarded T20I status to matches played between all of its Members: women's teams from 1 July 2018, men's teams from 1 January 2019.

Read the span column in the table above. Every bowler in the top twenty from an Associate Member side has a career that begins in 2018 or 2019 — Putthawong and Ishimwe in 2019, Chan and Mahesh in 2019, Kamchomphu, Aweko, Laomi, Boochatham and Mbabazi in 2018. None of them is a late developer. Their existing cricket became official on a date.

Does that make the all-time list less meaningful?

Not less meaningful, but the wicket column on its own does not tell you much. Associate sides mostly play each other, and the totals in those matches are lower, so wickets arrive faster and cost fewer runs. The rates say it plainly:

• Thipatcha Putthawong — 170 wickets at 9.23, economy 4.10, a wicket every 13.4 balls.
• Deepti Sharma — 171 wickets at 19.58, economy 6.34, a wicket every 18.5 balls.
• Sophie Ecclestone — 154 wickets at 16.44, economy 6.03, a wicket every 16.3 balls.

Neither set of numbers flatters anybody. Putthawong's are the figures of a bowler taking apart the cricket in front of her, over and over. Deepti's are the figures of a front-line spinner whose opponents since 2018 have mostly been the nine or ten strongest sides in the world.

The all-time list adds those two careers together and sorts on one column. That is what an all-time list does, in every format and both genders. It is a record of wickets taken in matches the ICC counts, and on that measure both totals are entirely real.

Who leads the wicket list for each Test-playing nation?

These are derived from the all-time top 50 rather than read off a per-country page. Because that list is ordered by wickets, any bowler who does not appear on it has 84 or fewer, so each name above leads their country outright. No Zimbabwe bowler appears in the top 50. Current squads for every side are on CPL's teams and squads pages.

What are the best bowling figures in a women's T20I innings?

The same pattern, only sharper. The record is 9 for 4 by Brazil's Cardoso against Lesotho at Gaborone on 9 April 2026 — nine wickets in three overs, for four runs. Every entry above was recorded after the 2018 status change, and none belongs to a Full Member side.

That is not an accident of talent. It is what happens when a format's records are opened to 100-odd teams at once and the widest gaps in standard suddenly count.

What should you look at besides the wicket column?

• Strike rate — balls per wicket, the cleanest measure of how quickly a bowler ends an innings.
• Economy — the T20 currency. Ecclestone at 6.03 and Schutt at 6.39 are conceding roughly two runs an over more than Putthawong, against batting orders that can chase.
• Span and matches — Ellyse Perry's 131 wickets came across 181 matches and 18 years; Putthawong's 170 came in 109.
• Opposition — the single biggest variable, and the one no career table displays.

None of this settles who the best bowler is, and it is not meant to. It just means that reading one column and stopping is how people end up arguing past each other.

For where each side currently sits, CPL's ICC rankings page carries the team and player tables, and the series and tournaments pages track standings as competitions run. Records like these move every few weeks, which is why this post is dated: all figures are as at 31 August 2026.

Statistics in this article were checked as at 31 August 2026.

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