O is for...OUT!

As he does on many lists, Muttiah Muralitharan leads the way on the number of wickets in the Champions Trophy with 24 wickets from 15 innings in which he bowled.
Right behind him is New Zealand's Kyle Mills with 22 wickets from 12 matches. Mills will almost certainly pass the Sri Lankan spinner and become the leading wicket-taker.

As he does on many lists, Muttiah Muralitharan leads the way on the number of wickets in the Champions Trophy with 24 wickets from 15 innings in which he bowled.

Right behind him is New Zealand's Kyle Mills with 22 wickets from 12 matches. Mills will almost certainly pass the Sri Lankan spinner and become the leading wicket-taker.

What's interesting is that when examining the list, while Mills shows up in the 2nd spot, if looking for players who will take part in the 2013 edition, you have to go all the way down to the 8th spot which belongs to....Chris Gayle with 17 wickets from 13 innings in which he bowled.

The 3rd spot amongst active players belongs to Shane Watson who is 13th on the all-time list with 16 wickets from 12 innings in which he bowled.

Only 3 players from the top 13 wicket-takers are taking part in next month's tournament. Just another sign that this competition will be open with a lot of big stars missing out and new talent coming on to the big stage.

One only has to look at the Pakistan bowling attack to prove this.

Pakistan's leading 4 wicket-takers in the Champions Trophy (Shahid Afridi, Umar Gul, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, and Abdul Razzaq) will not be a resource for them this time around.

Out of the current crop of bowlers in the team, Shoaib Malik leads the way with 9 wickets while Saeed Ajmal is right behind him with 8.

Mohammad Irfan, Junaid Khan, Wahab Riaz, Asad Ali, Ehsan Adil, and Abdur Rehman will be looking to take their first Champions Trophy wicket.

Discuss!