Kuldeep Yadav entered his name in the history books on Sunday, September 28, by becoming the highest wicket-taker in the Asia Cup. The cricketer from Kanpur needed two wickets in the ongoing final between India and Pakistan at Dubai International Cricket Stadium to break Lasith Malinga’s record, and he achieved the objective by taking 4 wickets for 30 runs in four overs.
Kuldeep opened his wicket account by dismissing Saim Ayub (14 runs from 11 balls). The left-handed batter was caught by Jasprit Bumrah on the fifth ball of the 13th over.
On the first ball of the 17th over of Pakistan’s innings, he then picked up Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha’s wicket. Agha (8) was caught by Sanju Samson.
On the fourth ball of that same over, he trapped Shaheen
Shah Afridi (0) in front of the wickets and on the last ball dismissed Faheem Ashraf (0).
Malinga played 15 matches for Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup and dismissed 33 batters, whereas Kuldeep has 36 wickets to his name in 18 matches.
In the T20I edition of the Asia Cup, Kuldeep has 17 wickets to his credit in seven matches, and in the ODI format, he has dismissed 19 batters in 11 matches. On the other hand, Malinga picked up 29 wickets in 14 Asia Cup matches played in ODI format and 4 wickets in one match played in T20I format.
Most wickets in Asia Cup (ODIs and T20Is combined)
| PLAYER | COUNTRY | ODIs | ODI WKTS | T20Is | T20I WKTS | TOTAL |
| Kuldeep Yadav | India | 11 | 19 | 7 | 17 | 36 |
| Lasith Malinga | Sri Lanka | 14 | 29 | 1 | 4 | 33 |
| Muttiah Muralitharan | Sri Lanka | 24 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 30 |
| Ravindra Jadeja | India | 20 | 25 | 6 | 4 | 29 |
| Shakib Al Hasan | Bangladesh | 18 | 22 | 7 | 6 | 28 |
The four wickets against Pakistan on Sunday in Dubai also helped Kuldeep break Irfan Pathan’s record of taking the most wickets for India in one edition of the Asia Cup (ODIs and T20Is combined).
Irfan played six matches in the 2004 edition of the Asia Cup and picked up 14 wickets, whereas Kuldeep accounted for the dismissal of 17 batters in the 2025 Asia Cup.
Most wickets in one edition of Asia Cup for Team India
| PLAYER | FORMAT | YEAR | MATCHES | WICKETS | BEST FIGURES |
| Kuldeep Yadav | T20I | 2025 | 7 | 17 | 4/7 |
| Irfan Pathan | ODI | 2004 | 6 | 14 | 3/28 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | ODI | 2004 | 6 | 12 | 3/21 |
| Bhuvneshwar Kumar | T20I | 2022 | 5 | 11 | 5/4 |
| Mohammed Siraj | ODI | 2023 | 5 | 10 | 6/21 |
| Kuldeep Yadav | ODI | 2018 | 6 | 10 | 3/45 |
A total of 17 wickets in the 2025 Asia Cup also helped him equal the record of taking the most wickets in one edition of the Asia Cup. In the 2008 Asia Cup, Ajantha Mendis played five matches for Sri Lanka and picked up 17 wickets.
Most wickets in one edition of Asia Cup
| PLAYER | COUNTRY | FORMAT | YEAR | MATCHES | WICKETS | BEST FIGURES |
| Ajantha Mendis | Sri Lanka | ODI | 2008 | 5 | 17 | 6/13 |
| Kuldeep Yadav | India | T20I | 2025 | 7 | 17 | 4/7 |
| Irfan Pathan | India | ODI | 2004 | 6 | 14 | 3/28 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | India | ODI | 2004 | 6 | 12 | 3/21 |
| Amjad Javed | UAE | T20I | 2016 | 7 | 12 | 3/25 |
Kuldeep played three matches in the Asia Cup 2025 against Pakistan and picked up 8 wickets. In the Group A India-Pakistan match on September 14, he picked up 3 wickets for 18 runs, and in the Super 4s fixture on September 21, he dismissed 1 batter for 31 runs.
