Muthiah Muralidharan has decided  to retire from Tests after the First Test Match of the upcoming Test Series against India at Galle.  Muralidharan had no other option but to retire considering his the extraordinary workload he had put over two decades in a fruitful career. The fact that Muralidharan born on April 17 1972 is already 38 years and 81 days as on date and considering his future workload should be appreciated for taking a wise decision.

With Muthian Muralidharan deciding to call it quits, electronic and print media would waste no time in comparing Muralitharan'sperformance with yet another legend, the once in a lifetime genius Shane Warne. For the record Muralidharan has taken 792 wickets in 132 Tests at an average of 22.71 while Shane Warne has taken 708 wickets in 145 Tests an an average of 25.41.  Asian countries spearheaded by the likes of legnedary Gavskar and Ravi Shastri would place Muralidharan over Warne considering the fact that Murali has taken 86 wickets more than Warne in 13 fewer Tests.

While overall comparisons show Murali way above Warne a break up of their career figures show both of them are almost on par.  Muralidharan takes a wicket every 55.1 deliveries in Tests while Shane Warne is almsot there average 57.4 deliveres per wicket.  This is the due to the fact that Muralidharan gets to bowl more number of deliveries for Sri Lanka than Shane Warne gets to bowl for Australia. On an average Muralidharan gets to bowl 55 overs for Sri Lanka in a Test While Shane Warne gets to bowl only 46 overs.  Another thing in Muralis favour is the fact that being the only strike bowler in the team he gets to pick up more wickets in a bowling line up where the likes of Vaas, Mendis and Malinga play a supporting role.  Shane Warne on the other hand is part of a demolition team which has had MC Grath, Mc Dermott and other illustrious pacemen wherein the spoils are equally shared and that is precisely the reason Shane Warne has just 37 five wicket hauls to his name against Muralitharan's 66.

One thing that may be argued in Muralis favour is the fact that his bowling average of 22.71 is certainly better than Warnes 25.41 but then Murali has had a advantage of some easy wickets to his name against substandard teams like Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. Muralidharan has 176 Zimbabwean-Bangladeshi wickets to his name while Shane Warne who got to play limited matches against Zimbabwean and Bangladeshi teams managed to pick up only 17 wickets and that has had a huge impact on their career averages.

Shane Warne over the years has been criticized for being ineffective against India. Warnes 34 wickets agaisnt India have come at an average of 43.11 and a strike rate of 81 while Muralitharan's figures are India are even worse averaging 45.45 per wicket at a strike rate of 86.2. While both of them failed against India, Muralidharan has the dubious dinstinction of averaging 75.41 per wicket wickets against Australia in Australia and the 12 wickets he took in Australia have come  at a poor strike rate of 131 deliveries per wicket.

Both Murali and Warne have shown extreme reactions when being subject to attacking cricket.  While Muralidharan has preferred to go to the backfoot against attacking batsmen, Warne has always relished the challenge because he always thought he stood a better chance of picking a wicket when batsmen have decided to have a go at him.

Both Murali and Warne have had played some crucial knocks for their team, but Warne clearly has the upper hand as a batsman, as Warne to his credit has a few match saving and match winning innings.  When it comes to fielding both of them are outstading and Warne can boast of the fact that the game has not seen many better slip fielders than him.

One thing is for sure with Muralidhran deciding to call it quits, it would mean the end of an era as far as match winning strike bowlers are concerned.