India Women Best Bowling Averages: International Records

An average is a ratio, and a ratio on a small sample is noise. P Choudhary took six one-day wickets for India in 1997 at 10.66 apiece and never played again; Mamatha Maben's 21 came at 12.14, more than a quarter of them in a single spell at Kandy. Neither figure belongs on a leaderboard with Neetu David's 16.34 from 141 wickets, so this page sets a floor in each format and states it above every table.

With those floors applied, the three best career averages by an India woman are Ekta Bisht's 14.71 in Twenty20 internationals, S Dabir's 13.60 in Tests and Neetu David's 16.34 in one-day internationals. David's is the one that survives the most scrutiny: 815 overs, 2,305 runs conceded, 141 wickets, across thirteen years and 97 matches.

The thresholds used below are 40 wickets for one-day internationals, 30 for Twenty20 internationals and 10 for Tests. They are not arbitrary. They are set at roughly the point in each format where the list stops being a record of careers and starts being a record of good weeks.

Why the threshold matters more here than anywhere else

India women have played 43 Tests in fifty years. Setting the Test floor at 20 wickets would leave six bowlers on the page; setting it at 5 would put a bowler with one good match above Diana Edulji. Ten is the compromise, and even at ten the top of the Test list is a four-match career from 1995.

In the white-ball formats the problem is the opposite. There is enough volume for averages to settle, but the eras are not comparable: a one-day bowler of the 1990s was defending 190 and a one-day bowler of 2026 is defending 300. That is why the economy column is printed beside every average below — the two numbers argue with each other, and the argument is the interesting part.

One-day internationals: 40 wickets or more

Player	Span	Wkts	Overs	Runs	Ave	Econ	SR	BBI
Neetu David	1995-2008	141	815.2	2,305	16.34	2.82	34.6	5/20
Diana Edulji	1978-1993	46	326.5	775	16.84	2.37	42.6	4/12
Purnima Rau	1993-2000	50	259.3	844	16.88	3.25	31.1	4/26
Gouher Sultana	2008-2014	66	384.4	1,280	19.39	3.32	34.9	4/4
Rajeshwari Gayakwad	2014-2022	99	566.3	2,059	20.79	3.63	34.3	5/15
DM Marathe	1997-2005	60	447.0	1,250	20.83	2.79	44.7	4/1
Ekta Bisht	2011-2022	98	566.3	2,140	21.83	3.77	34.6	5/8
Shikha Pandey	2014-2021	75	412.0	1,644	21.92	3.99	32.9	4/18
Jhulan Goswami	2002-2022	255	1,667.3	5,622	22.04	3.37	39.2	6/31
Nooshin Al Khadeer	2002-2012	100	672.4	2,402	24.02	3.57	40.3	5/14
Poonam Yadav	2013-2022	80	506.0	2,012	25.15	3.97	37.9	4/13
Rumeli Dhar	2003-2012	63	502.3	1,725	27.38	3.43	47.8	4/19
Renuka Singh	2022-2026	42	235.2	1,158	27.57	4.92	33.6	5/29
Deepti Sharma	2014-2026	166	1,032.2	4,598	27.69	4.45	37.3	6/20
Sneh Rana	2014-2026	59	375.2	1,847	31.30	4.92	38.1	5/43
Amita Sharma	2002-2014	87	758.4	2,830	32.52	3.73	52.3	4/16

Sixteen bowlers qualify, and the list divides almost perfectly by decade. The four best averages belong to bowlers whose careers ended in 2008 or earlier; three of the four worst to bowlers who were still playing in 2026. Nothing about technique explains that, and the economy column shows why: Edulji conceded 2.37 an over, Renuka Singh and Sneh Rana concede 4.92, and the difference is a scoring rate that has roughly doubled.

Strike rate reorders the table usefully. Purnima Rau took a wicket every 31.1 balls, the fastest of the sixteen, on an average of 16.88 — she was a genuine wicket-taker rather than a container. Renuka Singh's 33.6 is third-fastest despite her average being thirteenth, which is the profile of a modern seamer: she takes wickets quickly and is expensive doing it.

Jhulan Goswami's 22.04 is the ninth-best average here and the most valuable figure on the page. It was accumulated across 1,667 overs, more than twice anyone else's workload, over twenty years in which the format's scoring rate rose sharply under her. Nobody else on the list bowled through that whole change.

Amita Sharma's 32.52 at the bottom of the qualified list came at an economy of 3.73, which is better than six bowlers above her. Her strike rate of 52.3 is the slowest of the sixteen — she was picked to hold an end and did that for twelve years.

Twenty20 internationals: 30 wickets or more

Player	Span	Wkts	Overs	Runs	Ave	Econ	SR	BBI
Ekta Bisht	2011-2019	53	147.1	780	14.71	5.30	16.6	4/21
Poonam Yadav	2013-2022	98	260.0	1,495	15.25	5.75	15.9	4/9
Shree Charani	2025-2026	42	93.5	682	16.23	7.26	13.4	4/12
Radha Yadav	2018-2026	106	303.3	2,019	19.04	6.65	17.1	4/23
Rajeshwari Gayakwad	2014-2023	61	189.4	1,167	19.13	6.15	18.6	3/9
Deepti Sharma	2016-2026	168	527.0	3,349	19.93	6.35	18.8	5/10
Anuja Patil	2012-2019	48	172.4	1,008	21.00	5.83	21.5	3/14
Pooja Vastrakar	2018-2024	58	194.2	1,242	21.41	6.39	20.1	4/13
Jhulan Goswami	2006-2018	56	225.1	1,229	21.94	5.45	24.1	5/11
Renuka Singh	2021-2026	70	237.0	1,575	22.50	6.64	20.3	5/15
Harmanpreet Kaur	2009-2026	32	126.4	795	24.84	6.27	23.7	4/23
Shikha Pandey	2014-2023	43	173.2	1,125	26.16	6.49	24.1	3/14
Arundhati Reddy	2018-2026	48	178.5	1,402	29.20	7.83	22.3	4/22

The top three are all spinners and all quite different. Ekta Bisht's 14.71 came at 5.30 an over, the most economical rate in the table. Poonam Yadav's 15.25 came from 98 wickets, more than twice Bisht's tally, at a strike rate of 15.9. Shree Charani's 16.23 comes with an economy of 7.26 — the second-highest here — and a strike rate of 13.4, which is the fastest by nearly two and a half balls.

That last row is the clearest picture of what has changed in the format. Charani concedes almost two runs an over more than Bisht did and averages only a run and a half worse, because she takes wickets so much faster. In a twenty-over innings, a wicket every 13 balls buys back a great deal of expense.

Deepti Sharma's 19.93 across 527 overs — more than double the workload of anyone else in the table — is the equivalent of Goswami's ODI figure: an average built through an entire era rather than in one part of it. Her wicket totals are on the India women most wickets page.

Arundhati Reddy's 7.83 economy is the highest in the table and her average the worst, and she is a seamer bowling in the powerplay and at the death. Harmanpreet Kaur qualifies on 32 wickets from 126 overs across seventeen years, which is the smallest workload here by a wide margin.

Tests: 10 wickets or more

Player	Span	Mat	Wkts	Runs	Ave	Econ	SR	BBI
S Dabir	1995-1995	4	10	136	13.60	1.39	58.5	4/36
Harmanpreet Kaur	2014-2026	8	12	185	15.41	2.59	35.6	5/44
Jhulan Goswami	2002-2021	12	44	764	17.36	2.02	51.5	5/25
Neetu David	1995-2006	10	41	775	18.90	1.74	64.9	8/53
Deepti Sharma	2021-2026	7	25	475	19.00	2.37	47.9	5/7
Sneh Rana	2021-2026	6	30	629	20.96	2.99	42.0	8/77
Purnima Rau	1995-1999	5	15	319	21.26	1.64	77.6	5/24
S Chakraborty	1976-1984	11	19	420	22.10	2.10	62.9	5/25
Pooja Vastrakar	2021-2024	5	15	337	22.46	3.18	42.2	4/53
Diana Edulji	1976-1991	20	63	1,624	25.77	1.91	80.9	6/64
Nooshin Al Khadeer	2003-2006	5	14	373	26.64	1.80	88.5	3/30
Shubhangi Kulkarni	1976-1991	19	60	1,647	27.45	2.97	55.3	6/99
S Gupta	1984-1991	13	25	782	31.28	2.39	78.4	4/47
Shantha Rangaswamy	1976-1991	16	21	664	31.61	2.56	74.0	4/42

S Dabir tops the list on exactly ten wickets from four Tests in a single year, 1995, at an economy rate of 1.39 that is the lowest on the page. That is why the threshold is worth arguing about: her figure is real, it is qualified, and it rests on 585 balls.

Harmanpreet Kaur's second place is stranger. Twelve wickets at 15.41 from eight Tests and 428 balls, with a strike rate of 35.6 that is the fastest of the fifteen by six and a half balls, and nine of the twelve came in one match at Mysore in 2014.

The two bowlers who actually carried India's Test attack come tenth and twelfth. Edulji's 63 wickets at 25.77 across more than 5,000 balls and Kulkarni's 60 at 27.45 are the two largest wicket hauls in India's women's Test history, and their averages are worse than every short career above them. Their economy rates, 1.91 and 2.97, and their strike rates, 80.9 and 55.3, describe the two halves of that bowling attack: one held an end for fifteen years, the other attacked.

One name the threshold excludes is worth stating. Sudha Shah played 21 Tests, more than any other India woman, and took five wickets at a best of 3 for 28 — she was a batter who bowled a little. An average calculated from five wickets in fifteen years would be a number without meaning, so she does not appear above.

Average, economy and strike rate rarely agree

In none of the three tables does the same bowler top both the average column and the strike-rate column. In one-day internationals David leads on average and Rau on strike rate; in Twenty20s Bisht leads on average, Charani on strike rate and Bisht again on economy; in Tests Dabir leads on average and Harmanpreet on strike rate.

That is not a curiosity, it is the whole point of printing three columns. A bowler with a good average and a slow strike rate held an end in a low-scoring era. A bowler with a fast strike rate and a poor economy attacked in a high-scoring one. Ranking them on average alone flattens a genuine difference in job description.

The innings-by-innings evidence for the same bowlers is on the India women best bowling figures page, and the count of their multi-wicket returns on the India women most five-wicket hauls page. The totals they were bowling at are visible from the batting side on the India women most fifties list.

Two things the averages settle and one they do not

They settle that India's best one-day bowling average belongs to a left-arm spinner who played almost entirely before 2008, and that the best Twenty20 average belongs to another left-arm spinner who stopped playing in 2019. Both facts point the same way: the format got harder to bowl in, and the qualified averages of current bowlers should be read against that.

They settle that spin has produced the bulk of India's best figures. The top five qualified averages in one-day internationals all belong to spinners, and so do the top six in Twenty20 internationals.

They do not settle who bowled best. Goswami's 22.04 and Deepti Sharma's 19.93 were earned in the two most hostile scoring environments India women have played in, and both sit outside the top eight of their own tables. How that generation came through the system is described on the women's domestic cricket page and the Women's Premier League guide; the team's longer story is on the India women's cricket history page, and the rest of the game on the cricket in India hub.

Sources and method

Averages, economy rates, strike rates, wickets, overs, runs conceded and best innings figures come from ESPNcricinfo's Statsguru career bowling records for India Women in women's Tests, women's one-day internationals and women's Twenty20 internationals, read on 27 August 2026.

The qualification thresholds are mine: 40 wickets in one-day internationals, 30 in Twenty20 internationals, 10 in Tests. Each was applied inside Statsguru rather than by trimming a longer list, so the tables are the complete qualified field for each format and not a selection from it. The unqualified figures quoted in the opening paragraph — P Choudhary at 10.66 from six wickets, Mamatha Maben at 12.14 from 21 — are given precisely to show what the thresholds keep out.

Sudha Shah's row is included with blank columns because she is the most-capped India woman in Tests and her five wickets sit below the threshold; an average calculated from them would be a number without meaning.

Bowling types are descriptive and are not a Statsguru field. Comparisons of scoring rates across eras rest on the economy column of these same tables rather than on a separate calculation of team totals.

Career averages move with every match a current bowler plays, so the ordering of the recent entries in all three tables should be read as a snapshot taken on the date above. No figure here has been rounded, adjusted or estimated, and where a value could not be verified the cell has been left empty.