by 165 wickets. 141 matches. One record.
Those are Ish Sodhi’s T20I numbers as of May 2025, and they put him at the top of the list for the most wickets for New Zealand in T20Is.
He passed Tim Southee’s 164 during the Bangladesh series, moving clear with one dismissal in Dhaka.
But the tally alone doesn’t tell you much.
The interesting part is how each bowler on this list got there, and what their full stat line says about the kind of bowler they were.
Most Wickets for New Zealand in T20Is
Here’s the full picture.
Most Wickets for New Zealand in T20Is: What the Stats Say?
5. Lockie Ferguson — 76 Wickets
The headline number is the strike rate: 14.59. That is the best of anyone on this list and one of the sharpest rates among pace bowlers in world T20I cricket across the same period.
A strike rate of 14.59 means Ferguson takes a wicket roughly every 15 balls. In T20 cricket, where 120 deliveries are a full innings, that pace of taking wickets is rare.
His economy of 7.33 adds to the picture. He is not leaking runs between wickets. He takes them quickly and cheaply, which is about as good as it gets for a strike bowler.
His 5/21 against the West Indies in Auckland in November 2020 is the best illustration of that.
He bowled with pace, hit the pitch hard, and made the ball do enough to run through a Test-quality batting lineup.
He made his IPL debut for Punjab Kings against Rajasthan Royals in 2026.
54 matches are a small sample compared to the others here. If Ferguson stays available, that tally will grow.
4. Trent Boult — 83 Wickets
Boult’s average of 21.43 is the best on this list. His economy of 7.68 is the second-best.
And he did it across just 61 matches, giving him one of the better per-game returns of the five.
He had two four-wicket hauls. The better one was a 4/13 against Sri Lanka at the 2022 T20 World Cup in Sydney.
That spell came in the powerplay, where Boult was always at his most dangerous.
Swing, pace off the pitch, and the ability to shape the ball both ways made him difficult to handle when conditions helped.
His debut came in February 2013. Over the next decade, he built those 83 wickets mostly as a powerplay option, the bowler New Zealand turned to when they needed an early breakthrough in the first six overs.
3. Mitchell Santner — 142 Wickets
Santner’s defining number is his economy: 7.17 across 138 T20I matches. No bowler in New Zealand’s top five has kept runs down better.
For a spinner in T20 cricket, that is an unusual achievement. The format rewards aggression from batters.
Boundaries come easily off slow bowling when the bowler gets it wrong. Santner has rarely gotten it wrong.
His strike rate of 19.9 means a wicket every 20 balls, which is solid rather than spectacular.
But paired with that economy, it makes him a bowler who wins matches by controlling the game as much as by taking wickets.
His best is 4/11 against India at Nagpur in the 2016 T20 World Cup, a match New Zealand won with Santner removing Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, and Hardik Pandya.
The wickets and the economy rate came together in that spell in the best possible way.
A shoulder injury during IPL 2026 with the Mumbai Indians has kept him sidelined since.
2. Tim Southee — 164 Wickets
Southee’s economy of 8.00 is the second-highest on this list, and his 164 wickets are the second-highest tally.
Together, they describe a bowler who was expensive at times but rarely stopped taking wickets.
His strike rate of 16.7 is close to Sodhi’s 16.92, which tells you they both took wickets at roughly the same pace.
What separates them over a long career is the number of matches played and the type of cricket each played, alongside T20Is.
Southee was a Test bowler first. He played 107 Tests, captained the side from 2022, and retired from that format in December 2024.
He carried the workload of a full-format cricketer across his T20I career, which makes his 164 wickets even more notable.
His best T20I figures, 5/18 against Pakistan in Auckland in December 2010, arrived early and set the tone for a long career in the format.
1. Ish Sodhi — 165 Wickets
Sodhi’s economy of 8.16 is the highest on this list. For some bowlers, that would be a problem. For a leg-spinner in T20 cricket, it is closer to expected.
Leg-spin is aggressive by design. The googly, the wrong ‘un, the flipper: each delivery carries risk.
Bad ones go for four. Good ones take wickets. The balance between those two outcomes defines a leg-spinner’s career.
Sodhi has managed that balance across 141 matches and 465.2 overs. His strike rate of 16.92 means he takes a wicket every 17 balls on average.
His four four-wicket hauls are the most by any New Zealand bowler in T20Is.
The record-breaking wicket was Shamim Hossain, dismissed in the third T20I against Bangladesh on 2 May 2025 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka.
Sodhi finished that game with 1/22 from three overs. New Zealand won via DLS, chasing 103.
The numbers tell the story. 165 wickets from 141 matches, built across a decade of making a difficult craft work in a format designed to punish it.
Full Stats Table: New Zealand’s Top 5 T20I Wicket-Takers
| Rank | Player | Matches | Wickets | Economy | Strike Rate | Best |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ish Sodhi | 141 | 165 | 8.16 | 16.92 | — |
| 2 | Tim Southee | 126 | 164 | 8.00 | 16.70 | 5/18 |
| 3 | Mitchell Santner | 138 | 142 | 7.17 | 19.90 | 4/11 |
| 4 | Trent Boult | 61 | 83 | 7.68 | — | 4/13 |
| 5 | Lockie Ferguson | 54 | 76 | 7.33 | 14.59 | 5/21 |
Reading the Numbers Together
Each stat line here reveals a different kind of bowler.
Ferguson and Boult show what high-impact, limited-match careers look like.
Both have better per-game returns than the top two, but neither played as many matches. Injuries, format rotation, and IPL commitments all played a part.
Santner is the control specialist. His economy sets him apart. He gives the captain options in the middle overs because he rarely gifts batters easy runs.
Southee and Sodhi are the volume bowlers. Long careers, high match counts, and wickets accumulated steadily over time.
The economy numbers are slightly higher, the strike rates are similar, but the totals reflect what staying in the team across ten-plus years does to a wicket tally.
The gap between first and fifth is 89 wickets. But, looked at per game, it narrows considerably.
FAQs
- Who leads the most wickets for New Zealand in T20Is?
Ish Sodhi, with 165 wickets from 141 T20I matches. He passed Tim Southee’s record of 164 in May 2025 during the Bangladesh T20I series.
- Which New Zealand T20I bowler has the best economy rate?
Mitchell Santner, with 7.17 across 138 matches. Lockie Ferguson is second at 7.33, with the best strike rate of the five at 14.59.
- What is Tim Southee’s T20I record?
Southee has 164 wickets from 126 T20I matches, with a best of 5/18 against Pakistan in Auckland in December 2010.
- How does Lockie Ferguson compare to the rest per game?
Ferguson has the best per-game return of the five, with 76 wickets from 54 matches and the sharpest strike rate at 14.59. He has played far fewer T20Is than the others.
- When did Ish Sodhi set the New Zealand T20I wicket record?
On 2 May 2025, in the third T20I against Bangladesh at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka.
- What is Mitchell Santner’s best T20I bowling performance?
His 4/11 against India in Nagpur at the 2016 T20 World Cup, which helped New Zealand beat India in one of the tournament’s biggest results.
Conclusion:
The most wickets for New Zealand in T20Is belong to Ish Sodhi, and the stats back up why he’s earned it.
He has bowled leg-spin consistently for over a decade at the international level, across different captains, conditions, and opponents.
Behind him, the other four bowlers on this list each brought a different strength to the Black Caps attack.
No two careers look the same here, and that is what makes this list worth reading beyond the raw tally at the top.
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