Editing Muttiah Muralitharan (section)

====Emerging years====
On 28 August 1992 at the age of 20, Muralitharan made his debut against Australia at the Khettarama Stadium and claimed 3 for 141. [[Craig McDermott]] was his first Test wicket.

In August 1993 at Moratuwa, Muralitharan captured 5 for 104 in South Africa's first innings, his first five-wicket haul in Tests. His wickets included [[Kepler Wessels]], [[Hansie Cronje]] and [[Jonty Rhodes]].

Prior to the eventful Boxing Day Test of 1995, Muralitharan had captured 80 wickets in 22 Tests at an unflattering average of 32.74. Even at that point in his career he was the leading wicket taker for Sri Lanka having gone past [[Rumesh Ratnayake]]'s aggregate of 73 wickets.