Sri Lanka spinning great Muttiah Muralitharan says Shane Warne would have finished with more Test wickets than he did had the Australian played for the same length of time.

Warne, who passed away last week at the age of 52, took 708 wickets in 145 Tests, becoming the first bowler to reach the 700 mark. However, Muralitharan went on to break that record, bagging 800 wickets in 133 Tests.

“I was two or three years younger than him, so I was always going to play a little bit longer and I always had that advantage,” said Muralitharan. “If he’d have played the same as me for both our careers, he would have got more wickets than me.

“I enjoyed that battle [to take the most wickets]; our performance goes up because we’re thinking that ‘we want to beat his record’.”

Muralitharan said Warne’s death was “shocking”.

“I don’t know what to say,” he added. “He’s a good friend and also a legendary cricketer. What he has done for spin bowling is more than anyone. He will be remembered as one of the greats in history.

“It’s not the age to die. He was fit whenever I saw him. It’s sad for the whole cricket fraternity. It’s a big, big loss for the cricketing fraternity.”