Pace, swing, seam, you choose.
My first ten names are the fast bowlers who have the best strike rates since 1965, with a minimum of 200 wickets (not including games against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh). They are listed in order of best strike rate.
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine ... pe=bowlingMy next five are the best averaging of those remaining, minimum 200 wickets.
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine ... pe=bowlingFirst thing you'll notice is there are no Indian or English options. Willis would have just got in if I'd gone for the best 15 averages. John Snow was fairly near on average. Gough (SR52) would have got in for the best 15 SRs. Of those without enough wickets, Dean Headley (SR50) and Simon Jones (SR48) are what-ifs. Steve Finn, a maybe-will (SR49). For India, Zaheer Khan and Kapil Dev lagged a little behind, as did Botham. Fine bowlers though all these were.
Near misses included Andy Roberts, Jeff Thompson and Brett Lee.
If we set the minimum to 100 wickets, I get Vernon Philander (SR46), Shoaib Akhtar (SR46), Mohammad Asif (SR48), Colin Croft (SR49) and Ryan Harris (SR50),
all in the top ten! and Ian Bishop not far off. These are/were amazing bowlers, but I think I got the legends by setting it at 200.
A mention for the great what if, Shane Bond, 63 wickets against top eight sides, with a SR of 43.
Vote for any of these in the threads, but I think the leading names are in the fifteen.
I always say that everybody's right.