Best fast bowlers in Test format in Indian Cricket history

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Best fast bowlers in Test format in Indian Cricket history

Postby The Professor » Tue Jun 19, 2018 9:28 am

Just read an article that made the Top 5.

1. Kapil Dev
2. Zaheer Khan
3. Javagal Srinath
4. Ishant Sharma
5. Umesh Yadav

Don't think you can argue with No.1 but could be some good debate about the rest of the list.
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Re: Best fast bowlers in Test format in Indian Cricket histo

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Jun 19, 2018 1:27 pm

Ishant feels a bit of a stretch. Agree the top three are obvious. What about Shami? And making it a top 4?
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Re: Best fast bowlers in Test format in Indian Cricket histo

Postby DiligentDefence » Tue Jun 19, 2018 7:53 pm

I think I would leave it as a top 3.
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Re: Best fast bowlers in Test format in Indian Cricket histo

Postby bigfluffylemon » Wed Jun 20, 2018 11:17 pm

If Yadav makes the top 5, it indicates just how weak India's fast bowling has been throughout their history. That said, there really aren't too many alternatives. While Sharma and Yadav are not great test bowlers compared to what the rest of the world has produced, who else is there? Shami probably deserves to be in there ahead of Yadav, but who else? Irfan Pathan, Kharsan Ghavi and B Kumar are about the only three other Indian quicks to have taken 50 or more wickets at a sub 35 average.
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine ... pe=bowling

B Kumar will probably end up in the top 5 if he can overcome his injuries and continue his career in the same vein as he did in that tour of England in 2014, but he's only played 9 tests since then (and done fairly well in them, I might add).
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Re: Best fast bowlers in Test format in Indian Cricket histo

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Thu Jun 21, 2018 12:46 am

When I first started following cricket and my impressions about the game were formed by reading scorecards in the Playfair Cricket Annual, one of the most disorientating observations was how India would go into a Test with one seam bowler, and expect one of the batters to take the new ball. I eventually lived long enough to see England teams happy to take the field with one of the batters being the only spinner.

India have a legion of great spinners. In my time, England have fewer spinners who deserve celebration than India have pace bowlers.
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Re: Best fast bowlers in Test format in Indian Cricket histo

Postby bigfluffylemon » Thu Jun 21, 2018 3:12 am

Arthur Crabtree wrote:When I first started following cricket and my impressions about the game were formed by reading scorecards in the Playfair Cricket Annual, one of the most disorientating observations was how India would go into a Test with one seam bowler, and expect one of the batters to take the new ball. I eventually lived long enough to see England teams happy to take the field with one of the batters being the only spinner.

India have a legion of great spinners. In my time, England have fewer spinners who deserve celebration than India have pace bowlers.


Funny, isn't it?
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Re: Best fast bowlers in Test format in Indian Cricket histo

Postby meninblue » Fri Jun 22, 2018 3:51 pm

The top class pace bowlers have been very less in Indian cricket history. At the most i would put Kapil, Zak and Srinath.


Kapil was top class, because he did not enjoy the company of good supporting pace bowlers. Like today India has more number of high pace bowling options in country who bowl 145kph+ like Shami, Jasprit, Umesh, Khaleel, Navdeep Saini, Varun Aaron, Kapil Dev bowled in lesser performing pace bowlers attack. That is what sets him apart. His fitness was amazing. Played about 63 tests non-stop, rested for a test and then played again 62 odd tests without any break. His ability to pick five fers on his day was the most best quality amongst all Indian pacers. Like when a batsman is set he needs to convert his start into a 200 in test, Kapil as a bowler took five fers on his days more than any other Indian pacer. Given he managed all this fitness being the premiere all-rounder playing in Tests and ODI's his contribution to Indian cricket is awesome.

Javagal Srinath was the first fastest pace bowler India produced. Kapil played before him but Srinath was much faster than Kapil. Azhar had mentioned that Srinath is the fastest Indian pacer he has seen in his cricketing career. He was a better person to judge that because he played alongside Srinath a lot and also because Azhar used to field in slips and inner circle and hence was in a much better position to judge pace of Indian bowlers.



Zaheer was top class, skill-wise but i think he lacked the ability to take 5 fers. He imo underperformed in that aspect. Being the spear head of the Indian pace attack for long time, this aspect was expected from him. Having said that he is one of India's best pacer.


Shami is top class although not in great category.His average pace has come down in last eight months or so and is clearly on a decline. Will be interesting to see if he can maintain it for long period of time. The problems for him are his recurring fitness issues and family problems in recent years. I think he is more likely to decline if he does not sorts out the fitness issues. He has played very less and cannot be compared to likes of Kapil, Srinath or Zak.

I would not really say Ishant in one of the best Indian pacer. He has ample experience playing within and away from India, against many teams. Yet that experience has not helped Team India. With so much of experience one would expect such a bowler to lead the bowling attack, however that is not the case with Ishant. He is not the leader of the bowling attack in any way and that is a failure imo.


Having said that, today India has many bowler in domestic cricket than ever before who can hit 145+ consistently. On the South Africna tour, although we lost the series 1-2, the list of injured South African players was Quinton, Faf with broken thumb and Amla and Elgar suffering sever blows on body. ABD also said that this is the best pace attack as a whole he has seen while playing against India. Jasprit, Shami, Umesh, Ishant are probably the fastest bowling attack who can match the likes of Starc and Cummins pace wise.

With the attack of Bhuvi, Shami, Jas, Ishant and even backlup bowler Hardik who bowls at 137+ and 140+ at times the pace is not a problem. The weakness is there is no leader of the pace attack, say like Dale Steyn or Jimmy Andersson, Mitchell Starc, McGrath etc. All the pacers individually on their day can run through the lineup on good bowling wickets, but none have so fqar shown they can lead the attack for two consistent years or so. Yes, Jas has made debut this year, but apart from him nobody has managed to be considered as leader of attack for prolonged period due to some or other reason (injury,lack of form, planned rest).
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Re: Best fast bowlers in Test format in Indian Cricket histo

Postby Red Devil » Mon Jun 25, 2018 11:19 pm

If this is all-time, then aren't we forgetting about Amar Singh and Nissar?
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Re: Best fast bowlers in Test format in Indian Cricket histo

Postby bigfluffylemon » Tue Jun 26, 2018 2:18 am

Red Devil wrote:If this is all-time, then aren't we forgetting about Amar Singh and Nissar?


Kinda hard to judge a bowler who only ever played 6 or 7 test matches, all of them against England, as an all time great, no matter how good they were in the first class game. Maybe they would have been if they had more opportunity to play tests, but we'll never know.
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Re: Best fast bowlers in Test format in Indian Cricket histo

Postby GarlicJam » Thu Jun 28, 2018 9:54 pm

Ishant was a fantastic bowler who just didn't reach his potential.

Any bowler that can trouble Ponting in his prime as much as Ishant did has some serious skills.
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Re: Best fast bowlers in Test format in Indian Cricket histo

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Thu Jun 28, 2018 9:56 pm

A bit like say, Simon Jones and Steve Harmison. Superb for a couple of years, but that's not enough to get you into lists of great Tests fast bowlers.
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Re: Best fast bowlers in Test format in Indian Cricket histo

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Thu Jun 28, 2018 9:57 pm

Or Mitch1 for your lot.
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Re: Best fast bowlers in Test format in Indian Cricket histo

Postby GarlicJam » Thu Jun 28, 2018 10:22 pm

Jones at least had severe injury to blame.

Mitch1 rates far higher due to a couple (few?) series dominations. He also claimed over 300 wickets, and sported a fearsome moustache.
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Re: Best fast bowlers in Test format in Indian Cricket histo

Postby sussexpob » Fri Jun 29, 2018 9:08 am

Zaheer was top class, skill-wise but i think he lacked the ability to take 5 fers. He imo underperformed in that aspect. Being the spear head of the Indian pace attack for long time, this aspect was expected from him. Having said that he is one of India's best pacer.


I think for a very short period of about 2 years, Zaheer was as you say, a highly skilled operator who seemed to learn how to use the seam in different ways and how to really prize a batsman from the crease by using his ability to move the ball both ways. I could never fathom how he burned so bright for such a small amount of time though, either side of that he was a very ordinary bowler, especially at the end where he lost pace and lost the ability to think a batsman out, and was just throwing down half paced rubbish. It was a shame, he really seemed to have gained an understanding about his craft.
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Re: Best fast bowlers in Test format in Indian Cricket histo

Postby meninblue » Mon Jul 02, 2018 5:44 pm

sussexpob wrote:
Zaheer was top class, skill-wise but i think he lacked the ability to take 5 fers. He imo underperformed in that aspect. Being the spear head of the Indian pace attack for long time, this aspect was expected from him. Having said that he is one of India's best pacer.


I think for a very short period of about 2 years, Zaheer was as you say, a highly skilled operator who seemed to learn how to use the seam in different ways and how to really prize a batsman from the crease by using his ability to move the ball both ways. I could never fathom how he burned so bright for such a small amount of time though, either side of that he was a very ordinary bowler, especially at the end where he lost pace and lost the ability to think a batsman out, and was just throwing down half paced rubbish. It was a shame, he really seemed to have gained an understanding about his craft.


He was at his best after the county experience. Imo he could have fared better, but certainly one of our best.
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