by 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).
Test FL's - 8 , ODI and Tests Combo FL's - 1, ODI World Cup - 1, ODI FL's - 7, ODI and T20i combo FL's - 1 ,
T20 Franchisee FL's - 7, T20i Cup FL's- 1, T20 FL's- 5 , 50 Overs Domestic FL's - 1, 40 Overs Domestic FL's- 1