Ranked: The 30 greatest fast bowlers in Test history
My editors tasked me, having seen more than 500 Test matches, with whittling down the finest 30 fast bowlers who ever drew breath. It is an almost impossible task, but I gave myself a helping hand with the chief criterion that the bowlers in this list must have bowled at more than 80mph. Therefore there is no place for greats such as Alec Bedser, Maurice Tate, Syd Barnes or George Lohmann of yore, and towards the end of his career Kapil Dev was in the medium-pace category. Here goes...
30. Jack Gregory
24 Tests, 85 wickets at an average of 31, and a strike rate of 65 balls per wicket
'Never before have English batsmen been so demoralised by great pace,' Wisden stated about the Australian fast bowler Jack Gregory in 1921. This sounds as if it is where bowling above 80mph begins. In his authoritative new book on the history of the game, my Telegraph Sport colleague Tim Wigmore cites the evidence that Gregory hit England batsmen 20 times above the waist in his 21 Ashes Tests, which is a rare strike-rate. He scored the fastest Test century and kept playing as an all-rounder even when his knees let him down so his overall bowling record does not look great.
29. Mike Procter
7 Tests, 41 wickets at 15 each, and 37 balls per wicket
Before South Africa were banned, Proctor's statistics, as far as they went, were better than anyone's. He hurtled to the crease and whirled his right arm, a bit like Jasprit Bumrah, giving the false impression that he bowled off the wrong foot. His inswinger was so vicious that against right-handed batsmen he averaged 11.
28. Wes Hall
48 Tests, 192 wickets at 26, and 54 balls per wicket
Similar in height, method and leap at the crease to Jack Gregory, he was the first fast bowler to reign in Asia: in the West Indies' 1958-59 series in India he took 30 wickets at 17 each, and 16 at 17 each in Pakistan, figures that have yet to be surpassed by any fast bowler touring Asia. His name was then writ large in the imagination of Australia, where he bowled the final over of the tied Test, and in England in 1963, where he bowled a spell of three-and-a-half hours in the Lord's Test.
27. Joel Garner
58 Tests, 259 wickets at 20, and 51 balls per wicket
Using his experiences of one-day competitions at Somerset, Garner became the foremost bowler in limited-overs cricket – as when winning the 1979 World Cup for West Indies – and revived the yorker's popularity, the delivery having fallen out of fashion (it is so-called because Yorkshire bowlers of the 19th century used it). In one-day internationals he conceded only 3.09 runs per over. In Tests too he was always economical, with old ball and new. Whatever he bowled, the threat was accentuated by his 6ft 8in height – and when Garner kicked up his knees, the batsman realised he was facing an unprecedented form of danger.
26. Mitchell Starc
97 Tests, 387 wickets at 27, and 48 balls per wicket
While Trent Boult took 600 wickets in all formats for New Zealand, Starc went one better. When pitching the new ball on a full length he has been driven for runs but has also swung it to devastating effect (as Rory Burns's leg stump can vouch). Only Wasim Akram, of left-arm pace bowlers, has taken more Test wickets with 414, and Starc could overtake him during the next Ashes. The variety he offers has been a key component in Australia winning medals in all formats over the past decade.
25. Courtney Walsh
132 Tests, 519 wickets at 24, and 58 balls per wicket
Never mind the best Test match figures of any bowler when captain – 13 wickets for 55 against New Zealand – his immense stamina enabled him to bowl more than 30,000 balls in Tests alone, and eventually to reach the top of the pile with 519 wickets. Having bowled heaps for Gloucestershire too, he could vary his length more than his contemporary Curtly Ambrose. Spare a thought too for Walsh and the late David Lawrence being perhaps the quickest pair of opening bowlers that county cricket has seen, alongside Sussex's Garth Le Roux and Imran Khan when in the mood.
24. Andy Roberts
47 Tests, 202 wickets at 26, and 55 balls per wicket
He was probably as fast as anyone there has ever been in his first couple of years of Test and county cricket (when he hit Colin Cowdrey on the head while taking 111 wickets at 13 each for Hampshire in 1974). And he took 32 wickets at 18 each in the West Indies series in India that winter. Then he evolved into a wise technician who schooled the great West Indian cohort of fast bowlers, teaching them how to build stamina without any academies by running on the beach, use cross-seam to bowl bouncers and – the hardest of all bowling tricks – to flick the shiny side over in the delivery stride to deceive the batsman.
23. Fred Trueman
67 Tests, 307 wickets at 22, and 49 balls per wicket
He has to be given a bonus point for the most handsome bowling action of anyone in this list: it was a perfect marriage of power, speed and aesthetic grace in his delivery stride (bowlers do not bowl side-on any more to reduce injury). He set a world record by reaching 307 Test wickets but how many more would he have taken had he had been selected for more than four tours? He was often deemed unselectable for non-cricket reasons, but that did help feed into his personality as 'Fiery Fred'. From a tearaway he evolved into a fast-medium outswing bowler who could bowl cutters.
22. Sir James Anderson
188 Tests, 704 wickets at 26, and 57 balls per wicket
He does not rate highly for strike rate (almost nine-and-a-half overs to take a wicket) but he comes top for longevity – more than 40,000 balls spanning a Test career of 21 years – and arguably for craftsmanship too: he could do everything with the seam of a cricket ball, and accurately too. Always effective in England with a Dukes ball, he also found a way for England to win their series of 2010-11 in Australia and 2012-13 in India.
21. Kagiso Rabada
71 Tests, 336 wickets at 22, and 39 balls per wicket
The South African has the best strike rate of any pace bowler who has taken more than 100 wickets in Tests, largely by pitching the new ball up on the line of the stumps. Anyone can start an outswinger on or outside off stump, precious few on leg and middle. Mean bouncer too. Bowling outside England with a Kookaburra ball makes it an even finer record, although it is probably an advantage to play only two-Test series.
20. John Snow
49 Tests, 202 wickets at 27, and 60 balls per wicket
Fast bowlers traditionally bowled full and straight with the odd bouncer thrown in, aside from the Bodyline series. Snow evolved the process by innovating the back-of-a-length ball that kicked into a batsman's ribs. He therefore had the fine haul of 32 wickets at 22 in the 1970-71 Ashes series. He analysed his craft like nobody in England before him. Might have performed even better if paid slightly more than a pittance.
19. Frank Tyson
17 Tests, 76 wickets at 19, and 45 balls per wicket
If one man commands a place in this list on the basis of one series then it is Frank Tyson, almost unknown when he went to Australia in 1954-55 under Len Hutton. He blew the Australians away with his full length and almost certainly the fastest bowling seen till then, verging on 90 miles an hour if not exceeding. When he returned four years later, there was nothing left in the tank, only the massive shoulders which had powered him.
18. Michael Holding
60 Tests, 249 wickets at 24, and 51 balls per wicket
The most graceful run-up of anyone in this list, which is not surprising given that he came from Jamaica, a land of great runners. His finest feat was his demolition of England at the Oval in 1976: 14 wickets for 149 runs on a featherbed. Arguably it was the final fanfare of traditional fast bowling, before helmets appeared, in that he aimed full and straight. He bowled the very high proportion of one-third of his victims, which suggests how far from the ball some of them were at the time.
17. Harold Larwood
21 Tests, 78 wickets at 28, and 64 balls per wicket
The first fast bowler of whom there is good film footage, and we can see from it that in the Bodyline series of 1932-3 he was essentially half a century ahead of his time. The keeper is starting to take the ball with his fingers pointing skywards as batsmen hop and hope. He took 33 wickets at 19 in that Bodyline series. It was the only answer to Don Bradman and the blandest pitches there have been in England and Australia around 1930.
16. Richard Hadlee
86 Tests, 431 wickets at 22, and 51 balls per wicket
Arguably the most efficient of all fast-medium bowlers on a pitch which offered something. The New Zealander married an accountant's mind, inherited from his father Walter, to all his physical attributes, and maximised his assets. Not having a partner of anything like equal calibre was a hindrance and an advantage in that the biggest slice of pie was always going to be his. Took the world record for Test wickets at one stage, before being knighted.
15. Ray Lindwall
61 Tests, 228 wickets at 23, and 60 balls per wicket
One of the most graceful actions, and one of the most graceful, gentle personalities in cricket, he nonetheless had a bouncer that could take unhelmeted heads off and gave Len Hutton nightmares. Only one person has taken more Test wickets hit-wicket than Lindwall's three, which suggests there was not much wriggle room. His stock delivery was the quick outswinger.
14. Alan Davidson
44 Tests, 186 wickets at 21, and 62 balls per wicket
Not an outright scary left-arm pace bowler, he was nevertheless more versatile than any apart from Sir Garfield Sobers because he could also bowl spin in Asia. His main suit, though, was fast-medium new-ball swing into the right-handed batsman. He played in the slow-scoring era of the late 1950s but it was still some feat to concede fewer than two runs per over.
13. Dennis Lillee
70 Tests, 355 wickets at 24, and 52 balls per wicket
Choreography does play a role in a fast bowler's impact, though Chris Woakes has said otherwise, and nobody can have played the role of alpha-male fast bowler more dauntingly than Lillee. He bowled fast outswing, precision bouncers, and could muster a leg-cutter though never an off-cutter. Without reverse swing in his armoury, he took only six wickets in his four Tests in Asia.
12. Allan Donald
72 Tests, 330 wickets at 22, and 47 balls per wicket
Primed by Warwickshire, Allan Donald led South Africa's charge on their return to international cricket after isolation. And charge he did, and leapt, like a lion going for a gazelle's throat. Strangely, many have swung the ball more before pitching but perhaps nobody has swung the ball more after pitching, in bizarre parabolas, than 'AD' at Edgbaston. The heart of a lion too.
11. Pat Cummins
68 Tests, 301 wickets at 22, and 46 balls per wicket
A perfect exponent of the new school of wobble seam, he runs in and delivers with unerring accuracy. In his early years, thanks to the speed of his rotation, he was as quick as anybody but once he had finally recovered from all his back injuries he settled down into the late 80s miles per hour. Remarkably, he is almost as effective when he has to captain.
10. Waqar Younis
87 Tests, 373 wickets at 24, and 44 balls per wicket
For a couple of years, until his back played up in 1991-92, he merited a couple of superlatives: the longest run-up and the fastest reverse-swinging yorker, having learnt it from his captain Imran Khan. More than half of his Test wickets, 212, were either bowled or leg-before: the only possible response was to bat left-handed. In 1991 he took 113 wickets at 14 for Surrey: he would not be allowed to do that now – which might have extended his peak.
9. Dale Steyn
93 Tests, 439 wickets at 23, and 42 balls per wicket
Nobody has looked so menacing on a cricket field as Steyn after taking a wicket, as he simulated thrusting a bayonet or spear into a fallen victim, eyes bulging. His two weapons were the fast outswinger, which had 109 batsmen caught-behind by the keeper, and the bouncer. Not much in between but then there was seldom a need for anything else. His strike rate is almost the same as Bumrah's.
8. Shaun Pollock
108 Tests, 421 wickets at 23, and 58 balls per wicket
He had it all in his time. At the outset he was long-limbed gangly-fast and as threatening as Allan Donald at the other end, and struck helmets for a pastime (too soon for concussion subs). He slowed down, but not by much, into another Curtly Ambrose, never giving the batsman anything except a bouncer for old times' sake. And the best batsman out of everyone in this list bar Mike Procter and Imran Khan.
7. Mitchell Johnson
73 Tests, 313 wickets at 28, and 51 balls per wicket
Sometimes too short and inaccurate, Johnson at his peak in 2013-14 was surely the most lethal fast bowler that has ever been. A left-armer, he could explode from little short of a length into a batsman's ribs or face. England held the Ashes and some top batsmen including Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen but they were blown away 5-0, and South Africa followed: in those eight Tests Johnson took 59 wickets at only 15 each.
6. Wasim Akram
104 Tests, 414 wickets at 23, and 54 runs per wicket
Tutored by Imran Khan, he had the same range of skills with new ball and old but was left-handed. He could therefore run through a side by going round the wicket and reversing the ball into the batsman's toes which made for a unique angle, like being thrown out from extra cover. In placing him above Johnson, we should factor in that he played his home Tests on pitches devoid of seam movement.
5. Glenn McGrath
104 Tests, 414 wickets at 23, and 54 runs per wicket
Unlike Curtly Ambrose he could very occasionally be rattled and hit off his length, but otherwise he did what he did immaculately, by bowling on or just outside off stump and usually with some steepling bounce. He made Shane Warne's life a lot simpler by knocking over top orders. Throw in ODIs and he took almost a thousand international wickets… but what if an opening batsman had gone after him a la Ben Duckett?
4. Imran Khan
88 Tests, 362 wickets at 23, and 54 balls per wicket
Not being content with mere inswing at Oxford, he acquired the conventional skills in county cricket then added reverse-swing as taught by Sarfraz Nawaz, so that he conquered inside and outside Asia. He was the first great bowler to bowl reverse swing not by soaking one side of the ball with sweat but by roughing up the leather on one side to make it lighter – before umpires began to inspect. In Pakistan he took 163 wickets at 19. Has anyone moved the ball more in the air than Imran's boomerangs in the early 1980s before his back injury?
3. Curtly Ambrose
98 Tests, 405 wickets at 21, and a wicket every 54 balls
The only modern bowler who was never taken apart, not least because he might slip in a beamer if he was hit (before high full tosses were called no-balls). Nobody has maintained such an unwavering back of a length, so his economy rate was outstanding although he might have taken more wickets if he had pitched fuller. He conceded 2.3 per over when limited-overs hitting was kicking into Tests. His spell of seven wickets for one run against Australia in Perth can hardly be surpassed.
2. Malcolm Marshall
81 Tests, 376 wickets at 21, and a wicket every 47 balls
He just missed out on the two World Cup victories by West Indies in 1975 and 1979 but he had the skills to succeed in every format. He could not only swing the ball both ways but cut it both ways and bowl the meanest bouncer because he was not too tall. He almost sprinted on tip-toe to the crease: as Mike Selvey wrote, like a sidewinder on the attack.
1. Jasprit Bumrah
46 Tests, 210 wickets at 20, and a wicket every 42 balls
Deserves to be recognised as the finest Test fast bowler, and the finest white-ball fast bowler, there has been. Nobody has delivered the ball closer to the batsman since the front-foot no-ball was introduced, thanks to his extended right elbow. By anecdotal evidence, no pace bowler has ever been so difficult to read as he flicks his fingers in addition to the snap of his wrist; and by statistical evidence he is unsurpassed too, as the only Test bowler of any kind to have taken more than 200 wickets at an average below 20 (19.60). And one more stat: he averages 17 in Australia and India. Bumrah has raised the bar as the all-format fast bowler.
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