Fast bowlers bowling at 140 plus are exciting commodities of world cricket. They are great possessions of teams for all formats. Bowlers win matches, batsmen save matches .In early days pace bowlers used to hunt in pairs. Hall –Griffith, Lindwall –Miller, Trueman –Sthatham were match winners. In those days wickets remained unprotected mostly. There were no restriction of bouncers per over.  

The batsmen did not wear headgears, arms guards. English captain devised bodyline strategy targeting ribcage of Sir Donald Bradman with 6-7 fielders on the leg side. Infamous bodyline series utilized a good bowler Harold Larwood for that purpose. After this series leg side fielding restriction and bouncer per over came into being. However host country umpires were blamed for denying tourist bowlers of wickets and favored home bowlers.  Absence of DRS did not let bowlers getting many wickets and test cricket were few and far between. 

Hence it is not fair comparing bowlers of the past with modern days. Rather comparing bowlers of the same decade is fair. The advent of ODI, T20 format has also changed bowling and bowlers to a great extent. In test with red balls bowlers are required to ball consistently well. It is only after 80 0vers ball cam be changed. Hence pace bowlers do not only need the skills of seam and swing, they also have to acquire skills of reverse swing with old balls on wearing surfaces. 

1970s four rock and roll pace bowlers appearing together changed the concept of modern-day test cricket. West Indies appeared with Roberts, Holding, Garner, Marshall. Australia had Lillee, Thomson, Hughes, Gillespie, McGrath, Bret Lee.  Pakistan had Sarfaraz, Imran and later Waqar Wasim and Shoaib Akhter, England had Snow, Willis, Hendricks. South Africa was in exile for some years and their quality pacers at their peak could not appear in major contest. New Zealand and India did not have more than one quality pacers appearing together.

The decade 2000-2010 has witnessed galaxy of quality pacers appearing for different countries. Now there is opportunity for comparing apple to apple. These days wickets are better protected, umpiring is neutral and provisions of DRS lets bowlers getting better opportunities. 

Fast/pace bowlers can not always be judged by the numbers of wickets they take. During peak days of West Indies wickets used to be shared among three or four bowlers. During the peak days of Shane Warne, Abul Qadir, Anil Kumble Muralidharan bulk of the wickets were taken by the spinners. But any way it will be interesting looking at the list of top pace partners and their performance in the recent past. 

New Zealand has climbed to the top of ICC test ranking for the continued success of the pace trio. They are however often underrated. 

Interesting noting that Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka are missing from the list. These countries won most matches at home where mostly spinners dominated. However, there are possibilities that in the new decade starting from tomorrow Sami-Bumrah – Yadav – Siraj and Shaheen Shah- Abbas – Nasim Shah will win more matches for India and Pakistan. 

BDST: 1254 HRS, DEC 31, 2020
SMS