5 best exponents of the outswinger in cricket history

As far as facing fast bowling is concerned, raw pace can often unsettle batsmen and intimidate them, but the best players aren't often too perturbed by that. In order to trouble the best batsmen, bowlers need to send in deliveries that have some movement in the air or off the pitch. In that regard, movement in the air or in other words, swing is often regarded as the most potent weapon in the hands of the quicker bowlers.

Even a medium pacer can become lethal if he can swing the ball well.

Now, in terms of swing bowling, the outswing is almost always the more dangerous weapon since it attacks the outside edge, with slips waiting to pounce on any mistake. Moreover, the batsman needs to have an excellent judgement to know what to play and what to leave. A good outswing bowler preys on those vulnerabilities and manages to get wickets. Here is a look at the best outswing bowlers of all time.

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#5 Malcolm Marshall

Everyone who has watched Malcolm Marshall bowl has accepted that he had everything in his bowling armoury. He was express fast, he could cut the ball either way, swing it, had a lethal bouncer and last but not the least, had an outstanding outswinger that troubled the best batsmen in the world. In a career spanning around 14 years, in which he took 376 Test wickets and 157 one day international wickets, many of those were the product of his famed outswing.

Marshall bowled it at pace and was accurate, which is why batsmen often found it difficult to simply leave his deliveries. Marshall's intelligence and his ability to control the swing were also some of the factors that made him such a remarkable outswing bowler.

#4 Dale Steyn

Dale Steyn

With 417 Test wickets in just 85 Test matches, Dale Steyn is among the greatest fast bowlers to have ever played the game, and one of his most lethal weapons as a fast bowler is the outswinger. Steyn's prowess as an exponent of the outswinging delivery has destroyed some of the best batting lineups over the years, and the fact that all of it happens at express pace makes it doubly difficult for batsmen to negotiate the swing.

However, merely swinging the ball is not what makes him so good. In addition to the outswing, Steyn is very accurate and keeps plugging away at one spot in order to induce an error. Moreover, he does have the ability to swing the ball appreciably but instead of that, he prefers to swing the ball by just the right amount so that the batsmen are almost always forced to play a shot.

A 'play and miss' is quite common when Steyn is in his groove with the outswinger.

#3 Wasim Akram

Wasim Akram

Any conversation about swing bowling is perhaps incomplete without including possibly the greatest swing bowler ever. Wasim Akram could make the ball swerve either way and that made him an extremely difficult bowler to face. He could toy with the batsmen with his outswingers in both forms of the game, and the fact that he could just as easily bend it the other way made his outswingers deadlier.

Batsmen often found themselves in two minds and that was a big factor in his outswingers being so much more potent. On the other hand, one expects fast bowlers to bowl the outswinging delivery with the new ball and while Akram did so, he was perhaps deadlier with the old one as he swung it late and viciously.

Some of the world's best batsmen were often made to look completely out of their depth when he was in the middle of one of those spells.

#2 James Anderson

James Anderson

In a column for The Daily Telegraph, a couple of years ago, former Wisden editor Scyld Berry wrote that James Anderson belongs in the pantheon of England's best ever fast bowlers. However, he went on to add, “But Anderson can claim a unique niche of his own as England’s finest ever swing bowler.” Ever since he debuted, the outswing has always been James Anderson's most natural delivery and over the years he has perfected it to such a degree, that he is now regarded as one of its greatest ever exponents.

Anderson was quite quick in his early years and can still bowl at pace, which makes the accurate outswinging delivery on off stump an even bigger challenge for most batsmen. Later on in his career, he developed the inswinger as well and since he can swing it both ways, the outswinger became an even more lethal delivery.

#1 Sir Richard Hadlee

Richard Hadlee

According to many, who watched him at his peak in the 1970s and 1980s, New Zealand's Sir Richard Hadlee is the greatest swing bowler to have ever played the game. In a career that spanned 17 years, he played 86 Tests and claimed 431 wickets, many of which were down to his mastery of the outswinger.

Hadlee bowled the outswinger with the new ball anywhere in the world and did not need the right 'conditions' to make the ball talk. Perhaps the most intriguing thing about his outswingers was that even though he could swing it a long way, he had the ability to control the swing and ensure that the batsmen hardly ever had the opportunity to leave a big swinging delivery safely.

Hadlee's classic delivery was the one that pitched on off stump, thereby forcing the batsman into the stroke and then swung away. Either batsmen used to be beaten or the slips and the wicketkeeper found themselves in business.