5 best first change bowlers in ODIs

#1 Abdur Razzak

This might come as a surprise to many but the most successful first change bowler in the history of ODI cricket is former Bangladesh left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak. He had a decade-long career for Bangladesh spanning a decade from 2004 to 2014 and played in as many as 153 games for the team.

In 86 of those games, he came on to bowl as the first change bowler and considering the fact that the opening bowlers often went for runs, his performance in that role deserves a lot of plaudits. Bangladesh had plenty of left-arm spinners but Razza was particularly known for his accuracy and his ability to restrict the opposition’s scoring rate.

Along the way, he picked up 122 wickets as well as a first change bowler and remains the most successful bowler in that category in the history of the ODI game. His average of 28.04 and economy rate of 4.55 are equally impressive. It is quite hard to return those numbers while playing for a team which did not have a good bowling attack for almost the entirety of his career.