5 cricketing nations with the best pace bowling attacks in Test history

#1 West Indies

South Africa v England - 3rd Test: Day 5

The Calypso Kings have created a mark for themselves by producing a plethora of fast bowling greats since their inception into Test cricket.

In the 50’s, the legendary Wes Hall and speed merchant Roy Gilchrist were their settled new ball pair. Gilchrist was a speed demon who tormented the batsman with his brutal pace and bouncers. Unfortunately Gilchrist faded away owing to his temperamental nature and maverick like attitude.

In the 60s, Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith formed a lethal pace bowling combination for the Windies. The tall and well-built Hall was known for bowling long spells without dropping his pace meanwhile Griffith was more at the batsman with his short pitch stuff.

For most part of the early 70’s, West Indies did not have a settled bowling combination before Colin Croft came onto the scene. Colin Croft, the most underrated seamer of the famous pace quartet had the ability to shape the ball away from the batsman.

In the 80s, the famous West Indian pace bowling quartet was the most potent bowling attack the cricket world had ever seen. Michael Holding nicknamed the “Whispering Death” was the fastest among all of them. “Big Bird” Joel Garner tormented the opposition with his steep bounce. Andy Roberts, one of the most economical seamers in cricket history bowled with great control and guile.

Malcolm Marshall was the most spirited and committed bowler of the lot. Besides these greats, the Windies had quality seamers in Sylvester Clarke and Winston Davis.

In the late 80s, Patrick Patterson emerged as the fastest of the Windies seamers. The Benjamin brothers, Keith and Winston provided good depth to the Windies pace attack. During this time, Courtney Walsh became their pace spearhead. Walsh a workhorse with tremendous endurance bowled extended spells in Test matches.

In the 90’s, Walsh formed a deadly partnership with pace legend Curtly Ambrose. Ambrose was perhaps the most fearsome bowler to face when on song. He bowled his outswingers to great effect but it was his inswing which got batsman into trouble. Meanwhile, Ian Bishop was a really quick pacer whose promising career was cut short by a sustained back injury.

Post the Ambrose-Walsh era, there were couple of fast bowlers like Mervyn Dillon, Nixon Mclean, Franklyn Rose and Reon King who rose to prominence.

With the turn of the century, the Windies continued to churn out quality pacers in Pedro Collins, Darren Powell, Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor but none of them delivered to their full potential. Meanwhile Anderson Cummins, Cameron Cuffy, Corey Collymore, Ian Bradshaw, Vasbert Drakes, Tino Best and Ravi Rampaul did well in the limited overs format.

The current pace attack is being led by Kemar Roach. Roach bowls with brisk pace and has been among the wickets in Test cricket. Meanwhile Jason Holder has been effective on bouncy tracks. Shannon Gabriel has developed into a good swing bowler in Test cricket. Star all-rounder Dwayne Bravo has been successful in limited overs cricket with his subtle variations.

West Indies Bowlers with 100 or more Test Wickets

Bowler

Matches

Wickets

Courtney Walsh

132

519

Curtly Ambrose

98

414

Malcolm Marshall

81

376

Joel Garner

58

259

Michael Holding

60

249

Andy Roberts

47

202

Wes Hall

48

192

Fidel Edwards

55

165

Ian Bishop

43

161

Mervyn Dillon

38

131

Jerome Taylor

46

130

Colin Croft

27

125

Kemar Roach

37

122

Vanburn Holder

40

109

Pedro Collins

32

106

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The rest of the Test playing nations have also produced some fine fast bowlers over the years but haven’t made it to the top five as they did not churn out quality bowlers consistently nor did they have the depth in their pace attack over a period of time.

Here’s a list of notable fast bowlers from the other Test playing nations –

India – Kapil Dev, Karsan Ghavri, Manoj Prabhakar, Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Ajit Agarkar, Rudra Pratap Singh, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar

New Zealand - Richard Hadlee, Richard Collinge, Dick Motz, Danny Morrison, Ewen Chatfield, Chris Cairns, Dion Nash, Simon Doul, Daryl Tuffey, Shane Bond, Chris Martin, Kyle Mills, Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Adam Milne

Sri Lanka - Ashantha de Mel, Rumesh Ratnayake, Chaminda Vaas, Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Zoysa, Pramodya Wickramasinghe, Ravindra Pushpakumara, Dilhara Fernando

Zimbabwe - Heath Streak, Eddo Brandes, Henry Olonga

Bangladesh - Mashrafe Mortaza