Five Top Indian fast bowlers of all time

#1 Kapil Dev

The Haryana Hurricane heads the list of top Indian fast bowlers by far. Kapil Dev isn’t just India’s best fast bowler of all time, but also plausibly ranks amongst the top in the world.

“India doesn’t produce fast bowlers”, they said. Kapil Dev took it upon himself to change that perception.

Kapil Dev bowled with good pace and got the ball to swing away from the batsmen late, making life very difficult for them when he was around. He had incredible stamina too. This meant that he wasn’t at the batsmen for just short spells, but for long ones. He once bowled 30.3 overs on the trot against the West Indies to pick up 9 wickets in the innings.

At the time of his retirement, Kapil Dev had taken the most number of wickets in Test Cricket (434), supplanting Sir Richard Hadlee as the record holder. He was named one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1983.

“Why can’t a country of a billion produce another like Kapil Dev?” Kapil Dev’s stellar career has begged this question from many. The answer is quite simple. Kapil Dev was one in a billion. He was named the Wisden Indian Cricketer of the Century in 2002, after all. In 2010, Kapil Dev was befittingly inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.