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Who's Going to be the Bowler of the Next Decade?


Dhondy

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Who were they, those star bowlers, that were the nemeses of batsmen the world over down the decades? Here's an attempt to look at them. While cumulative wickets are important, I've gone for the best bowling average, even if that person had a few scalps less, to avoid putting the likes of Derek Underwood ahead of Dennis Lillee and co. In the 60s, it was the inimitable Englishman, Freddie Truman, with 179 scalps @ 22.01. In the 1970s, it was indeed Lillee, with 184 wickets @ 23.78, who led the charts. The eighties was the decade of three fearsome fast bowlers, vying with each other for supremacy- Malcolm Marshall with 323 wickets @ 19.91, Sir Richard Hadlee with 289 wickets @ 19.28, and Imran Khan with 256 @ 19.12. I do not have the temerity to pretend I can rank these cricketing giants, so we'll call it a three-way tie. It gets harder in the 90s. While Warne had the highest number of victims- 351 @ 25.66, his average is inferior to Curtly Ambrose, with 309 @ 20.14, Wasim Akram, with 289 @ 21.45, Allan Donald with 284 @ 21.83, Waqar Younis, with 273 @ 21.71, and Glenn McGrath, with 266 @ 22.87. Maan, you choose from that lot! Statistically, it'd have to be Ambrose. Do you agree? It also underlines, what a formidable task bowlers from the subcontinent have, living up to the exploits of the 2Ws. Many of those wickets were picked up on the dead tracks of the subcontinent. If you really want to appreciate how difficult that can be, watch the Ind-SA series. Those two Pakistani gentlemen were absolute bazookas! Murali leads both the wickets and averages of the current decade with 496 @ 19.35, while McGrath had 297 @ 20.53. So, who's it going to be for the rest of this decade, and the next one? Certainly, Steyn has made a bright start with 105 @ 21.8. But who else is your money on? Asif? Lee? Ishant? RP Singh? Or is there a dark horse lurking somewhere? Wouldn't you just love to find out?

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Murali has taken a phenomenal 495 wickets in this decade ! If cricketers are judged by pure numbers alone, then Murali is without doubt the greatest cricketer to have played this game, after the Don of course. And there are still 20 months left in this decade ! I would like it more if the stats in OP came along with win/loss percentage of the respective teams.

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Here Is My Long List.. Daniel Vettori Brett Lee Ishant Sharma Rp Singh Mohd. Asif Dale Steyn Stuart Broad
You can't be serious about Vettori, Cricketics. Do you realise how long he's been around already, and do you know his current bowling average? He's being outbowled by even Jitan Patel in the current series. The rest of the list is good, but you have spoilt it with the pack leader.
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You can't be serious about Vettori, Cricketics. Do you realise how long he's been around already, and do you know his current bowling average? He's being outbowled by even Jitan Patel in the current series. The rest of the list is good, but you have spoilt it with the pack leader.
WELL i really feel the best from him is yet to come.. just have this feeling.. and yaa putting his name on the top of the list wasn't really intention.. no order there.. just bunch of names i had to list.. not in any order..
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Steyn, Asif, Ishant, RPS, Lee, Sreesanth all have the potential. But fitness would be the key issue. Lee is already 31 years old. In all likelihood, he has another 4 years ahead of him. He will be the best fast bowler in the world, as long as he plays. He's got it all. Speed, Accuracy, Swing, Reverse swing etc. He is hard as a rock, interms of fitness. But he will likely retire by 2011. So that rules him out. Among the rest, Ishant & Steyn seem the fittest (Steyn may be fitter). Its too early to judge either of them, as they havent been tested long enough, in all conditions. Both of them have the goods to be great fast bowlers. However interms of stats, Steyn will do better, as he will do most of his bowling in the seamer friendly Saffie conditions.

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Dale Steyn
Yes, if he can remain injury free for sufficiently long, Dale Steyn will be a top class performer of this upcoming era. For India, I hope I.S. does not get led astray by all the 2020 and ODI circus, and can develop into a formidable Test bowler. Go on and target Kapil Dev's record, I.S. Muralitharan: He is a great spin bowler chucker.
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Chris Tremlet or Stuart Broad might eventually be very successful bowlers. Both are very tall, Tremlet is particularly well built, and with years of cricket ahead of them... i rate them as future prospects when the current crop of Lee, Murli, Flintoff, Zaheer, Akhtar etc retire. i would have rated Asif high too had his career not be more chequered by more injuries than raisins is my morning cereal bowl.

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I think the next superstar would be the Aussie Allrounder Moises Henriques...he has the makings of a superstar- absolutely dominated the U-19 world cup with both bat and ball, did very well in his few Pura Cup chances and is a very young guy...it will be a couple of yrs before he makes his debut...but i think he is going to be the guy who matches/surpasses the Kapil-Imran-Botham-Hadlee quintuplet. As for Ishant, its too early to tell....a couple of good spells does not a bowler make and he still has a lot to prove....he still has like 10-15 wickets @ nearly 50 average so far...he has potential, but so did Mohd. Sami. Right now of the bowlers going around, I'd have my money on Dale Steyn, Mohammed Asif and Panesar. Lee IMO is going to be good for another 3-4 years at best, he is already 30 and i don't see him keeping his pace up for much more than 3-4 years from now...Lee has never been a control bowler like Marshall/Ambrose/Wasim/McGrath....this is not to say that he doesnt have control- he just isn't in the zone where he can put 6 straight deliveries on a dime like those guys could....and IMO, after Lee loses his pace, he will go the Waqar way- decent but not great.

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