Top spinners in last 30 years

[Trichromatic]

My rankings:

 

1. Warne

2. Murali

3. Kumble

4. Swann

5. Ashwin = Herath

8. Harbhajan

7. Saqlain

8. McGill

9. Vettori

 

Warne and Murali are clearly best. Warne is ahead of Murali because of all the controversy around his action. Although I don't give much weightage to that issue. What he achieved was too much even whatever leeway he got.

 

Kumble, although struggled overseas initally but it is very difficult to ignore his volume of wickets. 

 

Swann, Ashwin and Herath are close. Swann was a classical off spinner and it was refreshing to see an offie who could actually rely on regular off break to pick wickets during a time when doosra was considered as must have weapon for spinner to survive in international arena. His success and recent crackdown on bowling actions brought faith back into this classical art of bowling.

 

Ashwin and Herath have similar records since 2011. Ashwin has 254 wickets in 45 tests while Herath has picked up 247 in same number of matches. Both average 25 during this time and 33 in away matches. Ashwin has 24 5-fer, Herath has 22. 7 10-fer for both of them during the period.

 

I have placed Swann above both because I think he has showed that he could be as good as any other bowler in subcontinent against decent batting unit and he grabbed all chances to make an impact all over the world. Be it Oval 2011 against India where he picked 6 or 7 wickets in an inning after being dominated by Indian batsmen whole series. His performances at Adelaide 2010, Centurion and Durban etc. meant he maintained a good record everywhere which seems to be very difficult for any offie. 

 

Harbhajan was among biggest match winner for India and McGill was unlcuky to compete with Warne. Saqlain didn't play many matches, but his performances against India always surprised me. He was a quiality bowler who faded away too soon.

 

I have intentionally omitted Ajmal from the list.

[kira]

As usual desis overrating swann because he was overhyped by english media, inferiority complex as always, no way is swann getting ahead of ashwin or herath, no place in my team for losers who abandon their team midway on the tour

Edited February 16, 2017 by kira