Sultans of Swing: The 7 Best Swing Bowlers of All-Time
The 7 Greatest Swing Bowlers of All-Time
The art of swing bowling is one of the most beautiful sensations in the game of cricket. Rather than relying on pure pace, the bowler needs to out-think the batsman – swinging the new ball and reversing the old one.
Swing bowlers are well known to rattle batsmen by their ability to move the ball in the air, followed by late movement off the pitch as well.
A swing bowler is also one of the most high-priority factors of any team because apart from leg-spinners and off-spinners, only genuine swing bowlers own the expertise to produce breakthroughs out of nowhere.
While it is a difficult art to master, it is also one that yields the best outcome. Some fast bowling maestros would make influential invasions early on with the new ball with their in-swingers and out-swingers and some who’d get wickets with a 30-35 overs old ball and deceive with their "hand and brain" to create an unusual rough on the ball to generate reverse swing.
Over the years, lots of fast, swing-focused bowlers came and ruled the world of cricket. Some frustrated batsmen with a calamitous pace while others had the batsmen dance to their tune with an exquisite swing.
To be honest, it is quite challenging to select the top 6 from a long list of exceptional fast-swing bowling icons.
Please note that James Anderson, the greatest English bowler, is included in our other list of the greatest fast bowlers, but of course, could have a place in this list as well.
1. Wasim Akram – Pakistan
The cricketing world has probably never seen a more talented and versatile bowler than Wasim Akram. With 502 wickets in 356 ODIs and 414 wickets in 104 tests (the only bowler besides Muttiah Muralitharan to achieve this feat), Akram burst into international cricket with relatively no first-class experience after being spotted at a cricketing camp by Pakistani batting legend, Javed Miandad at Lahore.
In his prime, Akram was the epitome of the supreme fast bowler, he was tall, hit the deck hard, had great control on his line & length, and more importantly, had the ability to swing the bowl in both directions.
Under the guardianship of the great Imran Khan, he also manifested the strength to reverse the ball. This made the "Sultan of Swing" one of the toughest bowlers to play. Along with his partner-in-crime, Waqar Younis, the two formed one of the most fearsome bowling attacks.
To quote Ricky Ponting,
“You could get a few runs off him, but you just knew there was an unplayable ball around the corner, be it with an old ball or with a new ball.”
Read an in-depth profile of Wasim Akram
2. Richard Hadlee – New Zealand
In his time he was regarded as the best swing bowler in the cricketing world. Sir Richard Hadlee was one of the greatest players to ever play test cricket. His bowling remains the reason why New Zealand was competitive during his career.
In just 86 tests, Hadlee picked up 431 wickets at a bowling average of 22.30. While he has also registered 158 wickets in 115 ODIs under his name. He is a perfect standard or benchmark for fast-bowling perfection to date. The Black Caps superstar was idolized and hailed by the cricketing greats like Ian Botham, Malcolm Marshall, Imran Khan, and Kapil Dev.
They, jointly agree that Richard Hadlee is completely unmatched. His dynamic combination of pace, accuracy, seam and swing earned him success throughout his career. Hadlee is one of the greatest all-rounders the world has seen.
3. James Anderson - England
James ‘Jimmy’ Anderson is England’s all time leading wicket taker, and at the time of writing, at 40 years old, is still playing test cricket at the highest level.
Anderson burst onto the scene in 2003 and took 5 wickets on test debut against Zimbabwe, and has not really looked back since!
Anderson is known to be one of the most skillful bowlers in cricket history, with the ability to move the ball both ways, with his stock outswinger often impossible to tell apart from the reversin ball until the very last moment.
He is probably best known for his hooping away swingers, forcing the batter to commit to a shot with the ball starting on off stump and kicking away as it angles towards 2nd slip.
The issue of course is that just as you think you have read that ball it comes back in the other way!
Anderson is without doubt one of the greatest bowler of all time full stop, but until his career is over we will not truly appreciate his greatness,
4. Waqar Younis – Pakistan
Waqar Younis, perhaps, had the most perfect attributes required for reverse swing, and man, didn’t he make the most of it! Holding a slinky round-arm action and bowling at 145 kmph+ in his glory, Younis was absolutely unplayable once the ball started reversing. His stock ball was a toe-crushing in-swinging Yorker bowled at over 150 kmph.
There were many occasions when the batting team, while playing against Pakistan, would be cruising before Waqar, in collaboration with Akram, would come in and skittle the team out in a destructive burst of reverse swing bowling.
He took 373 wickets from 87 Tests at an average of 23.56 and carried the batsmen 416 times away from the crease in 262 ODIs with an outstanding average of 23.78.
The reason why we believe that Waqar Younis, the "Burewala Express", was the most prolific bowler in the cricketing world is that he outclassed in all situations and on every surface with his swinging art!
5. Glen McGrath – Australia
Talking about Aussie fast bowlers, Glenn McGrath is undoubtedly one of the greatest cricketers to represent Australia. He didn't have too much pace, yet could trouble the batsmen with his perfect seam position, splendid line n length, vicious swing, and uncomfortable bounce he could extract.
On top of that, McGrath was remarkably accurate and compact, making life difficult for the best of batsmen.
With the attention and absorption of a Yogi, he would exploit the “corridor of uncertainty” and would get the bowl to move just a bit, but well enough to produce an outside edge. It is surprising to see that a bowler who uses to bowl around 130 kmph inspire the kind of trepidation in batsmen that Glenn McGrath did.
No performance of McGrath can come close to his 8/38 vs England in the Ashes 1997 at Lord’s. Collectively, this shining Aussie has hammered 563 batsmen in just 124 test encounters. While he has got 381 wickets in 250 ODIs under his belt. Indeed, his swing bowling is an outstanding benchmark in the history of cricket.
6. Malcolm Marshall – West Indies
Legendary Caribbean fast bowler Malcolm Marshall was one of those lethal fast bowlers who had the ability, expertise, intelligence, control, and the ability to trouble the batsmen on any kind of wicket. Marshall is deemed to be the most complete fast bowler ever in the history of cricket.
Marshall was idolized and hailed by cricketing greats like Ian Botham, Graham Gooch, Brian Lara, Michael Holding, and Mike Gatting. He could embarrass the batsmen with his outrageous pace, terrify them with towering bouncers and squaring them up with magnificent swing.
He took 376 wickets in 81 Tests and 157 wickets in 136 One day matches for Windies. A complete package, Marshall is a unanimous pick when it comes to talking about the greatest swing bowlers.
6. Sarfraz Nawaz - Pakistan
Sarfraz Nawaz, who did the world of cricket a massive favour by discovering reverse swing during the late 1970s, took 177 wickets from 55 Test matches and remains one of the greatest bowlers to have ever played for Pakistan.
While Sarfraz was never too quick, what he had in abundance was excellent control and mastery over reverse swing, enabling him to be as successful as he was.
Being 6’6'’ tall, Sarfraz was described as "as strong as a cart-horse" and his powerful upper body and good action allowed him to bowl at a fast-medium pace. He has shown great composure and quality in his bowling through his swing and compact line.
He is regarded as the most reliable bowler to be used in tough conditions by great crickets like Joel Garner, Imran Khan, and Allan Border.
Sarfraz’s career highlight was undoubtedly the Test match between Australia and Pakistan in Melbourne in 1979. Needing 382 for victory, Australia, at 305/3, seemed to be cruising to a comfortable victory.
Pakistan captain Mushtaq Muhammed duly called Sarfraz into the attack, and he responded with figures of 9/86 in the innings to give Pakistan a miraculous victory of 71 runs.
Decisive Verdict on the Best Swing Bowlers of All Time:
As I have said earlier, selecting the top 6 among the hundreds is nearly impossible.
Pacers like Mike Holding, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner, Dennis Lillee, Shaun Pollock, Imran Khan, Sydney Barnes, Kapil Dev, James Anderson, and Dale Steyn are also not far behind during their peaks.
Many modern-day cricketers like Trent Boult, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jofra Archer, and Pat Cummins, etc. have taken inspiration from these greats, and many more will do the same.
Please feel free to share and let us know in the comments who you think is deserving of being on the list!
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