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Your top ten TEST bowlers of ALL-TIME

Sanz

Hall of Fame Member
Imran had a much better record against the best side of his time than Akram, and is much more balanced against all countries.

Imran has an overall better record than Akram despite never playing minnows and being a part-time bowler towards the end of his career.

Imran has a markedly better record in matches won.

Imran was more likely than Akram to run straight through a batting lineup on his lonesome (he had three 7-fors and two 8-fors, compared to one 7-for for Akram against New Zealand).

So, like I said, while Akram had more talent, Imran's sheer willpower took his performances to another level.
Imran had a better home record against the best side, Check out Akram's record in Australia and Imran's record in WI, you will know who performed better in away conditions.

Imran didn't play against minnows ? So who were Srilanka in the 80s ? Take out his performances against SL and his average goes up to 24 with a strike rate of 55.9, Take Akram's performance against Zim/BD out and Akram's avg. is 24.03 with strike rate of 55.4

Did Imran play against SA one of the best sides of Akram's era ?

Imran was more likely to run through batting lineup than Akram - And you make that assumption because of some 7/8fers Imran took? Akram played with guys like Waqar, Shoaib, Saqi etc and rarely had the chance to take 7 wickets in an innings.
 

Sanz

Hall of Fame Member
Imran singlehandedly has won matches in Australia and West Indies, the best players of pace, Akram never did.
Let's see :-

Pak won the 4th test in WI in the 1976/77 series - Imran 4 wickets in the test
Pak won the 1st test in Aus in the 1978-79 series - Imran 4 wickets in the test
Pak won the the 3rd test in Aus in 1981-82 series - Imran 5 wickets in the test

So Pakistan won 5 tests in Australia/WI during Imran's era and out of which Pak didn't win 3 of the tests singlehandedly due to Imran's bowling. Please note I am not saying Imran didn't contribute to the win but just mentioning that it was not solely due to his effort as you were trying to portray.

As for the remianing two wins :- Take a look at the sydney test that one can say that Imran won single handedly and tell me how many batsmen are there who can be regarded as the best players of fast bowling ?

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63181.html
 

Sanz

Hall of Fame Member
If we are going to fly around terms like 'sheer willpower' (sic) then Wasim's amazing tenacity in face of presistent hostility, and unbridled ferocity - coupled together with an hitherto peerless versatility - set him up a step or ten above Imran in the cricketing echelon.
And not to forget his consistent fight with diabetes between the period of 1995-till retirement and also zillions of ODIs he played throughout the world.
 

Anil

Hall of Fame Member
1. malcolm marshall
2. sydney barnes
3. richard hadlee
4. muthiah muralitharan
5. curtly ambrose
6. dennis lillee
7. glenn mcgrath
8. wasim akram
9. imran khan
10. shane warne
 

JBH001

International Regular
Hmm, difficult.

I would dislike to put this in terms of a 1 - 10 ranking but as it is required, so be it.

1. S F Barnes
2. Malcolm Marshall
3. Richard Hadlee
4. Glen McGrath
5. Dennis Lillee
6. Muttiah Muralidaran
7. Wasim Akram
8. Imran Khan
9. Shane Warne
10. Curtly Ambrose
 

HeathDavisSpeed

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
My top ten is highly skewed in favour of bombastic fast bowling as it turns out (no surprises I guess)

1. Malcolm Marshall
2. Curtley Ambrose
3. Waqar Younis
4. Jeff Thomson
5. Richard Hadlee
6. Imran Khan
7. Wayne Daniel
8. Shane Bond
9. Wasim Akram
10. Allan Donald

Honourable mentions to Shane Warne, Peter Such and Ewen Chatfield.
 

Fusion

Global Moderator
1. Marshall
2. Hadlee
3. Khan
4. Barnes
5. Ambrose
6. Lillee
7. Akram
8. McGrath
9. Warne
10. Murali
 

Fiery

Banned
My top ten is highly skewed in favour of bombastic fast bowling as it turns out (no surprises I guess)

1. Malcolm Marshall
2. Curtley Ambrose
3. Waqar Younis
4. Jeff Thomson
5. Richard Hadlee
6. Imran Khan
7. Wayne Daniel
8. Shane Bond
9. Wasim Akram
10. Allan Donald

Honourable mentions to Shane Warne, Peter Such and Ewen Chatfield.

Peter Such? (you extracting the Michael?)
 
Imran had a much better record against the best side of his time than Akram, and is much more balanced against all countries.

Imran has an overall better record than Akram despite never playing minnows and being a part-time bowler towards the end of his career.

Imran has a markedly better record in matches won.

Imran singlehandedly has won matches in Australia and West Indies, the best players of pace, Akram never did.

Imran was more likely than Akram to run straight through a batting lineup on his lonesome (he had three 7-fors and two 8-fors, compared to one 7-for for Akram against New Zealand).

So, like I said, while Akram had more talent, Imran's sheer willpower took his performances to another level.
Imran also had a much longer & more destructive peak period than Wasim,in fact better than any modern day bowler(Only Barnes & Lohmann have better peak than Imran).Personally,I think no Pakistani bowler comes close to Imran Khan.Wasim makes my alltime XIs & lists because he gets the advantage of being a left armer,otherwise he was nowhere near being as good as Imran Khan.
 
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Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Batted like a girl but he plugged away at the bowlinng crease. A slightly better bowler than Ashley Giles
Absolutely no way. Such was a defensive operative, even on a turning pitch. Giles could and did actually take big bags of wickets.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Yes they were Richard. They were whipping boys for about 10 years
In spite of the debatable nature of that statement, being the worst Test team doesn't make someone not Test standard.

Zimbabwe, England and New Zealand in 1999 were competing not to be the worst Test team in The World. There was no question that all three were easily Test-standard. Bangladesh, on the other hand, have never been remotely close to Test-standard.

Only one team in the 20th-century was not Test-standard, that being New Zealand in the 1930s and 1950s. Bangladesh were then not Test-standard from 2000 to the day of this post.
 

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