Best bowling attack ever (4 bowlers)

[Days of Grace]

Surely, the last four years of the 1990s would have to be a contender??

 

[Richard]

Nope, not even close.

In that time we:
Beat India
Were thrashed by Pakistan
Totally outplayed Zimbabwe and were denied by rain
Easily beat New Zealand
Came fairly close to beating Australia, probably within a single dropped catch and a single bad Umpiring decision
Were denied victory over West Indies by rain, the result of a toss and a stupid, needless batting collapse
Beat South Africa wonderfully
Lost to Australia but competed pretty well in all Tests
Lost to New Zealand thanks to a couple of bad toss decisions and a brilliant knock by Chris Cairns

Whereas in the last four years of the 1980s we:
Were hammered by West Indies in every single Test
Were easily beaten at home by India who did not win a single Test outside the subcontinent for the next 15 years!!!!!!!!!!
Were easily beaten at home by New Zealand
Beat the worst Australian team in history
Lost at home to Pakistan for the first time ever
Lost in Pakistan easily and had our captain disgrace himself
Somehow had the better of a 0-0 draw in New Zealand
Were utterly and totally thrashed by a West Indies team that were no longer thrashing anyone else (except Australia and India outside India)
Were utterly and totally thrashed by Australia, being totally outplayed in every single Test and would've lost 0-6 but for rain.
In the last 2 summers we used 28 and 29 players respectively. In 4 years we won 3 Tests, 1 against Sri Lanka and 2 against Australia.

The end of the 1990s wasn't particularly great, but the end of the 1980s was truly horrible like nothing else.

 

[harsh.ag]

One of the best bowling attacks that never happened was - McGrath, Gillespie, Tait, and Warne in 2004-05. Tait was in insane form, and would have been such a glorious addition to that attack.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

It would have been incredible, the dynamic that a guy with that raw unpredictability and pace adds is incredible. Pakistan were lucky they faced Kasper instead.

I'll throw in that Tahir will start to produce in the middle and SA's attack will have a couple years before Steyn retires that their four man attack is right up in this discussion

 

[weldone]

Didn't McGrath, Gillespie, Lee and Warne play a few tests together?

 

[The Battlers Prince]

Didn't McGrath, Gillespie, Lee and Warne play a few tests together?

They did, but for some reason they just didn't gel the way you'd think iirc. Lee was only at his best when he swung the ball, and he leaked runs without the same level of fear that Tait would have invoked in his heyday

 

[smash84]

One of the best bowling attacks that never happened was - McGrath, Gillespie, Tait, and Warne in 2004-05. Tait was in insane form, and would have been such a glorious addition to that attack.

Didn't all of them feature in the 2005 Ashes?

 

[OverratedSanity]

McGrath, Lee, Fleming and Warne vs India in 99-2000 were an amazing attack. All 4 of them were in great form simultaneously.

 

[harsh.ag]

Didn't all of them feature in the 2005 Ashes?

Nah, Tait played with McGrath and Lee.

 

[weldone]

Tait is as overrated as he always was.

 

[mr_mister]

ENGLAND : 1955-56

Tyson
Statham
Trueman
Laker
Bedser



^hard to go past that as someone stated earlier

 

[harsh.ag]

Tait is as overrated as he always was.

Just for the 2004-05 season, he was phenomenal in the first class format. And hence the mention.

 

[Tromperie]

Warne
Gillespie
MacGill
McGrath

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Easy:

Peter Bellis
Ian Dickson
Rowan Brassey
Mike Kernaghan


Best bowling pair would be:
Tony Alcock
David Bryant

 

[zaremba]

Nah, Tait played with McGrath and Lee.

Didn't they all play at the Oval?

 

[harsh.ag]

Didn't they all play at the Oval?

Gillespie was missing.

 

[Red]

Tait's brief purple patch happened when Gillespie was on the wane.

Tait was never gonna be a success as a test bowler long term, but if the conditions suited he was incredible.

 

[zaremba]

Gillespie was missing.

Ah, ok.

He had a wretched series in 05. I remember in 05 seeing video analysis comparing his bowling then to his bowling at his peak. What was amazing was that there was virtually no difference at all between anything he had been doing previously, when he had been a world-beater, and anything he was now doing, when he was cannon-fodder.

 

[AndrewB]

ENGLAND : 1955-56

Tyson
Statham
Trueman
Laker
Bedser



^hard to go past that as someone stated earlier

I don't think more than 3 of them ever played in the same Test, though (England usually picked a second spinner and Bailey as the 5th bowler). Plus Bedser only played one Test after 1954.

 

[Red]

Ah, ok.

He had a wretched series in 05. I remember in 05 seeing video analysis comparing his bowling then to his bowling at his peak. What was amazing was that there was virtually no difference at all between anything he had been doing previously, when he had been a world-beater, and anything he was now doing, when he was cannon-fodder.

Reckon he lost a yard of pace which made him change from hurting guys ribs to being quite hoikable over midwicket