I refuse to believe every fast bowler except Steyn was mediocre between 2006-2015.
The conditions back then were not ideal for fast bowling and Steyn stood out because he was just that damn good
the conditions weren't much better than early 2000s or anything, it's just that
Australia — was going through a transitional period, McGrath and Warne bowed out in 2007, Australia didn't really have great bowling until the current Quaret rose up.
England — never had ATG bowlers at the first place since Trueman, Anderson couldn't bowl outside England, Broad was medicore and more a whiteball guy, these two became good in 2010-11 respectively, before that they were both horrible. We were also rebuilding from the Quaret retiring.
Pakistan — their upcoming star pacers were banned for spot fixing, Gul and Sami were regulars in the test side who were both bad in test.
India — No Kohli, no pace culture, Ishant was averaging 38 and was a regular, the pacers weren't really good.
Sri Lanka — Never had a good fast bowler bar Vaas at the first place, who retired from tests pretty early.
West Indies — literally a nothing bowling, Fidel Edwards was one of the better bowlers and he averaged near 40, not good at all.
New Zealand — best pacer was Shane Bond, injuries ate his career, nothing can be done there.
more or less, fast bowling was in shambles after McGrath/shoaib and guys bowed out, it wasn't until mid 2010s when all the team got good pace attacks and started the pace pandemic, only Steyn/Morkel/Philander was a good attack at the time and that's why SA was a ATG team at the time.
