Among cricket’s many facets and intricacies, the art of fast bowling is one of the more intriguing ones.
From the manner in which they line up with their extensive run-ups to the menacing stare-down at the batsman after a troubling delivery, fast bowlers have always captivated attention throughout the history of the game.
For a batsman, nothing is more intimidating than facing a hostile spell of fast bowling on a minefield of a pitch. Be it their barrage of threatening bouncers or toe-crushing yorkers, pacers have the ability to unsettle batsmen like no others.
It is not an easy art to perfect by any means and comes with a heavy price to boot. With the enormous physical strain they exert on their bodies, particularly their backs, fast bowlers are the most injury-prone in cricket. The fear factor they instill on the opponent, along with their risk of injuries makes fast bowlers one of the more precious commodities in the game of cricket.
Fast bowling is not a one-dimensional art form involving hurtling down deliveries at express pace. The greatest fast bowlers in the history of the game have always had other skillsets up their sleeves, including the ability to swing and seam the cricket ball. It is a varied art after all, with each fast bowler having a unique armoury at his disposal.
While some rely more on pure pace, others rely on movement. Then there are those who maintain extremely tight lines and lengths, while there are some who have an array of variations in their arsenal.
It is difficult to really define what a complete fast bowler is with the many intricacies to the art. Here, we try our best to construct one using the best traits of some of the top fast bowlers in the business currently.
PACE
Mitchell Starc – Australia
At its purest level, fast bowling has always been about pace. There are not many greater sights in cricket than to see a bowler hurrying the batsman with his express pace. With the extensive workload that players undertake in modern cricket, it is not easy being a fast bowler playing all three formats. It is also not easy for a bowler to control express pace over long spells, and many bowlers these days sacrifice speed in order to increase their accuracy.
Most of the fast bowlers in the game currently have speeds ranging from 130 to 145 kmph. However, every once in a while, we get a pacer who gets the speedometers working overtime by generating pace above 155 kmph.
Australia’s Mitchell Starc is one such pacer who has the speed to genuinely intimidate batsmen. The tall left-armed bowler’s pinpoint yorkers at express pace are one of his biggest assets, and he can also generate some prodigious movement with the new ball in hand. A frightening prospect for any opening batsman in the world, as New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum realised the hard way in the 2015 ICC World Cup final’s opening over.
ACCURACY
Josh Hazlewood – Australia
Given the difficultly it takes to maintain control while bowling at pace, accuracy can be hard to generate. Very few fast bowlers in history have been able to excel at both pace and accuracy at the same time. One only has to look at Shaun Tait’s struggles to see how truly difficult the task really is.
The Aussie pace could clock speeds as high as 160 kmph, but was notorious for conceding umpteen extras in the form of wides and no-balls.
If one had to pick the accuracy of a current pacer, Starc’s compatriot Josh Hazlewood is a prime example. With a bowling style very similar to that of Australia legend Glenn McGrath, Hazlewood thrives on his ability to constantly land the ball at the same spot. While pace isn’t exactly Hazlewood’s forte, he can still touch speeds around the 145 kmph mark when he really bends his back.
SWING
James Anderson – England
Swing can be the greatest weapon for a fast bowler, especially with a new ball in hand. It is the ability of the bowler to move the ball in the air, by creating asymmetry in the weight of the cricket ball. It is not an easy art to master though, and requires plenty of skill from the bowler. The wrist position at the time of the delivery, along with the direction of the seam, all play an important role for a bowler to generate swing.
Swing comes in two forms – conventional and reverse swing, with the former primarily achieved with the new ball while the latter is generated with a much older ball. Like express pace, swing is extremely difficult to control as well for a bowler, and it requires plenty of expertise to do it with accuracy.
While Hazlewood is one such proponent of the art, there is no looking beyond James Anderson when it comes to picking the best swing bowler. The England veteran has used his mastery of swinging the Kookaburra ball to climb to the top of the all-time wicket-taking charts for fast bowlers.
Anderson’s quality lies in his ability to swing the ball both ways with plenty of precision. He has made a career of setting up right-handed batsmen with the outgoing delivery, before sounding the death knell with the surprise in-swinger.
SEAM
Mohammad Abbas – Pakistan
Movement for a fast bowler does not necessarily have to come in the form of swing. Some pacers rely on the seam of the cricket ball instead to generate the required movement. It is a difficult skill to master in its own right, and requires landing the ball on its seam to generate random deviation.
Over the years, South Africa’s Vernon Philander has been one of the most prolific seamers and was a nightmare for any batsman to deal with due to his added accuracy. With his recent retirement from international cricket, it is Pakistan’s Mohammad Abbas who looks set to carry that mantle in the next few years.
Abbas might not be the fastest of bowlers, but the Rawalpindi man has exhibited an ability to thrive on even the lifeless pitches of the UAE with his prodigious seam movement.
BOUNCE
Jofra Archer – England
Combining pace with bounce make an effective concoction for any fast bowler. A bouncer aimed at the body is always one of the most difficult deliveries to face for any batsman, given the lack of control involved in playing a pull or hook shot to counter it. It is for this reason that many batsmen simply choose to evade the bouncer, by ducking under the delivery.
When it comes to bounce, England’s Jofra Archer is right up there with his fiery displays over the last one year. While bowlers have to usually bend their backs extensively to deliver a bouncer, Archer can do it almost effortlessly with a smooth bowling action.
The Englishman rattled plenty of helmets in his maiden World Cup campaign last year, before delivering some gruesome blows to Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne in the subsequent Ashes series.
VARIATION
Jasprit Bumrah – India
Fast bowling does not always have to be about delivering the ball at pace, and modern cricket has seen pacers evolve considerably. With the advent of T20 cricket, pacers are now learning to expand their armoury with the addition of the slower delivery and off-cutters.
When a bowler is constantly delivering some serious heat with his speed, a clever change-up in pace can completely bamboozle the batsman.
In this regard, India’s Jasprit Bumrah is at the forefront with his numerous variations. Having primarily honed his skills in the Indian Premier League (IPL) before making his big international breakthrough, Bumrah has developed a style littered with plenty of variations. In the same over, he can bowl a mean bouncer, a searing yorker, a swinging delivery and a wily slower-ball.
STAMINA
Neil Wagner – New Zealand
Given the physical strain involved in fast bowling, it is difficult for pacers to maintain the same intensity over the course of a long spell. It is a tiring and energy-sapping art form, and pacers can start losing their top speed as the overs progress.
In fact, many captains opt to use their premium pacers in short bursts of two to three overs in order to conserve their intensity. As such, stamina and the right conditioning are important assets to have for any fast bowler.
New Zealand pacer Neil Wagner is one of the rarities in this regard, with the left-armed pacer being a true workhorse. With Trent Boult and Tim Southee sharing new ball duties for the Kiwis, Wagner has excelled in a supporting role with his relentless style of fast bowling.
He is a captain’s dream in that he can do the dirty job of bowling long spells while also keeping his intensity and pace.
MINDSET
Pat Cummins – Australia
An often-underrated aspect of fast bowling is the mindset. Cricket is very much a mental game as it is physical, and having the right mentality goes a long way.
It can be easy for any fast bowler to be bogged down after a batsman hits him for a succession of boundaries. To put in all the energy of the long run-up to the physically demanding act of delivering the ball, only for it to be sent flying over the ropes can be taxing for any pacer. Some fast bowlers, however, revel in the heat of battle and duels and come back even stronger in the next delivery.
In this regard, Australia’s Pat Cummins is as elite as they come. Despite losing more than five years of international cricket due to a spate of stress injuries, the pacer has bounced back with a vengeance and is now firmly perched at the top of the ICC rankings. He was at the receiving end of some punishment from Ben Stokes in the Englishman’s Headingley heroics last year, but showed his elite mentality by leading Australia to victory in the subsequent Test at Old Trafford.
