Best Australian Test Quicks This Century

[MC Bad Genius]

Australia has always been blessed with a pretty good supply of fast bowlers, so I thought it would be interesting to have a look at who has been the best since the start of 2000. For those that bowled before 2000, I have removed their performance last century. There were a few surprises in the statistics, but here are the Top 10 in a few different categories.

TOP 10 TOTAL WICKETS

1. Mitchell Johnson - 313
2. Brett Lee - 303
3. Glenn McGrath - 297
4. Peter Siddle - 211
5. Jason Gillespie - 209
6. Mitchell Starc - 162
7. Josh Hazlewood - 125
8. Ryan Harris - 113
9. Ben Hilfenhaus - 99
10. Stuart Clark - 94

TOP 10 AVERAGES

1. James Faulkner - 16.33
2. Glenn McGrath - 20.53
3. Colin Miller* - 23.07
4. Ryan Harris - 23.52
5. Stuart Clark - 23.86
6. Doug Bollinger - 25.92
7. Pat Cummins - 25.96
8. Josh Hazlewood - 25.97
9. James Pattinson - 26.15
10. Jason Gillespie - 27.09

TOP 10 STRIKE RATES

1. James Faulkner - 27.66
2. James Pattinson - 46.84
3. Doug Bollinger - 48.02
4. Mitchell Starc - 48.48
5. Colin Miller - 49.00
6. Andy Bichel - 50.32
7. Ryan Harris - 50.76
8. Mitchell Johnson - 51.12
9. Glenn McGrath - 51.48
10. Jackson Bird - 51.58

TOP 10 (11) ECONOMY RATES

1. Trent Copeland - 2.10
2. Glenn McGrath - 2.39
3. Andrew McDonald - 2.45
4. Stuart Clark - 2.61
5. Nathan Bracken - 2.72
6. Shane Watson - 2.75
7. Peter George - 2.75
8. Pat Cummins - 2.76
9. Ryan Harris - 2.78
10. Josh Hazlewood - 2.78
11. Ben Hilfenhaus - 2.78

So who would you have in your Australian XI of the 21st century? And what other things do you take into account rather than just the stats?

* - I know Colin Miller bowled a lot of off-spin as well, but I couldn't be bothered working out how to separate those from his stats as a quick. Feel free to update it if someone else can be bothered.

 

[The_Reaper]

McGrath, Johnson and Harris would be the three I'd pick

 

[Carbine Chaos]

Based on those numbers above clearly Faulkner and Copeland.

 

[the_interloper]

If he could get on the park there wouldn’t be too many better than Pattinson, MCGrath and maybe Johnson.

 

[Gough]

McGrath, Johnson and Harris would be the three I'd pick

I'd expect Cummins to be in that conversation by the time he finishes up.

 

[Scotland]

Ryan Harris is the best to debut this century.

I'd pick McGrath, Harris and Johnson also. If not for the 13/14 Ashes I'd probably pick someone else.

 

[MarkCatsFan]

Nothing will ever beat the days when Mcgrath and Lee were in full flight, unbelievable players at their peak and we'll never see anything like it again.

I was a big Stuart Clark fan, even though he was short lived his tour of South Africa in 2006(?) was amazing, I'd take his peak over any of the rest.

 

[dogs105]

McGrath
Gillespie
Harris
Johnson

 

[dogs105]

Nothing will ever beat the days when Mcgrath and Lee were in full flight, unbelievable players at their peak and we'll never see anything like it again.

I was a big Stuart Clark fan, even though he was short lived his tour of South Africa in 2006(?) was amazing, I'd take his peak over any of the rest.

Lee? McGrath and Gillespie were far better than McGrath and Lee.

 

[Woody15]

How good was our bowling attack.. McGrath, Gillespie, Lee and Warne. Kasprowicz and MacGill as back ups.

 

[PhatBoy]

Harris in terms of this century only is the first one I’d pick. F*** he was a gun.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

Harris in terms of this century only is the first one I’d pick. F*** he was a gun.

Given Harris gets his dues these days, I'll give Stuart Clark a shout out too. Was a tremendous bowler.

 

[Woody15]

How good was this delivery..

 

[PhatBoy]

Given Harris gets his dues these days, I'll give Stuart Clark a shout out too. Was a tremendous bowler.

Absolutely. Fantastic bowler. Very insightful commentator too generally.

 

[MC Bad Genius]

I was always a MASSIVE fan of Andy Bichel and was pretty surprised to see how good his strike rate was.

 

[Scotland]

Harris in terms of this century only is the first one I’d pick. F*** he was a gun.

I can't believe how good he was for a guy that is only 5'10''.

I'm glad we got to see him perform at test level even if it was only 27 matches. Only played 82 FC matches in his whole career, which when you take out tests is just 55 at Shield/County level. Cameron Bancroft is 25 and has played 68 FC matches already.

 

[RookiePick]

McGrath
Harris
Clark
would let you carry Johnson on his bad days

otherwise

McGrath
Harris
Clark
Gillespie

Either way I think Mcgrath, Harris and Clark are a lock. All tremendous bowlers that would give the fielding captain a lot of control and the option of picking a more erratic but potentilly destructive option from Johnson, Dizzy, Lee, Starc school.

I think Australia was very unlucky that they didn't get more tests out of Harris and Clark.

 

[Scotland]

Nothing will ever beat the days when Mcgrath and Lee were in full flight, unbelievable players at their peak and we'll never see anything like it again.

I was a big Stuart Clark fan, even though he was short lived his tour of South Africa in 2006(?) was amazing, I'd take his peak over any of the rest.

ODIs? Sure. Tests, nope.

Clark was good but I don't think I've seen a fast bowling peak higher than Johnson vs England in 2013/14. 37 wickets @ 14 with a strike rate of 30. And this was a series in batting friendly Australia where over 5000 runs were scored. Phenomenal performance.

 

[corbies]

Nothing will ever beat the days when Mcgrath and Lee were in full flight, unbelievable players at their peak and we'll never see anything like it again.

I was a big Stuart Clark fan, even though he was short lived his tour of South Africa in 2006(?) was amazing, I'd take his peak over any of the rest.

Yeah Clark was a beast in that series, 20 wickets @ 16. Johnson had a very similar series (numbers wise) in South Africa in 2014, 22 wickets @ 17.

 

[StillAtLarge]

Bit of a shame Steve Waugh didn't utilise Bracken properly, he could've been a real handful on English wickets. His shield final spell will probably go down as the best display of swing bowling by an aussie in domestic cricket.
7-4 from 7 overs and claimed the scalps of Blewett, Cosgrove, Ferguson and Manou

 

[FlowersByIrene]

Johnson's peak has him as the best bowler ever. Absolutely astounding. McGrath the best ever with consistency so they have to be in.

Next in line for me is Harris. But any of Starc, Haze or Cummins or even Patrinson could push for the third spot once their careers are over

 

[Chuckie357]

McGrath and Gillespie were the best opening combination by a mile. You don’t hear stories of those two having poor patches like Johnson did in his early days and they didn’t try to bowl to fast. Harris am absoloutely gun shame the SACA were too stupid to see how much ability and potential he had but hey when collosus cosgrove was the golden boy what do you expect

 

[The Falcon Strike]

How good was this delivery..

Genuinely unplayable - nothing Cook could do

Absolute gem

 

[largebus]

Not the greatest for sure but Hilfenhaus was one of the few to actually stand up in England in recent years.

 

[Scotland]

Genuinely unplayable - nothing Cook could do

Absolute gem

Must've been so demoralising.

You're down 2-0, you've just watched Shane ******* Watson hit a run a ball century followed by George Bailey hitting 28 runs off an over, you're chasing 500 in the 4th innings and your captain is dismissed first ball to an absolute jaffa.

Oh and it was 39, 40, 37, 37 days 1-4 when this was happening.