All Time Bowling Attack

[Freo Big Fella]

If you could select from any bowler who's ever played Test Cricket, who would you pick? Four Pacemen and One Spinner.(Assume that they're all in career best form as well).


Courtney Walsh - Speaks for himself really, In my opinion he's easily one of the best pacemen to have played the game.

Glen McGrath - Best fast bowler of the past 10 years, can't leave him out.

Dennis Lillee - Also speaks for himself

Joel Garner - Big Bird is in for intimdation.

Shane Warne - I know I'm probably going to get abused for not putting Grimmet or O'Reilly in the spinners spot, but Warney's bowled excellently in an era where there is MUCH more cricket played then when Grimmet and Or'Reilly played. It takes much more effort to play under the bigger strain of a mor demanding schedule so Warne gets the spot.

 

[Fall Out Boy]

Richard Hadlee
Glenn McGrath
Curtly Ambrose
Malcolm Marshall
Shane Warne

Pretty clear cut IMO

 

[Disgustipated]

Jeff Thompson- At his peak was probably the scariest bloke to face

Richard Hadlee

Curtly Ambrose

Courtney Walsh

Warnie

Walsh and Warne to hold up one end whilst rotating the other 3 from the other.

 

[corporal]

Dennis Lillie
Richard Hadlee
Malcom Marshall
Curtly Ambrose
Muttiah Muralitharan

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

This is just too hard, I could pick any 4 of about 20 bowlers and it would be as good as any other combination.

Dennis Lillee - best bowler I ever saw. I can't imagine seeing anyone better than Dennis.

Jeff Thomson - quickest of all time. If there has ever been a bowler quicker than Thommo the pitch would be longer. Batsmen are lucky they never faced him under the back foot no-ball rule.

Shane Warne - Cannot imagine there has ever been a better leggie than Shane.

Richard Hadlee - Carried the New Zealand bowling for many years, a quality bowler in the Lillee class.

John Snow - Best English fast bowler I have seen. His ability to lift a ball dangerously from a good length was outstanding, especially on Aussie decks.

Andy Roberts - Could bowl inswingers, outswingers, leg cutters, off cutters ... and all at 90mph. Great bowler.

Michael Holding - Whispering death. Beautiful to watch, blistering speed and unerring acuracy. Great athlete.

Malcolm Marshall - Front on action that should have blunted his speed, and yet he was able to bowl at 90mph, moving the ball late both ways. Incredible bowler.

Joel Garner - 6'10" tall and had batsmen fending balls from under their chins regularly. Deceptively quick.

Derek Underwood - if the pitch was doing something, Deadly Derek was unplayable.

Bishen Bedi - Master of flight and spin. Always had a bad-pat both sides of the wicket as testimony to his accuracy.

I could go on and on ... McGrath, Imran Khan, Kapil Dev, Botham, Ambrose, Donald, Kumble ...... can't pick just 4.

 

[Fall Out Boy]

Where's the love for Malcolm Marshall?

The dude was the greatest bowler to ever play the game. He was an absolute freak who did things that greats like Hadlee couldn't.

R.I.P MM

 

[bluechampion]

champs.

Keith Miller
Batting - 36.97
Bowling - 22.97

Richard Hadlee
Batting - 27.16
Bowling - 22.29

Dennis Lillee
Batting - 13.71
Bowling - 23.92

Malcolm Marshall
Batting - 18.85
Bowling - 20.94

Richie Benaud
Batting - 24.45
Bowling - 27.03


Some of the very greats. Gone for Richie for variety.
A side with this line up would also have some very impressive batting depth.

 

[CatManDo]

my choice:

Lillee
Hadlee
Marshall
Warne
Sobers (for something different)


If I count Sobers as the all rounder... I add McGrath to my list.

 

[Wicked Lester]

Difficult question.

If you look at it statistically, as some wish to, then the answer would include 19th century greats like Spofforth, Barnes and CTB Turner - statistically way in front of modern greats.


And therein lies the difficulty in comparing eras.

So by gut feel and for what its worth:


Dennis Lillee
Malcolm Marshall
Richard Hadlee
(with McGrath, Imran, Lindwall, Thommo, Holding, Ambrose, Garner and possibly Procter all there or abouts)

and

Warne
(with Murali, Grimmett, O'Reilly, Laker and Murray Bennett all close as well)


Yes there is an odd one out in the spinners..........O'REilly was overrated!

 

[Nandoz]

Thompson
Hadlee
Garner
Warne
McGrath

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

Originally posted by Wicked Lester
Warne
(with Murali, Grimmett, O'Reilly, Laker and Murray Bennett all close as well)

Murray Bennett? I never thought I'd see the day when his name would come into the conversation whilst discussing the best players of all-time

 

[harry_hawka]

Malcolm Marshall
Richard Hadlee
Dennis Lillee
Wasim Akram - at his peak was possibly the hardest bowler to face when on song. Granted, he wasn't as consistent as the others, but his ability to tear in and bowl ripping in-swinging yorkers with the new ball, and then come back later and bowl reverse swing across the batsman was just outstanding. Steve Waugh has often said he's the best bowler he's ever faced by a mile. He gets a spot in my line up.

Shane Warne

 

[RaMa]

Muttiah Muralitharan

BOWLER?? Surely you must be mistaken.

 

[Slax]

Richard Hadlee
Dennis Lillee
Curtly Ambrose

The easy three quicks

4th quick toss up between - Ian Botham, Malcolm Marshall, Jeff Thompson, Ray Lindwall, Imran Khan & Kapil Dev.

Lindwall

Spinner

Shane Warne

If you wanted an off-spinner
Gibbs. I refuse to pick a chucker

 

[marcuz]

Lillee
Ambrose
Akram
Garner
Warne

 

[pazza]

Lillee - new ball
Walsh - new ball
Dev - first change
Botham - second change and all-rounder
Warne - third change

 

[southjoy]

Originally posted by harry_hawka
Malcolm Marshall
Richard Hadlee
Dennis Lillee
Wasim Akram - at his peak was possibly the hardest bowler to face when on song. Granted, he wasn't as consistent as the others, but his ability to tear in and bowl ripping in-swinging yorkers with the new ball, and then come back later and bowl reverse swing across the batsman was just outstanding. Steve Waugh has often said he's the best bowler he's ever faced by a mile. He gets a spot in my line up.

Shane Warne

Mate I recon your close to it.

Yes any West Indies bowler could be in your list, but probably the pick for me would be Michael Holding. Malcolm Marshall/Curtley ambrose and Joel Garner would be so close to being picked its not funny.
Have to pick Dennis Lillee
Have to pick Richard hadlee, just imagine how many more wickets he would of got with a geniune quick at the other end.
Have to pick wasim Akram , left hand variant who could bowl anything. Once again more wickets on bowling tracks like Aus, WI or even Eng.
Warne is clearly the best spinner ever only Murali comes close but anybody who follows cricket knows that he is a chucker.
Apologies to the greats of yesteryear I didn't see them play can't comment.

 

[The Passenger]

I was asked to pick a World XI team about a year ago, the team i had was Len Hutton, Herb Sutcliffe, Don Bradman, Graeme Pollock, Gary Sobers, Adam Gilchrist, Keith Miller, Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Clarrie Grimmett, Bill O'Reilly.

but yes, you could pick anyone 5 of about 25 guys and you'd have just as good as attack as any of the others.

The only two certainties IMO anyway, would have to be Miller (or Imran Khan) because of their batting ability, and Malcolm Marshall because I've always considered him to be the quick bowler ever.

 

[The Passenger]

Also, if you had five bowlers, when picking a world XI i'd never pick 4 quicks.

All the best quicks in the world have opened the bowling, you don't see specialist first change bowlers, so you wanna come in with your opening bowlers, than pick a third quick option, and having the choice of two spinners out of Warne, Grimmett, O'Reilly and Laker would just be dynamite to follow up on what the quicks could do.

I also think people have to think about combinations when picking the team. Not jus neccesarilly the best 3 or 4 quicks, and the best combination for your spinners.

 

[harry_hawka]

Originally posted by Black Thunder

I also think people have to think about combinations when picking the team. Not jus neccesarilly the best 3 or 4 quicks, and the best combination for your spinners.

I agree. I didn't use this logic when picking my five, but I do generally agree with what you are saying.

By the way, is it possible for me to just copy and paste your last paragraph into the Bracken vs Williams vs Bichel threads! That is exactly the reason Bracken is in the side, not necessarilly because he is one of the four best bowlers in the country.

 

[The Passenger]

Originally posted by harry_hawka

By the way, is it possible for me to just copy and paste your last paragraph into the Bracken vs Williams vs Bichel threads! That is exactly the reason Bracken is in the side, not necessarilly because he is one of the four best bowlers in the country.

very true, but you'll stop cop critisiscm because most people believe Inness has the right to get infront of Bracken if it was based purely on temrs of being a left armer, and i agree with that as well.

Inness will get his turn though, he just has to keep plugging awway.

 

[DaveW]

Marshall
McGrath
Sydney Barnes
Warne

Throw in Sobers as the all-rounder from the top order.

 

[harry_hawka]

Originally posted by Black Thunder
very true, but you'll stop cop critisiscm because most people believe Inness has the right to get infront of Bracken if it was based purely on temrs of being a left armer, and i agree with that as well.

Inness will get his turn though, he just has to keep plugging awway.

Indeed criticism will be copped, but it'll be nothing out of the ordinary. This Bracken vs Inness thing is never going to be settled until both have an equal go at test match cricket, and both records can be compared. Until then we'll just have to hear the same old hypothetical arguments, I guess!

 

[ZimZum]

Lillee
Akram
Marshall
Holding
O'Reilly

Lillee - goes without saying.

Akram - leftie,fast,good short ball,swung the ball at pace.

Marshall - magician,cut ball both ways,best record of any bowler on sub continent

Holding - one smooth cat,fast,accurate

O'Reilly - just ahead of warne,record was amazing.

Anyone who said Muttiah, you are to be reminded it is bowlers we were asked about.

 

[southjoy]

Originally posted by ZimZum
Lillee
Akram
Marshall
Holding
O'Reilly

Lillee - goes without saying.

Akram - leftie,fast,good short ball,swung the ball at pace.

Marshall - magician,cut ball both ways,best record of any bowler on sub continent

Holding - one smooth cat,fast,accurate

O'Reilly - just ahead of warne,record was amazing.

Anyone who said Muttiah, you are to be reminded it is bowlers we were asked about.

But could O'Reilly bowl some of the most unplayable,sensational,well set up, freaks of balls that Warne does. AKA Gatting, Richardson,etc
Murali can but as said before he chucks so he's out