Top 5 Australian left-arm fast bowling greats

The Australian fast bowlers have always been bold and forceful in their approach to the game. Their obsession with sledging the opponents is well known in the cricketing fraternity and it often does the trick for them, getting the better of the batsmen.

Left-handed bowlers and batsmen have always been a paradox to Cricket. They are precarious to face and provide a new perspective to the game. The speed at which they bowl or with the lengths at which they pitch the ball, the left-arm pacers are a real challenge.

The pacy bouncers and toned aggression make for a perfect combination of skill and entertainment.

Here is a list of 5 of the greatest left-arm pacers in Australian cricket:

---

#1 Bill Johnston

Famously known for his dual ability of bowling the left-arm fast medium and slow left-arm orthodox, Bill Johnston was one of the greatest left-arm pacers Australia has produced. Since his Test debut versus India in 1947, he took a staggering 160 wickets in 75 innings with an exceptional economy of 2.07.

Johnston held a brilliant record for Australia, taking just four years to reach the triple figure in terms of Test wickets. Right at the peak of his career, an incapacitating knee injury forced him to remodel his bowling action, making him less threatening and that eventually led to his retirement in 1955.

He was also named the Wisden cricketer of the year in 1949. We can only wonder how many more records he would have broken, had he continued playing the game.

#2 Alan Davidson

Alan Davidson announced himself to the world with his flabbergasting performance, when Australia toured South Africa in 1957-58, when he took 72 wickets and scored four centuries on the trip. For the next five years, he firmly plonked himself into the team as a punishing bowler of the new-ball and a dangerous striker in the lower-middle order.

An injury prone Davidson, performed best when he was put to test – whether it was famous tied Test against the West Indies in the 1960-61 series, where he scored his career best 80 in the chase along with captain Richie Benaud and also took 5/135 and 6/87 in the two innings, with a broken finger or the notable contributions he made at Lord’s with an injured back, the following year.

He toured the Indian subcontinent in 1959 and took 30 wickets in 6 Tests against India at an average of just 15.77. As a mark of respect for his great contributions to the game and as a gesture of appreciation, Alan Davidson was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2011.

#3 Bruce Reid

The tall and fierce left-arm pacer Bruce Reid, made his debut alongside Merv Hughes and Geoff Marsh in 1985-86 when Australia were at a low and is famously remembered for his splendid performance against England at Melbourne in 1990-91, where he took 13 wickets.

He had the phenomenal ability to straighten the ball to a right-hander, as well as slant away a little, with a naturally steep bounce. Given his skill and excellence in the game, it meant that he was there to stay and take Australia to greater levels, until injuries played a spoiler in his short but celebrated career.

Reid went on to become India's fast bowling coach in 2003, ahead of the Test series against Australia at the Gabba.

#4 Mitchell Johnson

Making his international debut in December 2005, Mitchell Johnson reached the summit of his cricketing career in 2013-14, when he collected 59 wickets at 15.23, in eight Tests against strong opponents. He took a mammoth total of 313 wickets in his Test career, at an appreciable economy of 3.33.

The belligerent fast-bowler was one of the most noticed players in the Australian team, known for his hot-headed attitude on field and a surprisingly ‘cool as a cucumber’ attitude off the field. Johnson was not one to shy away from displaying his emotions and frequently got into on-field spats with his opponents, often going overboard with the sledging.

The 34-year-old called it a day on November 17, 2015, sighting a lack of effective performances and his missing old temperament, which got him to that stage.

"I'm really happy with my decision and I just lost that hunger in the end to play out on those tough days, that's where my decision came," Johnson said after his retirement.

#5 Mitchell Starc

Towering at 1.96m, Mitchell Starc rarely gets the deadly bouncers wrong. Perfecting the swing of the ball to a greater precision than his senior, Mitchell Johnson, the 26-year-old became a permanent face in the limited-overs side since his international debut in 2010.

Starc became a star bowler in the Australian side during the 2015 World Cup, bowling unpredictable inswingers and regularly striking off the bails. His innate ability to get the batsman caught in the front won him the ‘Player of the Tournament’ at the World Cup, for his 22 victims at 10.18.

It was naturally expected that the left-arm pacer would continue his excellent form even with the red ball, but a lack of opportunities in his early Test career did not allow him to do justice to his potential. When he finally got into the zone in 2015 and began to make a mark in what is known as the ‘purest’ format of the game, an ankle injury during the summer hindered his successful stint.

Post recovery, Starc has been brilliant in the ongoing Test series against Sri Lanka, picking up 17 wickets in the two Tests played. He has a good 232 international wickets to his name so far, with six impressive 5-wicket hauls.

The Aussie has even proved to be a useful lower-order batsman, missing out on his Triple-digit figure in Tests by just one run, in Mohali in 2013. He may just stick-on to become one of Australia’s most promising fast bowlers.