There is something bewitching about a fast bowler swinging the ball. There is something mesmerising about the brand new red cherry or white cherry moving prodigiously in or away from the batsman, curving, dipping, reversing and catching them on the wrong foot.
Some do it at pace, some do it viciously and no matter what safeguards the batsman tries, he is almost always a sitting duck against them. India has had its fair share of swing bowlers, more so because pace was never really our forte. While Indians have always looked wistfully at their neighbours, Pakistan, for their stock of fast bowlers, they did produce some genuine craftsmen.
On abrasive surfaces, the reverse swing does set in for a lot of bowlers, but genuine swing bowlers can move the new ball both sides as well, an asset on batting paradises like Indian pitches, where the ball doesn’t have much bounce and doesn’t do much off the pitch. Here we look at seven bowlers who knew how to make the ball talk, most of them naturally gifted with the art.
#7 Roger Binny
Kapil’s lieutenant in India’s famous 1983 win, Roger Binny was an athletic and ultra-talented all-rounder. India’s premier fast bowler also registered several exploits with his bat. The leading wicket-taker of the 1983 World Cup - then a record number of 18 – Binny could swing the ball both ways whenever the conditions were conducive.
His finest ODI performances came in the World Series in Australia where his performances ensured India reached the finals. But it was the series in England that marked Binny’s status as one of the Indian greats of his era. In one of India’s greatest overseas series wins, Binny picked 12 wickets at 20.91 outshining the great Kapil Dev. He was also India’s leading wicket-taker in the drawn ODI series.
Binny was also perfectly capable of using the breeze across many grounds to his benefit. In all, he picked up 124 wickets, 77 in ODIs and 47 in Tests, his career cut short with the advent of younger pacers like Prabhakar and Chetan Sharma.
#6 Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, claimed his place under the sun by picking the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar in domestic cricket, for a duck. He had a sensational start to his career, picking up wickets in his first over in both T20I and ODI debuts, that too against Pakistan, while being instrumental in India’s first 4-0 whitewash win.
Kumar, much like his predecessor Praveen Kumar from the same state of UP, is known for swinging the ball both ways without erring on line and length, operating in the speed range of around 120 – 130kph, although he has improved his pace in recent times to 135kph.
He is known for his big inswinger like the kind he delivered to get a wicket off his first over in T20I.
Unlike Praveen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar is a phlegmatic character, rarely drawn into arguments or needless fits of temper. Why talk when you can make an SG ball talk? The man who holds the record for most wickets by an Indian in a series against England in England, 19, the 26-year-old is still in his early days having played 57 ODIs to take 60 wickets and 12 Tests to take 29 wickets.
#5 Praveen Kumar
Praveen Kumar is known for three things – heart, swing and bad luck. Dhoni’s first choice new ball bowler missed out from the 2011 World Cup winning squad because of an injury.
The short-tempered fast bowler has a bag full of tricks like he showed in his 6 Tests, where he picked up 27 wickets at 25.81 before injury claimed him. Praveen, hailing from UP has 77 wickets from 68 ODIs. Time is still on his side and one would want him to deliver his familiar
Time is still on his side and one would want him to deliver his familiar new-ball deliveries, swinging in and moving out late. Unlike most fast bowlers, Praveen doesn’t yearn for pace, always bowling at around 125kph and still managing to make the batsmen hop around. His immaculate line and length combined with the prodigious swing both ways earned him the nickname of Jaadugar.
Remembered for his breathtaking spell in one of India’s greatest overseas tournament wins – 2007-08 CB series, Praveen rarely relied on the pitch to trouble batsmen. And why do you have to when you can swing any coloured ball under any conditions right from the first delivery!
#4 Manoj Prabhakar
One of the rare Indian fast-bowling all-rounders to open with bat and ball, the Delhi sensation had an ignominious end to his career. But, in his prime, he could put Kapil to shade. He was one of India’s first truly talented ODI specialists, who had the capability of bowling six different balls in an over.
Prabhakar garnered 253 wickets in all, 157 in ODIs at an impressive average of 28.87 and an economy of 4.27 and 96 wickets in Tests. The beginning of the end came with Prabhakar’s mistreatment in the hands of Sanath Jayasuriya in the 1996 World Cup.
The controversial bowler, though, could have imparted a lot of knowledge to future bowlers if not for the shadow of various controversies. A big fan of rhythm-run-up-follow-through, Prabhakar belonged to the school of thought that valued swing over raw pace and wily tricks.
#3 Irfan Pathan
Who can forget Irfan Pathan’s hat-trick against Pakistan in Karachi off the first three balls of the Test match which included wickets of Mohammed Yousuf and Younis Khan? Although it came in a losing cause, the talent of the man was obvious.
Irfan was an Indian legend in the making with his ability to swing the ball, his inquisitiveness to learn (he would always chase Wasim Akram for tips) and his batting talent.
But back injuries and loss of swing reduced him to the sidelines. Although age has still not run out for him, Irfan has a long road to make it back to the team. At his peak, he could deliver banana swingers from good-length into the right-handers which were virtually unplayable.
He also possessed a deadly yorker that swung in late, castling greats like Steve Waugh and Adam Gilchrist on one of India’s most successful tours down under. Pathan is 6th overall in terms of wickets amongst Indian pacers – 301 in total – with 173 in ODIs and 100 in Tests.
He holds the record for being the fastest Indian to 100 wickets in terms of matches – 59. That puts him at sixth overall in the world.
#2 Kapil Dev
One of the greatest all-rounders of all time and the only cricketer with the 5000 runs and 400 Test wickets double in Test cricket, Kapil Dev was born with some rare natural gifts – athleticism, supreme fitness and a deadly out-swinger to the right-handers.
Who could forget those three golden balls Down Under in 1991, when he got Allan Border and Dean Jones, the latter having received one swinging away like a peach and then missing one that swung in late.
One of the cleanest actions in all of cricket, Kapil never really indulged in the fast-bowler-banter, the round-arm action doing all the talking. He was special in his ability to move the ball late, owing to his average speed of close to 130kph, which ensured the ball reached the optimal speed for swing somewhere midway through its journey.
He also possessed a lethal in-dipping yorker that bamboozled batsmen across generations. Kapil Dev is the most successful Indian fast bowler with 687 wickets – 253 in ODIs at 27.45 at a measly economy rate of 3.71 and 434 in Tests at 29.64 (second highest is Zaheer’s distant 311 showing Kapil’s longevity).
#1 Zaheer Khan
Zaheer Khan is probably Indian cricket’s rocket man. Late in-swinging yorkers that Indians watched in amazement from Waqar Younis and Akram became a normal phenomenon once the fast left-armer burst onto the scene.
In his very first tournament at the Champions Trophy in Nairobi, he helped India outdo Australia and that was the beginning of a new era with India, finally shedding its mediocre-team tag to become a world-beater.
A county stint and a series of injuries after which he returned fitter and meaner were crucial in shaping the Zaheer we all knew from the latter part of his career. Zaheer had it all – wily, mean, always hatching plots with fellow bowlers as the leader of the pack and making the ball move even on unpersuadable Indian pitches.
Zaheer Khan is India’s second highest wicket-taker across all formats with 597 wickets – 269 in ODIs (third behind Javagal Srinath and Ajit Agarkar) and 311 in Tests (2nd behind Kapil Dev).
Zaheer was especially known for getting the ball to reverse late, although he did possess a wicked out-swinger to the left-handers which curves in and troubles all opening right-handed batsmen getting many of them trapped plumb in front, when pitched on middle. He also had the one that moved away from the right-hander or just held its line.
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