5 best first change bowlers in ODIs

One day internationals (ODI) can be an unforgiving format of the game for bowlers and due to the way in which it favours batsmen, it can be tough for the best new ball bowlers to hold their own even against relatively mediocre batsmen.

In such a situation, the role of the first change bowler becomes crucial. The bowler often needs to do damage control by either stifling the flow of runs or picking up a few wickets so that the batting team has to slow down a bit.

That is the sort of role that usually belongs to some of the best bowlers in the game and if the bowler is not good enough, then it is quite likely for him to go for runs as well. Over the course of ODI history, plenty of superb first change bowlers have managed to change the course of games with excellent spells in that role and here is a look at five of the most successful ones.

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#5 Andrew Flintoff

The former all-rounder may not have played in one of the more successful periods for the English ODI side but when it came to his prowess as a first change bowler for them, then Andrew Flintoff was peerless.

He might have suffered from a lot of injuries and that cut his career short as well, however, when he was fully fit, there were very few bowlers who could be better than him. He could bowl at a serious pace, move the ball either way, extract seam movement and fire in those yorkers at will.

One of the most important jobs that Flintoff did for England during the majority of his career was that he helped them in pulling back the batting team’s run rate if they managed to get off to a lightning start. There had been plenty of instances in which he helped repair the slack work of the opening bowlers.

Out of the 141 ODIs in his career, Freddie Flintoff bowled as first change in 81 of them and picked up 114 wickets at an excellent average of 25.14. Additionally, he had an economy rate of only 4.25 and an outstanding strike rate of 35.4.

#4 Abdul Razzaq

Pakistan have almost always had great bowlers in their bowling attack and although former all-rounder Abdul Razzaq might not be included among their best, he certainly did a stellar job for the team as first change bowler for the major part of his ODI career. He played in 265 ODIs for Pakistan in a career spanning 16 years (1996-2011) and in 93 of those, he performed the role of the first change bowler.

Now, Razzaq was not the most difficult bowler to face but due to the sort of pressure that the likes of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar and others used to exert on the opposition, that the batsman tried to go after him most of the time.

However, Razzaq’s accuracy and discipline held him in good stead, which is why he ended up taking plenty of wickets as a first change bowler. In those 93 games, he picked up 114 wickets at an average of 29.54 and strike rate of 37.6. He returned an economy rate of 4.70 and remains one of the most successful first change bowlers in ODI history.

#3 Allan Donald

The man known as the ‘White Lightning’ for his searing pace was South Africa’s pace spearhead for most of his career and remains one of the best first change bowlers in the history of the game. Allan Donald played in 164 ODIs for South Africa in a career spanning 13 years (1991-2003) and in 68 of those games, he was the third bowler to be introduced into the attack.

The sheer riches in the South African bowling attack made it possible for them to introduce a bowler of the calibre of Donald as first change and it almost always had the desired effect, as batsmen found it hard to take liberties against him.

Pace, seam movement, and inswinging deliveries were his strengths and in the latter part of his career, he developed variations to compensate for a drop in pace. In those 68 games, Donald picked up 114 wickets at an average of 23.04 and recorded an equally impressive economy rate of only 4.41 an over. Last but not the least, his strike rate of 31.3 was equally impressive.

#2 Anil Kumble

Anil Kumble is quite simply the greatest bowler India has ever had and for the major part of his ODI career, Anil Kumble’s quote of 10 overs used to be of huge significance for the team. India did not have a decent bowling attack in ODIs for many years and depended on the singular skills of Kumble to win games for the major portion of the 1990s.

Naturally, he came in to bowl as the first change bowler plenty of times so that the tide of the game could be turned and more often than not, he obliged.

Out of the 271 ODI games that he played from 1990 to 2007, Kumble bowled as first change in 96 of them and remains the 2nd most successful in ODI history with a tally of 118 wickets.

His pace, accuracy, variations of pace and the ability to extract bounce made him an extremely tough bowler to get away in ODIs. The Indian ace had an average of 33.09 and an economy rate of 4.38. However, a relatively high strike rate of 45.3 can be explained by the fact that the opposition often played him with more caution.

#1 Abdur Razzak

This might come as a surprise to many but the most successful first change bowler in the history of ODI cricket is former Bangladesh left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak. He had a decade-long career for Bangladesh spanning a decade from 2004 to 2014 and played in as many as 153 games for the team.

In 86 of those games, he came on to bowl as the first change bowler and considering the fact that the opening bowlers often went for runs, his performance in that role deserves a lot of plaudits. Bangladesh had plenty of left-arm spinners but Razza was particularly known for his accuracy and his ability to restrict the opposition’s scoring rate.

Along the way, he picked up 122 wickets as well as a first change bowler and remains the most successful bowler in that category in the history of the ODI game. His average of 28.04 and economy rate of 4.55 are equally impressive. It is quite hard to return those numbers while playing for a team which did not have a good bowling attack for almost the entirety of his career.