5 great modern-day fast bowlers and their most feared batsmen

No bowler in the history of the game has succeeded against every batsman he bowled to. The vice-versa is also equally true. When it comes to the late 90s and early 2000s, even the great bowlers like Curtly Ambrose, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Courtney Walsh, Muttiah Muralitharan, Waqar Younis, Brett Lee, and Shoaib Akhtar had a nemesis or two during their playing days.

Batsmen like Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid, Kumar Sangakkara, Sanath Jayasuriya, Jack Kallis, and Adam Gilchrist gave nightmares to some of the most fearsome bowlers.

Modern day cricket is no exception to that. Irrespective of the format, even the greatest bowlers got hammered on occasions and sometimes by the same batsman. At some point in their career, these bowling greats have talked about their batsman who tormented them the most.

On that note, let's take a look at five current fast bowlers and their most feared batsman.

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#5 Kagiso Rabada - Virat Kohli

Arguably the most consistent and fearsome fast bowler in world cricket at the moment, Kagiso Rabada has been phenomenal for South Africa over the past couple of years. Having made his international debut at the age of 19, Rabada has matured a lot as a bowler.

The 23-year-old is one of the quickest to 150 wickets in Test match cricket. He has also picked up 93 wickets in just 57 One Day Internationals. In August 2018, Wisden named him the best young player in the world.

He has dominated some of the greatest batsmen in the world, but, not against Virat Kohli. The South African speedster has revealed that the Indian skipper is the toughest batsman he has ever bowled to in his career so far. The youngster has managed to dismiss the right-hander only twice in six Tests and twice in 11 ODIs.

#4 Josh Hazlewood - AB de Villiers

Josh Hazlewood

With his relentless accuracy, Josh Hazlewood has been a mainstay in the Australian lineup for quite some time. He has led their bowling attack well and was hugely consistent.

Hazlewood has picked up 151 wickets in 40 Tests and 72 wickets in 44 One Day Internationals. Often compared with Glenn McGrath, the 27-year-old has troubled the batsmen with his sublime accuracy. However, he has named AB de Villers as the toughest batsmen to bowl at.

Hazlewood termed South African swashbuckler AB de Villiers as the toughest batsman to bowl against given his compact technique and ability to score with innovative strokes.

One of the greatest batsmen of our generation, de Villiers has dominated almost every bowler on the planet during his playing days and was quite ruthless.

#3 Mohammad Amir - Steven Smith

Mohammad Amir

One of the finest left-arm seamers currently playing the game, Mohammad Amir has been a nightmare for the top-order batsmen with his pace and prodigious swing with the new ball. He has troubled some of the best in the world and Kohli had even described the Pakistani left-arm pacer as 'one of the toughest bowlers I have played in my career'.

The 26-year-old has picked up more than 200 wickets for Pakistan in all formats of the game and is a frightening bowler to face on his day. However, Amir revealed Steven Smith as the toughest batsmen he has ever bowled at. Though he is currently banned, Smith averages almost 62 in Test match cricket.

When asked who is the most difficult batsman to bowl to in the current era, Amir took the name of Smith during a recent interview.

#2 James Anderson - Hashim Amla and Ricky Ponting

James Anderson

James Anderson is definitely one of the greatest swing bowlers of all-time. He is the fourth highest wicket-taker in the history of Test cricket with 565 wickets. Even at the age of 36, Anderson has been performing exceeding well for England in Test cricket.

Though he got the better of most batsmen in the world, there are a couple of players who have troubled Anderson the most.

Anderson has come out on record alluding that he found South Africa's veteran batsman Hashim Amla and former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting as the most difficult batsmen he bowled to. In particular, he affirmed that the latter's ability of scoring from any length on Australian pitches used to make life difficult for him.

#1 Dale Steyn - Virender Sehwag

Dale Steyn

One of the fastest and the most aggressive fast bowlers of our generation, Dale Steyn has demolished some of the greatest batting line-ups in the world in the blink of an eye. With more than 650 international wickets, Steyn has single-handedly won a lot of games for South Africa.

However, there is one player he did like to bowl at and it was none other than Virender Sehwag. According to Steyn, if a bowler didn’t keep his lengths tight, he would be smacked by the ruthlessly aggressive Indian opener ruthlessly. The veteran pacer labelled the right-hander as a 'nightmare' while recalling his triple century in Chennai in 2008.