Former India batter Cheteshwar Pujara, who now dons the hat of an expert and commentator, named his top five Indian Test pacers. The list featured two players he did not share the dressing room with during his 13-year-long Test career from 2010 to 2023.
Kapil Dev and Javagal Srinath are the two fast bowlers Pujara never played with, as both retired before his international debut.
Kapil (434 Test wickets) remains the ultimate pioneer of Indian pace bowling, transforming an era historically dominated by spin into one that eventually produced world-class fast bowlers. On the other hand, Srinath (236 Test wickets) spearheaded India’s pace attack for most part of the 1990s.
Omitting Mohammad Shami was a tough call given his 229 scalps and his reputation as one of the most lethal second-innings bowlers in cricket history.
Speaking in a Cricinfo video, Pujara heavily valued longevity and volume, choosing Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan, who both have 311 dismissals to their credit in the Test format. However, he made an exception for Jasprit Bumrah (234 Test wickets) due to his generational, sub-20 bowling average.
In addition, Pujara rated Mohammed Siraj within top 10 all-time Indian Test quicks due to his outstanding work ethic and overseas performances.
With Bumrah recovering from knee injury, Siraj is currently leading India's pace department with great responsibility on the tour of Sri Lanka.
Siraj is India’s leading wicket-taker in the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) cycle and has 144 wickets to his name in 48 Test appearances.
