Legendary England pacer James Anderson was asked to blindly rank the 10 greatest fast bowlers across generations in a recent interview on a podcast. Anderson, who took 704 wickets in 188 Tests and 269 wickets in 194 ODIs, picked only one Indian pacer in his list, Jasprit Bumrah.
Anderson accepted the challenge during his appearance on the BBC's 'Tailenders' podcast. Wasim Akram, the legendary Pakistani fast bowler who concluded his career with 916 international wickets, the third highest among all pacers, was the first name mentioned, and the Englishman ranked him fourth.
Former West Indies fast bowler Michael Holding, who took 391 wickets at 22.84 throughout his long international career, was ranked fifth.
Jasprit Bumrah, one of the three active cricketers on the list, was ranked third. So far, the Indian has 484 wickets in three forms at a fantastic average of 21, including 18 five-wicket hauls.
South African great Dale Steyn’s name came up next, and he was placed at the second spot by Anderson. Steyn picked 699 wickets, which comprised 29 five-wicket hauls at 23.37. Sir Ian Botham was the next name up, and Anderson placed the legendary England all-rounder, who picked 383 Test wickets, at the top.
The next name in the list was Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga, who was ranked in sixth place, with 101 Test, 338 ODI, and 107 T20I wickets, and was the only bowler with four hat-tricks in white-ball cricket.
Anderson was also assigned two other left-arm fast bowlers: Trent Boult of New Zealand and Mitchell Johnson of Australia, who were ranked eighth and ninth, respectively. The former has more than 600 international wickets, while the Australian has 590 wickets at 26.65 over his career.
Former South African captain Shaun Pollock was ranked seventh with 829 wickets across formats, while Anderson placed compatriot Jofra Archer in tenth place. Since making his England debut in 2019, the speedy fast bowler has taken only 163 wickets across all forms.
Here is the video:
