Often in sport, something can only truly be identified in hindsight. A player’s peak can only be recognised when they have suffered a decline, a dominant team only fully respected once it has been disassembled. As such, it is often a difficult exercise to point at something happening in the here and now, and with great confidence make a claim about the significance it may hold.
Fruitless though it may be, that does not mean it is not great fun to try. With the admission of risk that someone may dig this up in fifty years and have a hearty laugh at it when compared to their 120mph robo-bowlers of the future, I stand to make my claim that we are living in a golden era of seam bowling. I believe that one day in the somewhat distant future, we will look upon this period and simply think ‘blimey, that wasn’t so bad was it?’.
A Wealth of Riches
For the most part, when a particularly remarkable crop of athletes appears, it can be described in a relatively narrow way. Take for example, the ‘Spanish midfielders’ of the early 2010s football, or the late 20th century West Indian bowling attack. What these have in common is that the recognition of brilliance comes with the tag often of a nationality or other similar niche.
If you were tasked with adding such a tag to the current crop of fast bowlers, you would be forgiven for struggling to narrow it down. Very easily could England look at their current bowling options of the age-resistant James Anderson and Stuart Broad as the faces of the current era, but then again would Australians not argue that Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood deserve a mention?
To that, a voice would appear from the void to suggest that it would be remiss to not highlight Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, and Mohammad Shami. In response, you may attract polite suggestions of Trent Boult and Neil Wagner, before a sharp interjection in the name of Kagiso Rabada.
What this bizarrely long conversational metaphor seeks to highlight is that we are not talking about a ‘golden era’ in respect to one country. We have a situation where countless countries all have a claim that they have one of the best in the world.
The state borders almost on the ridiculous, as in the name of readability, the names mentioned were kept short and sharp. If we were being accurate, there would have to be a place for Jofra Archer, Chris Woakes, Shaheen Afridi, Tim Southee, and so many more.
The state of play is simple. International cricket has reached a situation where quality fast bowlers dominate the game. Nearly all leading test teams have a pace talisman, and the reality is that most of them have more than one.
The Best of the Best
Perhaps more absurd than how many premium fast bowlers there are, is quite how good all of them are historically. By this, I mean that it’s not unlikely that some of these bowlers go down as some of the very best that their country has ever seen.
At this point, I could spend a lot of time making an easy argument about Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad being English greats, but that’s probably not particularly interesting.
Instead, I want to focus on a certain Australian. Pat Cummins.
If you ask a bunch of random people on the street in Australia who their greatest fast bowler of all time is, I’d hedge my bets that you get a flood of Dennis Lillee and Glenn McGrath, perhaps you’d get an odd shout of Brett Lee, and if you asked with an English accent then perhaps even a wry Mitchell Johnson.
I firmly believe that one day in the near future, Pat Cummins will put himself firmly in this debate.
Pat Cummins is 27 and made his Test debut in 2011, yet has only played 34 Tests. Owing to injury after injury, it looked for some time as if Pat Cummins was simply going to be another tiny scribble on the vast tapestry of Australian cricket history.
Fast forward 1946 days, and the story has changed. Since his return to the Test arena, you’d be hard pressed to find a better performer. Cummins boasts an average of 21.59, and his strike rate of 47.1 is the fifth best in Australian history.
If you roll your eyes at stats, which you shouldn’t, then you’ll no doubt find that Cummins passes the eye test with flying colours. Cummins has dominated two Ashes series, and most recently emerged from the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as one of the few Australians able to hold their head high.
A Legacy Developing Before Us
Before we know it, we’ll blink and all these players will be but relics of the game. We’ll have a shiny set of new toys that don’t quite make us smile in the same way, and we’ll talk about how ‘things were better back in the day’. So, I suggest we take a look around at what’s before us and cherish every year of play we get from this truly special group.
It’s always easy to recognise greatness in hindsight, so why not be a bit braver and applaud it as it unfolds.
One Response
A fantastic read. Thoroughly enjoyed it. We really are witnessing something special with this current crop of fast bowlers with Cummins at the helm