Top 5 international bowlers who served as pacer and spinner both
May 7, 2016 at 11:34 PM
In the international cricket, there are various kind of bowlers which generally divided into two categories. One is pacer and another one is a spinner. In the pacer category, the examples are the fast bowler, the fast-medium bowler, medium-fast bowler, medium bowler etc. and in the spinner category, there are all the slow bowlers like off-spinner, the leg-spinner, orthodox, unorthodox (chinaman) etc. However in the international cricket, it is legal to bowl both pace and spin by a bowler even in the single over, but in reality, it is not easy to maintain the multi-style for a bowler in the international cricket. But there are some cricketers who became famous for their multi-style bowling.
Now we will talk about top 5 of these kinds of international bowlers who were successful for this kind of bowling.
- Colin Miller (Australia – Right-arm fast medium, Right arm off break)
Former Australian bowler, Colin Miller had a very short international career as he played only 18 Tests for Australia after making debut at the age of 34 (international career from 1998 to 2001) where he picked up 69 wickets with the average of 26.15. He began his cricketing career as a right-arm fast medium but due to injury problem he also started right-arm off the break and took that into the main role. In the Australian team, he played as principally off-spinner where he also served as pace bowler for sometimes. He achieved success with both types of bowling in his cricketing career as well as international career.
- Tony Greig (England – Right-arm medium, Right arm off break)
Former England cricketer Tony Greig was an all-rounder. The 6 feet 6 inches tall right-handed batsman was also the multi-style bowler who could bowl right-arm medium and right-arm off break both. Naturally, he was a right-arm medium bowler which mainly depended on bounce and aggression while his spin was sideline bowling. He had played 58 Tests and 22 ODIs for England during 1972-1977 where he had picked up 141 wickets in Tests and 19 wickets in ODIs.
- Mark Waugh (Australia – Right-arm medium, Right arm off break)
Among the famous twins “Waugh brothers” (Steve Waugh and Mark Waugh), the former Australian cricketer Mark Waugh was younger. Apart from his great right-handed batting, he could also bowl medium pace (right-arm) as well as off break (right-arm). The all-rounder started as medium-pacer in his bowling but after suffering back injuries, he started to bowl off-spin. He played 128 Tests and 244 ODIs from 1991 to 2002, where he grabbed 59 wickets and 85 wickets respectively. Apart from these, he was one of the best slip fielders in international cricket.
- Andrew Symonds (Australia – Right-arm medium, Right arm off break)
Andrew Symonds was a talented Australian all-rounder who could bowl medium pace and off break equally well along with his aggressive batting and fielding. He played 26 Tests and 198 ODIs where he took 24 wickets and 133 wickets respectively. However, due to his various disciplinary reasons his international career had run very short as per his talent.
- Sir Garry Sobers (West Indies – Left-arm fast-medium, Slow left arm orthodox – Slow left arm chinaman)
Sir Garry Sobers was undoubtedly one of the greatest all-rounders in the cricket history. The famous West Indian cricketer had another talent as he could bowl left-arm fast medium along with slow left arm orthodox and slow left-arm chinaman. The versatile talented bowler took 235 wickets in 93 Tests while he also took a solitary wicket in his only ODI match. His international career span ran longer from 1954 to 1974.