What would be your top 10 all format pace bowlers list and how much weightage would you give to other formats - ODIs and T20Is and how this changes based on era?
Additionally, the biggest question is do tests remain the pinnacle in 2020s also or we have simply shifted to an era where the best is the one who is playing all formats and not simply test cricket?
T20 is not the format for fast bowlers but the few OGs of this format are probably
1. Gul
2. Bumrah
3. Malinga
in that order. Bumrah may/will easily overtake Gul if he continues to perform the way he's performing.
Cricket before helmets was a sport that tilted towards fast bowlers. If someone is capable to bowl even at 80 mph, they are no joke to play without a helmet. 90 mph is genuine pace and no one is ever happy to play it even with the modern and much better safety equipment.
The key variable in the balance between bat and ball is the nature of pitches on which cricket is played. Moving away from uncovered pitches & batting friendly rules started the downfall of bowlers & then entertainment having more value than competition is putting final touches to this phenomenon. An out an out pace bowler will now almost be a liability while at the same time a bowling allrounder who could bowl around 130 & have 11 different slow balls will be worth millions.
Test cricket is the last vestige of this sport where some ferocious bowlers still exist but that window is also closing very fast. Test championship is paving the way for countries to create result centered pitches where they are consistently over tuning pitches to get a favorable result. In seaming conditions, you don't need an excellent fast bowler, anyone who is consistent and has decent pace will do good. In turning conditions, fast bowlers are almost a footnote and even one in the eleven is more than enough.
That said, I truly believe that life is circular in nature. While batters are dominating now & may continue to do so for the next few years, the fast bowlers will make a comeback again. A top ten list of fast bowlers in shorter formats is almost pointless as many of these bowlers have to rein their instincts & be a shadow of themselves when they play short format cricket. I mean a bowler like McGrath who relies on bouncers was forced via rules to keep the ball below the shoulder; that automatically makes him less of a bowler. The equivalent to this would be like asking the batters that they cannot score runs via certain shots (no pulling, no cutting) or telling them that they cannot score runs behind the square.
These are my picks for the best fast bowlers of their respective countries (list is in order). An overall top ten is just too much of a task to do
Australia: Hadlee. McGrath. Cummins. Starc. Johnson. Lee. McDermot.
England: Anderson. Larwood. Broad. Willis. Snow. Gough.
New Zealand: Hadlee. Bond.
India: Kapil. Bumrah. Srinath. Zaheer.
Pakistan: Imran. Wasim. Waqar. Fazl. Shoaib.
Windies: Holding. Marshall. Garner. Ambrose. Roberts. Walsh.
South Africa: Donald. Steyn. Ntini. Pollock. Rabada.
Sri Lanka: Malinga. Vaas.
There are others too who were fast and furious but inconsistent because of various injuries factors. Someone like a Thompson who managed to get 200 test wickets in his era would probably be a nightmare for batters. Tall bowlers who had pace like Ian Bishop, Tremlett, Shabbir, Patrick Patterson, etc. were probably brutally difficult to play against. Some nations are so gifted that at their prime even their domestic fast bowlers probably had the potential to destroy international teams. A team like South Africa almost has an abundance of these while someone like Bangladesh struggled to even find one (they have good fast bowlers now, they aren't included because none of them have built a proper legacy yet but there's a lot of potential there).
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