You are underrating Boult. He doesn't have the pace and power of Starc, but he is a complete bowler in terms of skill-set, and looks every bit as good as Starc at the World Cup. Post-injury, his pace dropped and he went from fast-medium to medium-fast, but he's getting back there. Certainly well ahead of Amir at this point.
You are over estimating Boult, like you did Anderson, Boult is no way near as skillfull as Anderson...Anderson was no match to Styen, similarly Boult is not in same tier as Strac...Strac himself was not the bowler with same skills but less pace (140), as soon as his pace went to 150, so his stature... Rabada won ODI series in India, test series in AUS, not because he had good skill but because of 145 clicks pace along with those skills...
Boult was not that special in WC, outside of first spell. Southee and even Vitorri were as effective as Boult upfront...Once or twice NZ had to bowl in death, both Southee and Boult were exposed...Wahab bowled better than anybody else other then Strac in death(mind you against India he bowled 6 overs in last 10, when they were only two out, still did not concede any boundary). If NZ had played more matches in AUS, people would have their death bowling in lot more matches...
What Pace Adds?
You don't value pace, which is fundamental trait of premium fast bowler, other trait is height like McGrath or HW, you got to have something extra (along with skill) to take your self to next level...
Pace allows you to increase your range, you can bowl more lengths effectively, can reverse more effectively...In test you have more utility across the world conditions as well as various time of the innings... Boult and Amir are duds once ball gets old, they cannot reverse, they don't have effective length or short pitch ball, even Wagnar bowls better than them at 135 clicks...
You can take wickets with old ball and clean the tail, pretty much in every condition, something both Boult and Amir cannot do...
Amir and Boult also don't have strong forceful action that's why even at 140 pace their short ball, reverse swing, yorkers are not as effective as others who has more muscular action...In PSL Mills was also bowling at 140-143 but was much more effective with forceful length balls than Amir at same pace, Amir does not bowl effective heavy ball, because of not so powerful action, same is the problem with Boult...
You will see Rabada and Mills will be more effective(we already know that in ODIs) in IPL late overs , because there is more muscle behind their effort balls, rather than driven by arm speed...
Muscle in modern day LOI cricket is very important, without that its going to be hard to have more variation in lengths(short, good, back and yorker), better reverse swing...We have not seen any muscle bowler in Pakistan since Wahab...Wahab skill level is very weak because of terrible wrist release, he is good athlete, if he had fixed that issue early on, he could have been in the league of Strac...He is lucky to play international cricket because of his muscle power, skill wise he is probably one of the worst bowler in international circuit...
Its very disappointing that we have not seen a single fast bowler(again a bowler with forceful action) even on the horizon thus far in 2 PSL and 8 years counting, this is not good for Pakistan Cricket...All these medium pacers can take you only so far, Pakistan need that muscle power to take the team to next level...The purpose of these academies should be to produce such a bowler, otherwise mediocre lot can come without spending a dime
Also, Amir needs to add muscle to his bowling, like Strac that can take him from 140 to 150, without muscle he can generate 140 pace, with muscle all the other lengths(good, back, short, yorker) will be as effective as others...He needs to make that jump to be Tier 1 bowler, again he has lot of ingredients, need to take that extra step...Very few bowlers can generate 140-145 clicks pace without muscle, he has one of those rare skills...I was hoping that he will take that next step, maybe he needs a time off and somebody needs to work with him to add muscle in his bowling, keep on playing hectic international schedule is not going to help!!
@ the guy who barely managed to pick up 2 test wickets in India being in the same league as Akram.
