Which Indian bowler do you rate the highest or reckon as the best?

[The Bald Eagle]

India cricket team is relatively known for its batsmen rather than bowlers and it is so because of the batting paradises that he India's flattest pitches offer. But still over the years we have seen great bowling icons emerging from this land that eventually become a household name.

Kapil Dev, Anil Kumble, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami are few to mention but whom do you guys reckon to be the best bowler ever in the history of Indian cricket?

 

[mominsaigol]

India cricket team is relatively known for its batsmen rather than bowlers and it is so because of the batting paradises that he India's flattest pitches offer. But still over the years we have seen great bowling icons emerging from this land that eventually become a household name.

Kapil Dev, Anil Kumble, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami are few to mention but whom do you guys reckon to be the best bowler ever in the history of Indian cricket?

I mean Anil kumble vs Bumrah is impossible as one is a spinner and the other a medium bowler.

But yeah, Kumble is the best spinner India has ever had with Bumrah being their best ever medium/pace bowler.

Kapil dev is good but he gets the best allrounder status.

Shami is good in odi but he loses points because he isn't a good allformat bowler like Bumrah.

 

[The Bald Eagle]

For me Kapil Dev is the greatest ever Indian bowler along with modern great Bumrah.

 

[ElRaja]

best fast bowler t20 - bumrah
best fast bowler odi - shami
best fast bowler tests - shami (bumrah if he gets to 200 test wickets)

best spinner t20 - kuldeep yadav
best spinner odis - anil kumble
best spinner tests - ravi ashwin

india have had a golden generation of pacers, enjoy it while it lasts, cos once bumrah and shami are gone, the guys behind look pretty average to me.

 

[The Bald Eagle]

I mean Anil kumble vs Bumrah is impossible as one is a spinner and the other a medium bowler.

But yeah, Kumble is the best spinner India has ever had with Bumrah being their best ever medium/pace bowler.

Kapil dev is good but he gets the best allrounder status.

Shami is good in odi but he loses points because he isn't a good allformat bowler like Bumrah.

Yep, you can name any whether a spinner, medium pacer or pure pacer.

 

[Josh]

Bumrah> Shami > Kapil > zaheer
Ashwin > kumble> jadeja> Harbhajan

The present era is the best bowling era of team India. There is reason India has started to win away tests and give tough time to home teams even on pace bowling supportive picture.

 

[Josh]

I mean Anil kumble vs Bumrah is impossible as one is a spinner and the other a medium bowler.

But yeah, Kumble is the best spinner India has ever had with Bumrah being their best ever medium/pace bowler.

Kapil dev is good but he gets the best allrounder status.

Shami is good in odi but he loses points because he isn't a good allformat bowler like Bumrah.

Bumrah and Shami aren't any medium pacers. They consistently bowl faster than their Pakistani counterparts in test match bowling many overs a day. Bowling one over of express pace and consistently bowling around 140 , the later is much more demanding

 

[Bhaijaan]

Shami is the greatest ODI pacer of all time in world cricket. He proved it be dominating not one not two but three world cups straight.

Bumrah just behind him and it’s crazy that he’s also a GOAT contender.

So a combined ATG Bharat - Pakistan ODI XI would not feature a Pakistani fast bowler today as Kapil paaji takes away the 3rd spot as well being an AR. It’s quite crazy and I never thought this would happen.

 

[mominsaigol]

Bumrah and Shami aren't any medium pacers. They consistently bowl faster than their Pakistani counterparts in test match bowling many overs a day. Bowling one over of express pace and consistently bowling around 140 , the later is much more demanding

You're right.

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Poll added Guys!

 

[Bhaijaan]

My Top 5 greatest ODI pacers ever

1. Mohammad Shami
2. Allan Donald
3. Jasprit Bumrah
4. Wasim Akram
5. Glenn McGrath

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Here are India's top wicket taker of all times in ODIs

 

[Aang_The_last_airbender]

My Top 5 greatest ODI pacers ever

1. Mohammad Shami
2. Allan Donald
3. Jasprit Bumrah
4. Wasim Akram
5. Glenn McGrath

I would remove the greats from 90s in ODI, their stats look unnecessarily good because of the times. The generational change that come in this century needs to be accounted for.
Infact post T20 is altogether different ball game.

 

[Shaheenthefalcon]

i believe bumrah is better than any bowler we produced so far.

 

[PakLFC]

I once thought Lakmipathy Balaji would become an ATG. Now it has got to be Bumrah where as Zaheer Khan was greatly underrated. That could be because he is a Muslim

 

[sweep_shot]

I think Kapil Dev and Anil Kumble are the best Indian bowlers of all time.

Bumrah is #3 I guess.

 

[TheRock]

Depends on the format. However, Bumrah is an exception. A 'once in a generation' bowler who is #1 in all 3 formats. Shami would be at the top as well. (But only in ODI & tests. He has been poor in T20s). Followed by Kapil Kumble Srinath Harbhajan Zaheer..

 

[BouncerGuy]

Kumble in tests was a beast of a bowler. TBH we can not really term anybody as the best bowler but yeah some of the names that pop up are kumble, Kapil dev, Bumrah, Zaheer Khan etc.

 

[The lone Ranger]

Bumrah is undoubtedly the greatest Indian bowler of all time. He performs exceptionally well in all conditions and is the only Indian bowler who consistently intimidates batsmen. Never shows mediocrity, unlike many past and present Indian bowlers. He is also the most economical bowler in the world right now. Unfortunately, he hasn’t taken as many wickets as he could have, since batsmen often play him out, letting other bowlers benefit. Moreover, he hasn’t had the chance to face weaker teams in Tests, which could have greatly increased his wicket count.

 

[Ab Fan]

Bumrah is #1

Ashwin and Kumble are #2 and #3 and very close.

Kapil is #4 and very close to Ashwin/kumble while Shami is #5.

Kapil is better than Shami because Kapil took 5 years to reach 250 test wickets at avg of 27 while Shami has taken 10 years to reach that. Ofcourse, Shami has competition from other bowlers and all that but what Kapil did with bowl between 1978-1983 was nothing less than phenomenal.

That's top 5. Then you have the likes of Bedi, Srinath, Zak, Chandra, Jadeja, Ishant Sharma and Irfan Pathan.

 

[Itachi]

I rate two people.

1. Nehra.
2. V Prasad.

 

[Kohlhaas]

Bishen Bedi for his elegance.

 

[chinaman00]

Among the fast bowlers, I would say Javagal Srinath and of the spinners Anil Kumble.

 

[nish_mate]

Sir Stuart Binny, the slayer of Tigers

 

[Rana]

Zaheer Khan
Ashish Nehra
Munaf Patel

These were great bowlers too. They laid the platform for Bumrah, Shami and Bhuvaneshwar to take over and assert Indian bowling dominance

 

[jeeteshssaxena]

Bumrah is our greatest ever pacer, if he takes 250+ wkts in tests he will comfortably become an ATG.

Ashwin is our greatest spinner after that we will have Kumble, Bedi, Chandra, Jadeja.

 

[PakFan2010]

Bumrah's action needs to be tested before I give him any credit.

 

[Red-Indian]

Bumrah's action needs to be tested before I give him any credit.

I'll try to let him know the next time I see him.

I'm sure it'll hurt him deeply to find out about your inability to give him credit but he may find it difficult to hear my voice over the 100,000 people who'll be screaming their throats out as he terrifies another world-class batting line-up.

 

[FearlessRoar]

Jasprit Bumrah known for lethal yorkers

Bhuvneshwar Kumar for his swing

 

[Aang_The_last_airbender]

Going across history, The recognition should lie with Kapil Dev. The kinds of odds he had to work against are unthinkable now.

 

[Ab Fan]

Zaheer Khan
Ashish Nehra
Munaf Patel

These were great bowlers too. They laid the platform for Bumrah, Shami and Bhuvaneshwar to take over and assert Indian bowling dominance

Nehra is good only in T20s.

 

[Ab Fan]

1970s- Bedi, Chandra
1980s - Kapil
1990s - Kumble, Srinath
2000s - Zak, Bhajji, Pathan
2010s - Ashwin, Shami, Jadeja, Ishant
2020s - Bumrah, kuldeep, Siraj(?)

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Lol..I once used to think that Balaji was a deadly bowler

 

[Cricket Warrior]

Lol..I once used to think that Balaji was a deadly bowler

He was deadly only for Shahid Afridi lol

 

[Local.Dada]

No Indian bowler had the fear factor of Bumrah. Kumble maybe scared the hell out of SENA teams but Pak, SL batsmen played him pretty well.

 

[Local.Dada]

Lol..I once used to think that Balaji was a deadly bowler

I won’t judge you obviously unless I know how old were you when you did that.

 

[ChennaiFan]

Laxman Sivaramakrishnan was the best leg spinner, but he faded away due to non cricketing reasons.

Bumrah and Zaheer Khan are the best pacers.

 

[giri26]

Best 5 Pacers:
Bumrah
Kapil
Shami
Zak
Srinath

Best 5 Spinners:
Ashwin
Kumble
Jadeja
Bedi
Kuldeep (He can get there if he plays more)

Overall top 5 (Very Difficult choice)
Bumrah
Ashwin
Kapil
Kumble
Shami/Zak

 

[Local.Dada]

Laxman Sivaramakrishnan was the best leg spinner, but he faded away due to non cricketing reasons.

Bumrah and Zaheer Khan are the best pacers.

If he faded away after 1 seeies/torunament like a one series wonder like so many players. Having said that apparently he had a lot of substance abuse issues which caused his downfall. However post retirement he has turned it around. Does good work at the domestic level as commentator. One of few commentators that keeps up with domestics.

 

[ChennaiFan]

If he faded away after 1 seeies/torunament like a one series wonder like so many players. Having said that apparently he had a lot of substance abuse issues which caused his downfall. However post retirement he has turned it around. Does good work at the domestic level as commentator. One of few commentators that keeps up with domestics.

Yes, I like his commentary - his analysis of spin bowling in particular is very good.

 

[BouncerGuy]

As far as best bowlers are concerned, my pick would be:

Bumrah
Ashwin
Kapil
Kumble
Zaheen khan

No particular order.

 

[Ab Fan]

Indian all time test XI will feature Jadeja ahead of Kumble because Jadeja is a left handed batsman and a top class 5th bowler for even ATG side.

 

[Ab Fan]

A good side must have 3-4 lefties.

Sehwag
Gavaskar
Dravid
Tendulkar
Pant(wkt)
Kohli(c)
Jadeja
Kapil
Ashwin
Bumrah
Zak/Shami/Srinath

Only two lefties, still needs more improvement.

 

[Red-Indian]

A good side must have 3-4 lefties.

Sehwag
Gavaskar
Dravid
Tendulkar
Pant(wkt)
Kohli(c)
Jadeja
Kapil
Ashwin
Bumrah
Zak/Shami/Srinath

Only two lefties, still needs more improvement.

Yes we have a problem on the test side with lefties. All our great batters have been righties. One day team at least has Yuvraj to break things up.

 

[Unleashed]

Bumrah is by far the best pace bowler we've ever had in the history.

 

[Hitman]

Bumrah is definitely the best fast bowler we have ever produced. Much better than the likes of Kapil Dev, Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan.

 

[FastBowlingAllrounder]

Bumrah is definitely the best fast bowler we have ever produced. Much better than the likes of Kapil Dev, Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan.

His ability to still produce good output on a variety of wickets is remarkable. Only other post-2000 bowler who had good outings everywhere to this extent that comes to mind is perhaps Steyn.

 

[Cricket Warrior]

From current lot its definitely Bumrah and from 90s i will go with Javagal Srinath

 

[The Bald Eagle]

The recent Sl series has just proven it again. India are average without Bumrah.

 

[charlie007]

The recent Sl series has just proven it again. India are average without Bumrah.

Yeah, I’m sure this was the only series Bumrah missed in the last 27 years! Bravo logic!

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Yeah, I’m sure this was the only series Bumrah missed in the last 27 years! Bravo logic!

You guys win the T20 WC solely on back of his brilliance. A brut fact

 

[charlie007]

You guys win the T20 WC solely on back of his brilliance. A brut fact

I thought your comment was about the India-SL series.

 

[The Bald Eagle]

I thought your comment was about the India-SL series.

The point is India is over reliant on Bumrah's brilliance.

 

[charlie007]

The point is India is over reliant on Bumrah's brilliance.

Bumrah was out for over a year and India won plenty of matches in all formats in India and outside. Bumrah was missing in Australia too when India won. So isolating an anomaly and making deductions does not seem to be too intelligent unless of course it was just to try and make short of India’s achievement in any way possible!

 

[mominsaigol]

The point is India is over reliant on Bumrah's brilliance.

Bumrah was out for over a year and India won plenty of matches in all formats in India and outside. Bumrah was missing in Australia too when India won. So isolating an anomaly and making deductions does not seem to be too intelligent unless of course it was just to try and make short of India’s achievement in any way possible!

You both are going into extremities.

One side is acting as of India is some Minnow without Bumrah. The truth is their still easily the best Asian side and would still wash foreign sides like NZ and WI.

However Bumrah is still an ace factor, India would have lost the world cup and the match against australia if it wasn't for Bumrah taking Travis head's wicket and drying up runs prior.

Theirs a reason Emgland in 2022 wc washed India black and blue but got bundled very quickly in semi's.

However without Bumrah only Australia and England and SA(on a few occasions, honestly their 2 inconsistent, Can go from smacking 400 against australia to losing to Nedtherlands and struggling tooth and nail against Nepal and Pakistan barely winning lol) can get rid of India.

Meanwhile Pakistan at their best can get wrecked by any team with the exception of Bangladesh as it seems even when Pakistan is low on confidence they manage to beat Bangladesh usually.

They did so after losing 4 games in the dot on 2023 and in 2019 they did so after getting butchered by West Indies.

 

[Cricket Warrior]

The recent Sl series has just proven it again. India are average without Bumrah.

infact below average without Bumrah

 

[Buffet]

infact below average without Bumrah

He is probaly the best limited over bowler in history. Any team is going to miss him but Indians have done fine in matches without Bumrah.

 

[BouncerGuy]

India definitely missed Bumrah in the Sri Lanka series, no doubts about that. Bumrah and Shami are the main pillars of the Indian bowling lineup.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

The recent Sl series has just proven it again. India are average without Bumrah.

Even without Bumrah, Rohit and Kohli , there is at least one team we can beat blindfolded.

 

[DeadlyVenom]

Bumrah is very good.

I also liked Zaheer Khan even though he had average stats.

Ajit Agarkar was also very good for a while.

 

[Bhaijaan]

Overall Kapil Dev followed by Bumrah, Shami, Srinath, Zaheer

Shami is GOAT in ODIs
Bumrah is the best all format pacer in the world and a match winner

Kapil Dev is former test wickets world record holder with 434 wickets and was the lone warrior. If he had more support and if BCCI could invest more money in him like it can today on Bumrah and Shami, he would have had even greater achievements than he already had.

Kapil Dev is also the greatest Bharatiya cricketer ever

 

[Bhaijaan]

Kapil Dev was fighting for his life a year ago and those were really emotional days for me as a cricket fan.

Only the biggest cricket fans here will know that feeling that when you revere a legend so much from your heart you care for their well being and the thought of something happening to them could make you go in panic mode. I was relieved when Kapil paaji emerged from that battle like the warrior he always was. He’s an absolute mountain of a legend in world cricket. People of today who haven’t researched the game much would have no idea by merely looking at records.

 

[Ab Fan]

Bumrah, Shami, Kapil, Ashwin, Kumble.

That's an absolutely well balanced attack of pace and spin. Other teams except Australia won't have a balanced spin attack like this.

 

[AamchiMumbaikar]

Bumrah hands down