Best Bowling Unit of All Time

[AldoRaine18]

This isn't a thread about best bowling line up filled with ATG bowlers but real life bowling units. I'm relatively young compared to most in here and my knowledge is limited a bit from around 70 onwards, and in that time I would say the best units I have known about or seen would be :

WI : Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Colin Croft and Joel Garner with Malcolm Marshall being added later in place of Croft
WI : Ian Bishop, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and Patrick Patterson
Pak : Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Imran Khan, Aaqib Javed
Pak : Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Saqlain Mushtaq, Shoaib Akhtar
Aus : Glenn Mcgrath, Jason Gillespie, Shane Warne, Brett Lee
Aus : Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, Max Walker
SA : Shaun Pollock, Allan Donald, Makhaya Ntini, Jacques Kallis, Lance Klusener
SA: Dale Steyn, Mornie Morkel, Vernon Philander and Jacques Kallis

I think these are the top ones I can remember from last 40 odd years. Which ones would be from the generations before this and which one would you have as the best of all time? Remembering that this is about a particular unit that played a considerable amount of tests together with at least one constant partnership even if say the fourth bowler was rotated.

 

[Red]

Lindwall, Miller, Davidson, Benaud, McKay- maybe played together

CTB Turner and JJ Ferris

Trueman, Statham, Bailey, Lock, Laker- maybe played together

 

[Adders]

Not claiming this lot to being up there with those mentioned so far, but Harmisson, Hoggard, Flintoff, Jones and Giles were pretty special.........for a (very) brief time.

 

[Coronis]

McGrath/Gillespie/Warne/Lee definitely the best imo. Lindwall/Miller/Johnston would've played together a fair amount.

 

[watson]

According to the book 'Masterly Batting' the highest rated bowling units of all time were Trueman-Statham-Bailey-Laker-Lock and the first WI option on the list.

 

[kyear2]

Holding, Roberts, Croft, Garber
Marshall, Holding, Garner, Roberts/ Walsh
McGrath, Gillespie, Lee, Warne
Trueman, Statham, Laker, Locke

 

[Red]

Not claiming this lot to being up there with those mentioned so far, but Harmisson, Hoggard, Flintoff, Jones and Giles were pretty special.........for a (very) brief time.

None of them exceptionally great, but bowled as a pack and bowled to a plan in 2005. Good amount variety among them too, each was different enough to make things difficult for Australia.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Trueman, Statham, Laker, Locke

(How often) did Frank Tyson bowl with Trueman, Statham, and Laker?

 

[Agent Nationaux]

Asif, Amir, Gul and Ajmal. They only played 2 matches together but I think if Amir and Asif had not cheated this bowling unit would be one of the best.

 

[Adders]

None of them exceptionally great, but bowled as a pack and bowled to a plan in 2005. Good amount variety among them too, each was different enough to make things difficult for Australia.

Agree that none would ever be considered "great" but tbf whilst 2005 may have been the pinnacle.......they were very very good for over 12 months before that.

But yeah, on reflection they don't really belong in this discussion.

 

[watson]

(How often) did Frank Tyson bowl with Trueman, Statham, and Laker?

Tyson and Trueman bowled together in just 4 Test matches during 1958/59. England lost both matches against Australia, and then had a win and a draw against NZ. Their figures for those 4 matches were;

Trueman: 13 wickets at 25.76

Tyson: 9 wickets at 32.11

So no, Trueman, Tyson and whoever were never a 'unit' of any consequence. This is because Tyson's knees were probably giving up by 1958/59. Why the English selectors didn't play them together earlier is a question that they would have to answer. Seems myopic to me.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Agree that none would ever be considered "great" but tbf whilst 2005 may have been the pinnacle.......they were very very good for over 12 months before that.

But yeah, on reflection they don't really belong in this discussion.

As a unit in that 1 year spell they bowled as well as any attack I've ever seen. As did Anderson, Broad, Bresnan, Swann for a couple of months in 2010. Well, more accurately 4 matches against us. And they too had great variety... Conventional swing, pace, seam, one who could get it to bounce awkwardly and a high quality spinner. Shame Bresnan fell away

 

[Saint Kopite]

In this order.

1. Marshall-Holding-Garner-Roberts.
2. Roberts-Holding-Garner-Croft.
3. McGrath-Gillespie-Lee-Warne.

 

[BeeGee]

In this order.

1. Marshall-Holding-Garner-Roberts.
2. Roberts-Holding-Garner-Croft.
3. McGrath-Gillespie-Lee-Warne.

Yeah. Marshall-Holding-Garner-Roberts would have any test opener ****ting their daks.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Marshall-Holding-Garner-Roberts wasn't really a unit for long. Marshall's breakthrough came in 1983 in India which was Roberts' last series.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Man for man, definitely the best attack though

 

[BeeGee]

Man for man, definitely the best attack though

Yep. The thing that immediately hits you with those Windies bowling attacks of the 80s is the fear and intimidation factor. The Aussie McGarth, Warne, etc. attack is a clinical attack. Surgical precision. But the Windies were the four horsemen of the apocalypse, destroyer of worlds. Very fast, very aggressive. I count myself very lucky to have witnessed those guys playing first hand.

 

[harsh.ag]

I will just parse the great Windies attacks by generations as it happened:

First came Holding-Roberts-Gibbs-Julien/Holder. This came together primarily in 1976 for 4 tests.

Then came the famous Holding-Roberts-Garner-Croft. They played 11 tests together. In these, Roberts under-performed but the rest were superb.

Next were Holding-Roberts-Garner-Marshall. This unit played just 6 tests together in which Roberts was supreme, and Holding under-performed. Roberts-Holding-Marshall also played 3 tests in this period without Garner.

The next group of four were Holding-Garner-Marshall-Walsh. This group played 4 tests together, where all of them performed quite superbly.

The last great group was Marshall-Walsh-Ambrose-Patterson/Bishop/Benjamin - This lot played 25 tests together with the three exchanging places with Patterson being the most frequent with 14 appearances.

Adding to the above, this bowling line-up which, although playing just 4 games together, is formidable: Wasim-Waqar-Imran-Qadir

And of course the Aussie attack of McGrath-Warne-Gillespie-Lee was awesome.

 

[Slifer]

I will just parse the great Windies attacks by generations as it happened:

First came Holding-Roberts-Gibbs-Julien/Holder. This came together primarily in 1976 for 4 tests.

Then came the famous Holding-Roberts-Garner-Croft. They played 11 tests together. In these, Roberts under-performed but the rest were superb.

Next were Holding-Roberts-Garner-Marshall. This unit played just 6 tests together in which Roberts was supreme, and Holding under-performed. Roberts-Holding-Marshall also played 3 tests in this period without Garner.

The next group of four were Holding-Garner-Marshall-Walsh. This group played 4 tests together, where all of them performed quite superbly.

The last great group was Marshall-Walsh-Ambrose-Patterson/Bishop/Benjamin - This lot played 25 tests together with the three exchanging places with Patterson being the most frequent with 14 appearances.

Adding to the above, this bowling line-up which, although playing just 4 games together, is formidable: Wasim-Waqar-Imran-Qadir

And of course the Aussie attack of McGrath-Warne-Gillespie-Lee was awesome.

How many tests did Ambrose, Walsh, Bishop + K&W Benjamin play together ??

 

[fredfertang]

Bedi, Chandra, Prasanna and Venkat - shame they only ever played together once