Five fastest bowlers currently in world cricket
Shoaib Akhtar, popularly known as Rawalpindi Express, is said to be the king of speed. It's been eight years since his retirement and his record is still withstanding. Akhtar had bowled a ball at a whopping 161.3 mph in a match against England in the World Cup in 2003. Since then, Akhtar's record has remained intact. The last instance of someone even coming close to the record was Mitchell Starc when he clocked a speed of 160.04 kmph against New Zealand.
There are some fast bowlers who have a good shot at breaking this record. Fast bowling depends on fitness and hard work, and in today's modern era, players have facilities from gyms to personal trainers, so we can expect a lot of improvement in the speed of all players.
Let's take a look at the five current fastest bowlers in world cricket. (This list only includes players who have played at least 20 ODIs and are active members of their respective national ODI teams due to these criteria, some express pacers like Umesh Yadav, Billy Stanlake and Shivam Mavi have missed out.)
# 5. Oshane Thomas
The 21-year-old West Indian fast bowler has been a revelation ever since his debut series against India. He sent back Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan to the pavilion and was also quite economical. His height of more than 6 feet helps him extract bounce from the pitch and comparisons with former West Indian fast bowling legends are inevitable.
He is just 21 years old, and with age and games under his belt, his speed will naturally increase. Thomas bamboozled all the Indian batsmen with his pace and bounce and was thus acquired by Rajasthan Royals for 1.1 crores in the 2019 IPL auction. However, it is yet to be seen whether he can replicate these speeds and accuracy on a consistent basis.