Top 7 Indian Sultans of Swing: Exponents of a Mysterious Craft
There is something bewitching about a fast bowler swinging the ball. There is something mesmerising about the brand new red cherry or white cherry moving prodigiously in or away from the batsman, curving, dipping, reversing and catching them on the wrong foot.
Some do it at pace, some do it viciously and no matter what safeguards the batsman tries, he is almost always a sitting duck against them. India has had its fair share of swing bowlers, more so because pace was never really our forte. While Indians have always looked wistfully at their neighbours, Pakistan, for their stock of fast bowlers, they did produce some genuine craftsmen.
On abrasive surfaces, the reverse swing does set in for a lot of bowlers, but genuine swing bowlers can move the new ball both sides as well, an asset on batting paradises like Indian pitches, where the ball doesn’t have much bounce and doesn’t do much off the pitch. Here we look at seven bowlers who knew how to make the ball talk, most of them naturally gifted with the art.
#7 Roger Binny
Kapil’s lieutenant in India’s famous 1983 win, Roger Binny was an athletic and ultra-talented all-rounder. India’s premier fast bowler also registered several exploits with his bat. The leading wicket-taker of the 1983 World Cup - then a record number of 18 – Binny could swing the ball both ways whenever the conditions were conducive.
His finest ODI performances came in the World Series in Australia where his performances ensured India reached the finals. But it was the series in England that marked Binny’s status as one of the Indian greats of his era. In one of India’s greatest overseas series wins, Binny picked 12 wickets at 20.91 outshining the great Kapil Dev. He was also India’s leading wicket-taker in the drawn ODI series.
Binny was also perfectly capable of using the breeze across many grounds to his benefit. In all, he picked up 124 wickets, 77 in ODIs and 47 in Tests, his career cut short with the advent of younger pacers like Prabhakar and Chetan Sharma.