Top 5 Bowlers in the world across all formats
Tahir has failed to replicate his ODI success in the Test formatA look at the best bowlers in the world across all three formats clearly shows one piece of information – very few have played all three formats of cricket this year. Imran Tahir misses out on this list despite being the third highest wicket-taker in ODIs, with 35 wickets in 21 games as he has hardly played Test cricket. Stuart Broad and James Anderson, England’s most potent Test bowlers, haven’t featured in their ODI plans in a while as England have looked to change their style of playing in the 50-over format.Bowlers like Moeen Ali miss out from this list despite boasting a good number of wickets in more than one format purely because, an important criteria for this list, was domination in at least one format with a good showing in the other.Strangely, except Starc and Ashwin, no bowler who has been in top form in Tests, has repeated the success in ODIs.
#5 Wahab Riaz
Wahab Riaz’s bowled two of World Cup’s best fast bowling spells ever – one against Australia and one against South Africa. Had Shane Watson not been dropped by Rahat Ali, Wahab Riaz could have carried Pakistan into the semi-finals and may be to greater glory.
He has been their spearhead, giving it his all every time he bowls, helping Pakistan win against the mighty South Africans in the World Cup. Wahab has 19 wickets in 6 Tests and 29 in 16 ODIs. It is his manner of bowling on some of the flattest tracks as opposed to results that has brought him to the list, considering he could’ve picked quite a few more this year if his fielders held on to their catches.
He also inches ahead of Yasir Shah into this list even though the latter has twice as many wickets as Wahab in Tests. That is because Wahab has been a mighty presence for Pakistan even in ODI cricket.