A famous phrase used in cricket commentary – which has stood the test of time – is "Fast bowlers hunt in pairs". For a spectator, while good strokes, boundaries and sixes are entertaining, watching two aggressive fast bowlers in action from the two ends gives more joy than anything else in the game.
The batsman facing up to those fast bowlers might not enjoy the moment or the situation, but if he does survive that testing period and succeed, there’s very little else that can be as satisfying.
While batsmen are often painted as the glamour boys, it is the bowlers – fast bowlers in particular – who are called on to do the hard work and are needed for teams to win matches, series and competitions. Teams crave for quicks who are able to blow away opponents.
Some teams are lucky to get one such fast bowler, while others are able to stack together a battery of fast bowlers (think West Indies of yore, Australian teams over the years, or pace attacks of India and Pakistan currently). Below, we look at five of the most successful new ball pairs in Test history.
James Anderson & Stuart Broad (England)
Shared the new ball in 93 Tests; took 722 wickets as a pair.
James Anderson and Stuart Broad are the most successful new-ball pairing in Test history. The pair shared the new ball for the first time in December 2008, and are still going strong.
Individually, they've achieved significant heights; Anderson has become the most successful pacer in Test cricket – he is on the brink of 600 Test wickets at the time of writing this piece, while Broad climbed into the 500-Test-wickets club not too long ago.
Though the pair have individually had several memorable performances across their long careers, their finest performance – as a new ball pair – was in the series against India in 2011; in the three Tests they shared the new ball, they shared 32 wickets.
Trivia: To lend some context to Anderson and Broad’s feats, it is worth knowing the second-longest-serving new-ball pair for England is Brian Statham and Fred Trueman, who shared the new ball in 35 Tests for a return of 284 wickets,
Wasim Akram & Waqar Younis (Pakistan)
Shared the new ball in 53 Tests; took 497 wickets as a pair.
Wasim Akram hurried the batsmen with his short run-up, while Waqar Younis tested the batsmen with his long one. Together, this left-arm right-arm pace duo from Pakistan gave batsmen nightmares for years.
Wasim could move the ball both ways, but it was his quick-arm action that often got the batsmen in trouble. At the other end, Waqar – fondly referred to as the Burewala Bomber – established a reputation for himself as being the toe-crusher; he could move the ball conventionally, but it was his ability to master reverse swing that caused batsmen plenty of grief.
Individually, they are Pakistan’s two highest wicket-takers in Test cricket; Wasim Akram ended his career with a tally of 414 wickets, while Waqar finished with a tally of 373 wickets.
The pair had several memorable outings together; in 1990-91, they savaged New Zealand and West Indies, sharing 53 wickets in the four Tests they opened the bowling together.
In the 1993-94 series in New Zealand, they split 42 wickets in the three Tests they shared the new ball. In 1994-95, Wasim and Waqar shared 27 wickets in two Tests in Sri Lanka; in contrast, Sri Lanka’s pacers picked up 4 wickets in that series!
Trent Boult & Tim Southee (New Zealand)
Shared the new ball in 51 Tests; took 438 wickets as a pair.
Trent Boult and Tim Southee don’t often get enough recognition for how much damage they have caused with the new ball. It is true that they play a lot of cricket in helpful conditions, but as players they only perform in conditions they are given and against opponents they are lined-up against.
Trivia: The statistic that best illustrates how successful Boult and Southee have been is that while they have shared the new ball in 51 Tests so far, no other Kiwi pair shared the new ball in more than 17 Test matches.
In Tests in New Zealand, Boult and Southee shared the new ball in 27 Tests, sharing 267 wickets between them. In 24 Tests overseas, the pair shared 171 wickets.
Curtly Ambrose & Courtney Walsh (West Indies)
Shared the new ball in 49 Tests; took 421 wickets as a pair.
Individually, Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose are the West Indies’ two highest wicket-takers in Test cricket; Walsh was, in fact, the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket until his record of 519 wickets was eclipsed by Glenn McGrath.
Walsh’s career stretched between 1984 and 2001, while Ambrose played Test cricket between 1988 and 2000. Both players – tall and menacing fast bowlers – together featured in the West Indies line-up in 95 Tests, but they only happened to share the new ball in 49 Tests, starting in 1993. It wasn’t fun being a batsman with Walsh and Ambrose hurling down cricket balls from their heights.
Ambrose and Walsh carried the West Indies bowling attack for years and had several highpoints individually in their respective careers.
As a new ball pair, they caused a lot of damage consistently almost right through their careers, but were particularly lethal as a pair in 1994 and 1995 (shared 144 wickets in 16 Tests), and between 1998 and 2000. (shared 218 wickets in 23 Tests).
Glenn McGrath & Jason Gillespie (Australia)
Shared the new ball in 45 Tests; took 376 wickets as a pair.
Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie shared the new ball for Australia for the first time in 1997, and they would go on to become Australia’s most successful new ball pairing. The pair could have achieved a lot more – but for Gillespie’s frail injury-prone body.
McGrath built a reputation for himself as this mean, metronome, machine-like fast bowler who would frustrate batsmen by landing the ball in the same “unplayable, confusing areas” repeatedly, and make the ball do just enough.
At the other end, Gillespie was this quick and pacy bowler, who could get the ball to jag sharply – and that perhaps cost him loads of wickets; he would frustratingly beat the bat on numerous occasions just because of the prodigious movement.
Ricky Ponting, the most successful Test captain, considers Gillespie as one of the best Australia has produced and a bowler who doesn’t get enough recognition for what he was and what he did.
(All stats as on 3 August, 2020)
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