A look at the top bowling pairs in Test cricket
Bharath Seervi & Shiva Jayaraman30-Jul-2020Did You Know895 The aggregate wickets by James Anderson (473) and Stuart Broad (422) in the 117 Tests they have played together, the most by a fast-bowling pair. If we consider all bowling pairs, only one has taken more wickets playing together — Glenn McGrath (488) and Shane Warne (513) picked up 1001 wickets in 104 Tests. The next highest aggregate by a pace-bowling pair is 762 in 95 Tests by the West Indies duo of Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh. Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram took 559 wickets in 61 Tests together, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel 522 in 62 matches, and Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh 501 wickets in 54 Tests.ESPNcricinfo Ltd750 Wickets by Warne and McGrath in the 71 Tests that Australia won, easily the most by any pair. Anderson and Broad have the most by a fast-bowling pair (480 in 52 Test wins).6 Number of times Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas combined to take all the bowler wickets in an all-out innings, the most by a pair. Three pairs — Kumble-Harbhajan, Hugh Trumble-Monty Noble and Jim Laker-Tony Lock — are next with five such instances. Broad and Anderson have done it three times.
7 Matches in which Akram and Younis combined to take 15-plus wickets in a Test, the most such instances by a pair (minimum 40% wickets by each bowler). The next best by a pair is four: Bob Willis and Ian Botham, and Kumble-Harbhajan.6 Instances of two bowlers combining to take all 20 wickets in a match. However, there has not been such an instance since Bob Massie (16) and Dennis Lillee (four) picked up 20 wickets in Massie’s debut Test at Lord’s in 1972. Three of the instances were in early 1900s before the World Wars.ESPNcricinfo Ltd10.24 Wickets per match by R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja — 379 wickets in 37 Tests — which is the highest among 45 pairs with 300-plus wickets, where each bowler picked up at least 40% of the wickets. Among fast-bowling pairs with the same criteria, Tim Southee and Neil Wagner have the highest ratio of wickets per match — 9.21 (341 scalps in 37 Tests). Among 18 pairs with 400-plus wickets together, Anderson-Broad have the second-lowest wickets per match (7.65).61.33 Percentage of India’s wickets taken by Bishan Bedi and Bhagwath Chandrasekhar in the matches they played together — 368 out of 600 wickets — which is the highest among the 45 pairs with 300-plus wickets (with each bowler taking at least 40% of the wickets). Among fast-bowling pairs, Akram and Younis had the highest percentage of team wickets, picking up 57.45% of wickets (559 out of 973).
96.31 Percentage of his total career wickets that Mitchell Starc has taken when playing with Nathan Lyon, which is the highest among all bowlers with 200-plus wickets. He has taken 235 out of his 244 career wickets in matches in which Lyon has also played. Ambrose took 96.05% of his wickets playing with Walsh.194 Wickets by Alec Bedser and Ray Lindwall when playing against each other in 20 Tests — the most by an opposing pair (minimum of 40% wickets by each bowler). Broad and Lyon are next, having claimed 179 wickets in 23 Tests played against each other.
