Courtney Walsh, Rangana Herath – which captain has the best bowling figures in Test cricket?

Yesterday at 10:52 PM

Australia’s Pat Cummins is something of a rarity in modern Test cricket – a bowler captaining a team. While there’s no reason that a bowler shouldn’t lead a team, the role, for some reason seems to fall more often than not to batsmen.

Over the years there have been many great captains who have been bowlers – indeed, the recently completed fifth Test between Australia and India at the SCG saw the world’s two top ranked Test bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah and Cummins skippering their sides.

Let’s delve into the stats to see which captains have managed to return the best bowling figures in a Test match.

5. Imran Khan (Pakistan) – 11 for 79 v India in Karachi, 23 December 1982

Imran Khan could do everything. One of the greatest skippers of all time, Khan not only delivered the fifth best bowling return by a captain, he also did it at home against his team’s biggest rivals, India.

Playing against a side that included stars like Sunil Gavaskar, Arun Lal, Dilip Vengsarkar and Mohinder Amarnath, Khan claimed figures of three for 19 in the first innings before ripping India to pieces in the second innings with a return of eight for 60 from 20.1 overs as Pakistan romped to a win by an innings and 86 runs.

4. Fazal Mahmood (Pakistan) – 12 for 100 v West Indies in Dhaka, 6 March 1959

Pakistan is a country famed for its quick bowlers. It has gifted the world players like Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar and Imran Khan to name just a few. But it’s Mahmood who is regarded as the first great quick from Pakistan – the standard bearer and role model for all those bowlers who followed him.

Fazal was a master of both seam and cutters and in a time when Pakistan played many of their games on matting wickets the great Australian Neil Harvey suggested that Fazal “could make the ball talk”.

His record return came against the West Indies in what is now Bangladesh. Playing against a side that include legends like Rohan Kanhai and Garfield Sobers, Mahmood took six wickets in each innings as Pakistan won a low scoring Test by 41 runs.

Also read: 7 highest run-scorers in Pakistan v West Indies Tests

3. Rangana Herath (Sri Lanka) – 13 for 152 v Zimbabwe in Harare, 6 November 2016

A slightly more recent return happened for Rangana Herath in 2016. While Herath enjoyed an illustrious Test career with a total of 93 Tests to his credit, he wasn’t a regular or long-term skipper.

In total he took charge of Sri Lanka for just five games – two Tests against Bangladesh and two against Zimbabwe and one against India. It was in the second Test against Zimbabwe that he achieved his milestone return with five wickets in the first innings and a further eight in the second innings.

It wasn’t a particularly strong Zimbabwe side, but you can only play the team in front of you and Herath’s efforts saw his side to a 257-run win.

2. Waqar Younis (Pakistan) – 13 for 135 v Zimbabwe in Karachi, 1 December 1993

Another of Pakistan’s great quicks, Younis was famed for his ability to swing the ball late and to reverse it. He enjoyed a long and successful career but was only captain for a total of 17 Tests.

While Herath returned his figures against a weak Zimbabwe side, Younis achieved his against one of the strongest Zimbabwe sides ever. His figures of 13 for 135 were achieved against a side that included the Flower brothers, Andy and Grant, Alistair Campbell, Dave Houghton and Guy Whittall.

This was a closely fought game that lasted five days with Waqar doing just enough in the end to ensure that Zimbabwe capitulated in their final innings as he ran through the tourist’s tail to help his team to a 131-run win.

1. Courtney Walsh (West Indies) – 13 for 55 v New Zealand in Wellington, 1 February 1995

One of the all-time greats of the game, Walsh was the first fast bowler to go past the 500 Test wicket mark. He has since seen his total return passed by a handful of other quicks – but the fact that his 519 Test wickets from 132 games has only been bettered by Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Glenn McGrath is testament to his ability and endurance.

Walsh played a total of 132 Tests at a time when the West Indies were blessed with leadership options. He played under the captaincy of Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Brian Lara, Carl Hooper and Jimmy Adams but he also led the team on 22 occasions.

It was on tour to New Zealand in 1995, applying against a Black Caps side that featured Ken Rutherford, Stephen Fleming and Adam Parore amongst others Walsh spent the best part of two days sitting in the pavilion watching as the West Indies batsmen amassed a huge total of 660 for five, a score built around tons from Lara, Adams and Junior Murray.

When it came to bowl Walsh was simply electric. Operating in tandem with Curtley Ambrose he claimed figures of seven for 37 in New Zealand’s first innings, before enforcing the follow-on and weighing in again with a return of six for 18 as the Kiwis were skittled for 122.

Read next: Test cricket’s most prolific bowler-fielder combinations

The post Courtney Walsh, Rangana Herath – which captain has the best bowling figures in Test cricket? appeared first on Cricket365.