Cricket is a game of bat and ball. Many cricketers excel in either of the two, with only a few managing to be all-rounders. While some were remembered for their fantastic batting techniques, some were well-known for their bowling style. The world has seen many cases, where even the greatest bowler failed to show their abilities in batting. Let’s look at some of the world’s best bowlers who scared every batter with their bowling spell but could not improve their batting skills.
1. Courtney Walsh-43
Walsh was a right-arm fast bowler from West Indies. He is considered one of the greatest fast bowlers in the history of international cricket. With a massive height of 6 feet 6’, Walsh scared the cricket world with his bowling style. Yet, his batting career is not impressive. He holds the record for the most number of dismissals at zero. He scored just 936 runs in 132 tests and has a batting average of 7.54. He also holds the record for maximum not-outs (61).
2. Chris Martin-36 Ducks
Chris Martin is a former New Zealand cricketer and predominantly a test bowler. He is one of the seven New Zealand bowlers to have taken 200 wickets. With 233 wickets in 71 tests, he justifies being a prominent bowler. But his batting career speaks otherwise. He was a very poor batsman. He was dismissed for zero 36 times and had the lowest batting average of 2.36 in cricket history. He is also the only cricketer to have got dismissed twice for a diamond duck. He has just 123 runs in his batting score.
3. Glenn Mcgrath-35
Glenn is a former Australian pacer. He is one of the greatest fast bowlers of his time. In his career, he played 124 tests taking more than 560 wickets. He holds the record for the maximum number of ducks in Test cricket than any other Australian Cricketer, surpassing Shane Warne by one duck. The irony is that he also held the record for dismissing the maximum number of batters for ducks in Test cricket (104) until 2021. With 641 runs in 124 matches, he has a batting average of 7.36.
4. Stuart Broad-35
Former English cricketer and captain for ODI and Twenty 20, Stuart gained much fame. He was the second bowler from England to have taken 500 wickets in test cricket. He has as many as 576 wickets in 161 tests with three 10-wicket hauls. Though he tallies with Glenn in the count of duck outs, he was not a bad batsman. He has a top score of 169 and 13 50’s.
5. Shane Warne-34
Warne is a former Australian right-arm leg spin bowler. He is considered one of the best bowlers of test cricket. With 708 wickets in 145 tests, he held the record for the highest number of wickets till 2007. His first ball of the Ashes series in 1993 was called ‘Ball of the century”. Where on one end, the entire world feared his bowling, he suffered a lot with batting. Though not that worse, his batting career is not fascinating. He has 3154 runs in 145 test matches and an average batting score of 17.32.
6. M Muralitharan- 33
Muralitharan remains one of the greatest bowlers in the history of Cricket. He is the only bowler to take 800 wickets in test cricket and has an average of 6 wickets per match. He remains the only player to take ten wickets in a match against every nation that played the test. Though considered the deadliest bowler of all time, his contribution to his batting fellow-mates was significantly less. He has a batting average of 11.67 with just 1256 runs out of the 133 tests played.
7. Jm Anderson- 31
Anderson was an English right-arm fast bowler regarded as the King of Swing Bowlers. He is England’s record wicket-taker and has 685 wickets in 179 test matches. He has played the most tests for England. He has just 1312 runs in all the tests he played but has many records with batting too. He has the most number of not-outs (62) and the highest tenth-wicket partnership(198) with Joe Root.
8. Zaheer Khan – 29
Zaheer is the second most successful Indian pacer in Test cricket after Kapil Dev. He has taken 311 wickets. He is the first bowler to have bowled Knuckle Ball. With many achievements in his career as a bowler, his batting career is not impressive. He has just three 50s and zero 100s in test cricket. Earlier he held the world record for the highest Test score by a number 11 when he scored 75 against Bangladesh in 2004.
9. M Dillon-26
Dillion was a former fast bowler of the West Indies. He has more than 100 wickets in just 38 tests. He successfully took 23 wickets against India in 2002 in a series of five tests. Though an outstanding bowler, his scoreboard remains blank. He could never manage to score a single 50 and had a batting average of just 8.44.
10. Danish Kanera-25
A former Pakistani cricketer, Danish is well-known for his googly. He is the 1st spin bowler of Pakistan with the maximum number of wickets in Test cricket and 4th in the list of bowlers. He has 15 five-wicket hauls and two 10-wicket hauls, adding to a total tally of 261 wickets in 61 tests. He has the most disappointing batting career, with the maximum score being just 29. He has less than 400 runs in all the tests he played at an average of 7.05.
