Fast bowlers, like wrist spinners, are worth their proverbial weight in gold, in all formats of the game. Famous names, like Harold Larwood, Jon Snow and Bob Willis are still referred to by us cricket geeks when talking about the most destructive players who have played test cricket for England, and a common lament, particularly when we are being beaten heavily in Australia, is the lack of genuine quick bowlers available for selection.
The current generation (very loosely players who have been around for the last five years) have produced Mark Wood, Jofra Archer and Olly Stone. All of them have suffered continually from injuries, which have frustrated both themselves and their many admirers. Even in an era of biomechanics and video analysis, trying to bowl at 90 or above puts huge strain on the body, with Mark Wood having only recently passed the milestone of 100 test wickets. According to the sky commentary team, he has missed around 80 tests since his debut.
A number of young players have come to the fore in the last year or so, who promise to provide England with pacier options in the years ahead. Gus Atkinson’s rise has been meteoric, being clocked at 95 in the 100, and included as a member of Englands provisional 50 over world cup squad. Josh Tongue played a couple of tests this year and showed considerable promise, while Brydon Carse, who has been around the fringes of the white ball team for a couple of years now, made an impressive T20 debut this week. A shout out also for Jamie Overton, a bowler capable of generating both pace and considerable bounce, and who made his debut in 2022 in a test against New Zealand only to pick up yet another injury. Sajid Mahmood and Matt Fisher have also had fitful opportunities so far, although like all of the above have suffered from injuries.
England do suddenly have a plethora of promising quick bowlers. Partially this may just be a quirk of fate, and also the rise of the speedometer means that players can now more easily test themselves against other players and push themselves harder if they so wish. The multitude of T20 leagues also offers continual opportunities for players to earn substantial amounts of cash with an emphasis on pace, given that they are only required to bowl four overs a game.
Pace is vital in every format of course, but given the fact that T20 is often played on flat wickets with smaller boundaries, pace can be one of the few attacking options available for the bowling side- medium pacers and finger spinners can go for an awful lot of runs.
For test cricket fans, the rise of T20 can be something of a double edged sword. On the one hand, it may encourage bowlers to bowl faster, in the hope of attracting contracts in multiple overseas leagues and earn salaries cricketers of yesteryear could never of aspired to. The flip side of course being they may prefer to focus all of their efforts on T20 and give up any aspiration of playing test matches, which for us “purists” still represent the ultimate form of cricket.
Moving forward, Englands pace bowling stocks look healthy, and that is all for the good, but it is important also to incentivise players to continue to bowl with a red ball as well, for their counties even if the number of games they play has to be rationed to maintain their pace. Watching fast bowling is an exhilarating experience, and the quickies need to be managed carefully to ensure injury and T20 overload doesn’t mean they choose to give up red ball cricket entirely.