In the 866 Test matches played during the last decade, bowlers belonging to various teams terrified batsmen with their unbelievable pace, outstanding spin, and, most importantly, the everlasting consistency mixed with tremendous skills.
Like always, there were a few amongst many who rocked the International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings charts in the past ten years.
South Africa’s legend Dale Steyn has ruled the ICC Test rankings like no other bowler. Steyn single-handedly dominated the rankings by claiming the highest ratings for four years.
Right from 2010 to 2012 and then in 2014, Steyn’s aggression proved what kind of a bowler he was in Test cricket. In 2010, the right-armer bagged 897 ratings, while in the two-following years, he grabbed 898 and 880 ratings.
In 2013, Steyn’s compatriot, Vernon Philander, showcased his magic. He ruled the year and earned the highest ratings of 909. However, Steyn repeated the history once again in 2014; he topped the ICC ratings by claiming 906 points.
The South African bowlers didn’t stop there, after the veteran duo of Steyn and Philander, now it was the turn of young-gun Kagiso Rabada. He grabbed 880 points in the year 2018.
The past decade wasn’t just meant for the Proteas bowlers, after the pace dominance, it was the turn of spin as India’s Ravichandran Ashwin exhibit his fantastic skills and claimed the maximum number of points for two consecutive years in 2015 and 2016.
Ashwin earned 871 points in 2015 and 887 in 2016. Another interesting fact is that the right-arm off spinner took the most number of international wickets in the past decade (564).
Australia’s Pat Cummins was the leading wicket-taker in the past year. With his 59 Test wickets, he also claimed the highest ratings in the longest format of the game (902).
🇿🇦 3 from South Africa
🌏 3 from the rest of the worldFind out who topped the @MRFWorldwide Test Bowling Rankings at the end of each year of the 2010s 🔝 pic.twitter.com/ARwF1bGTEf
— ICC (@ICC) January 1, 2020
Here’s a list of bowlers with the maximum ratings in the last decade:
- 2010 – Dale Steyn (897)
- 2011 – Dale Steyn (898)
- 2012 – Dale Steyn (880)
- 2013 – Vernon Philander (909)
- 2014 – Dale Steyn (906)
- 2015 – Ravichandran Ashwin (871)
- 2016 – Ravichandran Ashwin (887)
- 2017 – James Anderson (892)
- 2018 – Kagiso Rabada (880)
- 2019 – Pat Cummins (902)
