Many legendary fast bowlers have graced the game of cricket. Here, we list down the top ten fast bowlers of all-time, based on their career-high ICC ratings.
The ICC player rating system was introduced in 1987 to assess a cricketer’s form and performance more accurately than traditional statistics like averages. To provide historical context, the system was retroactively applied to players from earlier eras, resulting in a comprehensive database of player ratings.
The ratings are measured on a scale that peaks at 1,000 points. The highest rating ever recorded is 961, achieved by Don Bradman. Among bowlers, the top spot belongs to Sydney Barnes, with a rating of 931. So far, 18 fast bowlers have crossed the 900-point mark in Test cricket, though several legendary names fall just short of the top ten.
Based solely on ICC ratings, here are the top fast bowlers of all time.
Also read: No Kapil, No Hadlee: The top ten all-rounders of all time in the ICC Test rankings
=10. Waqar Younis
87 Tests | 373 wickets | 23.56 avg | 22 5WI
Peak rating: 909
One of four fast bowlers tied at a peak rating of 909 points, Waqar first reached there in 1993 after a stellar Rawalpindi Test against Zimbabwe (5-88 and 4-50). He briefly held the No.1 spot twice: early in 1993 and again from May 1993 to February 1994. A decline followed, and by 1995/96, he had slipped below the 800-point mark, where he remained for the rest of his career.
Also read: Waqar Younis: A bowler with the ‘aggression of an impassioned warrior’ – Almanack
=10. Dale Steyn
93 Tests | 439 wickets | 22.95 avg | 26 5WI
Peak rating: 909
Considered one of the greatest fast bowlers of the 21st century, Steyn is the fifth-highest Test wicket-taker of all time among quicks. He is also the only one with a bowling strike rate under 50 (42.3) among the 10 highest wicket-taking seamers in Test cricket.
Also read: Wisden’s Cricketers of the Decade: Dale Steyn
Steyn first came close to touching the 900-point mark after his 20th Test, against Bangladesh in March 2008 in Chattogram, where he took 4-66 and 3-35. He then reached 897 points in April 2008 and 891 in February 2010, before finally getting across the line after the Cape Town Test against Australia in November 2011 (4-55 and 2-23). His peak of 909 points, however, only came three years later, with 6-34 against West Indies at Centurion in December 2014.
Unlike Waqar, Steyn had a long run not only in and around the 900-club, but also at the top of the ICC rankings. He was ranked the No.1 Test bowler from January 2010 to October 2013 uncontested, and again from February 2014 to August 2015.
Also read: Dale Steyn: Fast, penetrative & vein-bulging intensity – Almanack tribute
=10. Shaun Pollock
108 Tests | 421 wickets | 23.11 avg | 16 5WI
Peak rating: 909
Pollock, whose career had an overlap with Steyn’s, made his Test debut in 1995, but truly got into his own in 1999. From 835 points in March 1999, he rose to his peak of 909 points in six months, taking 33 wickets in five Tests at an average of 11.51 during the stretch. Pollock had a sustained run of form at the top for the next two and a half years, going below 889 for only about a month in this phase.
A late dip (by his lofty standards) saw him spend the last two and a half years of his career below 800, but he was still good enough to be ranked No.8 when he played his last Test, in 2008.
Also read: Shaun Pollock’s top ten moments, in his own words
=10. Richard Hadlee
86 Tests | 431 wickets | 22.29 avg | 36 5WI
Peak rating: 909
The New Zealand legend first reached No.1 on the ICC Test bowling rankings in March 1984. From then, till the time he played his last Test - July 1990 – Hadlee was only out of the top spot for about 10 months across four different periods, never falling below No.2.
His peak of 909 came after his 60th match, the third Test of the historic 1985/86 series against Australia, where Hadlee finished with 33 wickets at 12.15, 20 more than the next best Bob Holland. After taking 15 wickets at Brisbane, Hadlee added another 11 at Perth to help New Zealand to a 2-1 series victory... and attain his career-best rating. It remains their last Test series victory in Australia.
Also read: Richard Hadlee: ‘The most intelligent fast bowler ever’ – Almanack
9. Malcolm Marshall
81 Tests | 376 wickets | 20.94 avg | 22 5WI
Peak rating: 910
Regarded as one of the best fast bowlers of all time, the West Indian legend first reached atop the ICC Test bowling rankings after the Adelaide Test of the 1984/85 series against Australia. A match-haul of 10-107 took West Indies to a 191-run victory. After that game, he never left the top three of the bowling rankings till he retired.
The Adelaide Test was also the first time he touched the 900-point mark. Following a dip to 829 points due to not playing any Test between March 1987 to April 1988, Marshall bounced back and achieved his peak rating of 910 in the space of five Tests, reaching the mark after taking 5-102 across two innings of the Leeds Test against England in July 1988.
Also read: Malcolm Marshall: A fast-bowling supremo in West Indies’ golden era – Almanack
8. Ian Botham
102 Tests | 383 wickets | 28.40 avg | 27 5WI
Peak rating: 911
Botham's bowling record in Tests could be divided into two halves. He had an exceptional start to his bowling career, reaching No.1 by as early as his 11th Test. In his first 41 Tests, he picked up 202 wickets at 21.20. But a steady decline from his initial standards meant his last 61 Tests fetched only 181 wickets at 36.43.
From the time he first reached No.1, in August 1978, Botham enjoyed a two-year stretch at the top that included only one two-week period where he was ranked No.2, and not No.1. It was towards the second half of this stretch that he attained his peak rating of 911, after the Wankhede Test against India in 1980, where he famously took 13 wickets across the two innings (and scored a hundred). The last time he had a rating above 850 was after his 42nd Test, in late 1981, following which the curve took a downward trajectory to finish at a meagre 372 points at the time of his last Test in 1992.
Also read: Ian Botham on fame, rivalry & the DNA of a great all-rounder
=6. Vernon Philander
64 Tests | 224 wickets | 22.32 avg | 13 5WI
Peak rating: 912
Perhaps a slightly surprising entry in this list, Philander formed a deadly trio with Steyn and Morne Morkel, but often went under the radar. The right-arm seamer was at his deadly best in South Africa, where he picked up 146 wickets at 19.08 apiece. No other bowler has taken more than 100 wickets in the country at a sub-20 average.
Philander was ranked No.2 from his 10th Test onwards till his 18th Test. The 19th, against India at Johannesburg in 2013, saw him take the top spot for the first time. In a high-scoring game, his 4-61 in the first innings and 3-68 in the second, also took him to 912 rating points. Only six other bowlers had reached as high till that point. Philander didn't stay at the top for long though. He went from 900 after his 22nd match to 864 after his 23rd, and never recovered to go past 850 again.
=6. Curtly Ambrose
98 Tests | 405 wickets | 20.99 avg | 22 5WI
Peak rating: 912
The start to Ambrose's Test career wasn't the best. He averaged 40 after his first five Tests and 26.87 after 18. In his 19th Test, he took 8-45 in an innings against England, and a match-haul of 10-127, which began his ascent on the ICC ratings. He went from 645 to 727 after this Test. It took him only four more Tests to breach the 800-point mark for the first time.
Ambrose finally entered the 900-club 39 matches into his career, after the Perth Test against Australia in 1993, where he took 7-25 (including his famous spell of 7-1) and 2-54. His peak of 912 came one year later, in the March 1994 Trinidad Test against England where he registered 5-60 and 6-24. The second-innings effort saw England get bowled out for 46 and lose a 194-run chase by 147 runs. He consistently hovered around the 850-point mark for the rest of his career, reaching a lowest of 813 and finishing on 846.
Also read: The summer Curtly Ambrose haunted England batsmen – Almanack
=4. Pat Cummins
71 Tests | 309 wickets | 22.10 avg | 14 5WI
Peak rating: 914
The current Australia Test captain is the fifth-highest-ranked fast bowler of all-time. Having begun as an 18-year-old prodigy, Cummins' second Test came five-and-a-half years after his first. After his comeback, his rise was steep. His ICC Test bowling rating jumped from 447 to 565 before and after his tenth Test, where he took 4-80 and 4-39 against England at the SCG in the 2017-18 Ashes. Between his 12th and 14th Tests, his rating jumped an astonishing 201 points from 599 to 800.
Cummins first breached the 900-point mark after the Lord's Test during the 2019 Ashes, where he took 3-61 and 3-35. This game also took him beyond Ambrose and Philander to 914 points. Among the bowlers in this list, Cummins had a relatively long period at the top, ranked No.1 for three-and-a-half years straight from the start of the 2019 Ashes to the start of the 2023 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India. Currently ranked No.3, Cummins has 838 points to his name after the 2025 West Indies series.
Also read: Pat Cummins named as Wisden’s Leading Cricketer in the World (Men)
=4. Glenn McGrath
124 Tests | 563 wickets | 21.64 avg | 29 5WI
Peak rating: 914
McGrath first attained the top ranking after his 23rd Test, where he took 5-50 and 3-41 against the West Indies. His greatness can be best judged by the fact that the last time he was ranked No.1, was 10 years later, in 2006, after his 119th Test. Incredibly, once McGrath entered the top five, he never dropped out of it.
It did take him a while to breach the 900-point mark, though, only reaching there after his 60th Test, where he took 4-33 and 1-33 against New Zealand in Auckland. His peak of 914 came a year later after the Oval Test in the 2001 Ashes, where he took 2-67 and 5-43. he hit 914 once again in the next Ashes series, after he picked up 2-30 and 2-34 in Perth. After a slight decline, he had another late peak during the 2005 Ashes, which saw him touch 905 points. He finished with 828 points, while being ranked third.
Also read: Glenn McGrath: Relentless, determined and an all-time great – Almanack
3. Imran Khan
88 Tests | 362 wickets | 22.8 avg | 23 5WI
Peak rating: 922
The Pakistan all-rounder is the highest-rated fast bowler in post-War Test cricket history. Imran's career arc followed an opposite trajectory to Botham's. His bowling average went below 30 for the first time after his 27th Test and below 25 for the first time after his 43rd. He averaged 30.01 in his first 30 Tests and 19.28 in his last 58.
Consequently, Imran topped the rankings for the first time only 11 years after his debut, when he took 7-52 and 2-84 against England, in 1982. He then breached 900 points for the first time later that year, after taking 3-19 and 8-60 against India in Karachi. He went from strength to strength through that six-match series, picking up 40 wickets at 13.95 and also reaching a record high of 922. He finished his career as the seventh-ranked bowler, with 724 points.
Also read: Imran Khan: From a fine cavalier to a great cricketer – Almanack
2. George Lohmann
18 Tests | 112 wickets | 10.75 avg | 9 5WI
Peak rating: 931
Lohman has the best bowling average of all-time among bowlers who have picked up more than 100 Test wickets. Interestingly, the English right-arm quick had only taken one wicket in his first two matches, which means from his last 16 Tests, he averaged 10.07, picking up 111 wickets.
Having gone from 822 points to 888 after his 15th Test, where he took a scarcely-believable 7-38 and 8-7 against South Africa at Port Elizabeth in 1896, Lohmann followed it up with even better figures of 9-28 and 3-43 in the second Test in Johannesburg. That 12-wicket haul took him to 931 points, the highest bowling ratings at that point. Unsurprisingly, Lohmann finished his career ranked No.1, with 928 points to his name.
Also read: George Lohmann: ‘An all-round cricketer of no ordinary promise’ – Almanack
1. Syd Barnes
27 Tests | 189 wickets | 16.43 avg | 24 5WI
Peak rating: 932
Barnes' international career lasted between 1901 and 1914, but his first-class career spanned 23 years longer, where he took 719 wickets at 17.09. Widely regarded as one of the best to have played the game, the numbers tell as much of his story as contemporary accounts. No bowler has taken more wickets than him at a better average in Tests, and no one has achieved a higher ICC Test bowling rating.
Also read: Brisk, brusque – and brilliant: 150 years of Sydney Barnes
Barnes reached 900 points for the first time after he took 5-28 and 8-29 against South Africa at the Oval in 1912. He never dropped below 900 after that, with his peak coming after his last Test, against South Africa in Durban. Opening the bowling, he took seven-wicket hauls in either innings, finishing with match figures of 14-144.
Barnes may not make it to the top of the list of best fast bowlers for many around the world, given he played more than a century back, making it difficult to compare quality across eras. But based on ICC's cold, hard numbers, he is the best Test fast bowler the world has seen at any point.
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