Breaking down a historic year for Indian pace-bowling

The country’s quicks registered exceptional numbers in 2018. We analyse the data to determine just how good they were and examine why they were so successful

Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah share a light moment

2018 was an outstanding year for Indian fast-bowling. Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav combined to pick up 158 wickets in the 11 overseas Tests India played.

Table 1 shows that this tally is second only to that of the West Indian pace battery in 1980, featuring Joel Garner, Colin Croft, Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall, Andy Roberts and Sylvester Clarke, which picked up 189 wickets in 12 overseas Tests.

Ishant, Shami, Bhuvneshwar and Umesh were also part of the group that grabbed 112 wickets in 2014, ranking 10th in the list.

Table 1: Most pace-bowling wickets in a year overseas

 

Team in Year	Wickets	Away Tests	Average	Strike Rate
West Indies in 1980	189	12	23.5	56.8
India in 2018	158	11	24.81	50.04
West Indies in 1984	156	10	22.7	50.17
West Indies in 1988	152	9	21.39	47.82
South Africa in 2008	149	11	29.13	51.52
West Indies in 1995	125	8	24.83	54.1
South Africa in 2012	121	9	29.21	57.73
West Indies in 1976	120	8	26.58	58.83
England in 1998	112	10	28.71	56.26
India in 2014	112	10	41.26	66.23

 

What’s noteworthy is the Indian bowlers’ strike rate of 50.04 balls per wicket — Table 2 shows it’s the fourth best by any team in any given year (min: eight overseas Tests and 75 wickets taken). Pakistan’s pace line-up of 2002 (Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar, Abdul Razzaq and Mohammad Sami) holds the record.

Table 2: Best pace-bowling strike rates in a year overseas  

Team in Year	Away Tests	Wickets	Strike Rate
Pakistan in 2002	10	98	42.05
Australia in 1997	9	106	46.73
West Indies in 1988	9	152	47.82
India in 2018	11	158	50.04
West Indies in 1984	10	156	50.17

 

Chipping in at home

 

India’s pace attack was not only effective overseas in 2018 (five Tests in England, three each in South Africa and Australia), but was also quite good at home (two Tests against the West Indies and one against Afghanistan).

 

Overall, it picked up 179 wickets in 14 Tests. Only South Africa (222 wickets in 2017) and England (208 wickets in 2005) have managed more. And only South Africa’s 2017 attack did it at a better rate (41.6 balls per wicket) than India’s 47.5, considering a minimum of 150 wickets taken.

Batsmen’s nightmare

Table 3 , which lists aggregated ball-by-ball data obtained from analytics firm Cricket-21 , shines a light on how much trouble India’s pacers caused batsmen in 2018.

In terms of deliveries that led to a wicket or a false shot, or created a wicket-taking opportunity, India was exceptional: almost 29% of its deliveries tracked in 2018, home and away, were of this kind, second only to the West Indies’ 32.36%. But India’s pacers carried more than twice the workload of West Indies and bowled the most such deliveries in absolute terms.

Table 3: Mistakes provoked and chances created (pace attacks in 2018)  

Team	Balls bowled	Mistakes provoked & Chances created	M&C%
West Indies	3885	1257	32.36%
India	8509	2466	28.98%
South Africa	6028	1668	27.67%
Pakistan	4518	1180	26.12%
All Teams	49234	12697	25.79%
England	7438	1916	25.76%
Sri Lanka	4177	1040	24.90%
Bangladesh	1509	340	22.53%
Australia	7026	1563	22.25%
New Zealand	5309	1096	20.64%
Zimbabwe	835	171	20.48%

 

Three Indian pacers — Shami, Bumrah and Ishant — were among the top 10 individual bowlers (min: 1000 balls and 25 wickets) in this category, as Table 4 shows.

Table 4: Mistakes provoked and chances created (fast-bowlers in 2018)  

 

Name	Team	Balls bowled	M&C balls	Wickets	M&C%
Shannon Gabriel	West Indies	1121	404	37	36.04%
Mohammed Shami	India	2301	702	47	30.51%
Jasprit Bumrah	India	2272	680	48	29.93%
Kagiso Rabada	South Africa	1987	592	52	29.79%
Lahiru Kumara	Sri Lanka	1241	355	26	28.61%
Stuart Broad	England	1985	545	35	27.46%
Mohammad Abbas	Pakistan	1351	364	36	26.94%
James Anderson	England	2341	626	43	26.74%
Morne Morkel	South Africa	1131	299	28	26.44%
Ishant Sharma	India	2004	523	41	26.10%

 

Relentless

The trouble India’s pacers caused batsmen can be explained in part by their consistency. They managed to hit a good length the most of all teams — helpful in conditions favouring seam and/or swing bowling. Table 5 , compiled from data shared by Cricket-21 , compares India with all teams.

Table 5: Split-up of pace-bowling lengths in 2018  

Ball	India	All Teams
Good length	61.44%	53.84%
Back of length	16.12%	18.17%
Full/half volley	16.49%	20.61%
Short	4.82%	6.17%
Yorker	0.47%	0.63%
Full toss	0.66%	0.58%

 

Fast and furious

Another thing that discomforts batsmen is pace. India’s bowlers were among the quickest. Cricket-21 data shows that among pacers who bowled at least 125 overs last year, three Indians — Bumrah, Shami and Umesh — were among the 10 pacers with the highest average speeds. In fact, Umesh and Bumrah bowled the fastest deliveries of 2018, at 156.5 kmph and 153 kmph respectively.

Table 6: Fastest bowlers in 2018  

Bowler	Team	Inns	Overs	<=135 kmph	135-145 kmph	>=145 kmph	Fastest (kmph)	Avg. Speed (kmph)
Mitchell Starc	Australia	18	320.3	5.60%	76.90%	17.60%	152	141.5
Shannon Gabriel	West Indies	14	189.2	10.30%	79.50%	10.30%	151	140.6
Bumrah	India	18	379.4	15.80%	80.60%	3.60%	153	139
Kagiso Rabada	South Africa	20	331.1	19.50%	75.30%	5.20%	151	138.8
Pat Cummins	Australia	16	314.1	17.00%	81.30%	1.70%	150	138.4
Lahiru Kumara	Sri Lanka	11	206.5	29.50%	67.00%	3.50%	149	137.6
Shami	India	23	383.5	27.80%	72.10%	0.10%	149	137.2
Morne Morkel	South Africa	12	188.5	32.30%	67.20%	0.50%	149	137
Josh Hazlewood	Australia	16	317.2	31.70%	67.80%	0.50%	146.3	136.6
Umesh	India	10	126.5	31.90%	67.90%	0.40%	156.5	136.5

 

Last word

To sum up, Indian pacers were among the fastest in 2018 and the most consistent. They bowled among the highest proportion of deliveries that induced false shots and created wicket-taking opportunities, and shone both home and away. It is no wonder that their performance in 2018 rates among the best in history.  

Data source: Cricket21 , ESPNCricinfo