Former Indian all-rounder Sanjay Bangar, who also served as Men in Blue’s batting coach, has picked two Indians in his list of the top five bowlers in the world, but there was surprisingly no place for legendary spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, along with Afghanistan superstar Rashid Khan and Australian great Mitchell Starc.
Ashwin is the second Indian bowler to take 500 wickets in Test cricket, whereas Rashid has made a big name for himself in white-ball cricket with his spin bowling. Starc, on the other hand, finished as the leading wicket-taker in the 2015 and 2019 editions of the ODI World Cup and also played a big role in Australia’s ODI World Cup last year.
In his list of top-five bowlers in world cricket, Bangar included Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, along with the Australian duo of Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins. He also picked Kiwi pacer Trent Boult in the list.
“Top five bowlers, one obviously Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami—phenomenal skillset, a work horse. Josh Hazlewood—a guy I highly respect; Pat Cummins as well, somebody’s who has got a big heart and he performs consistently despite coming out of a back injury. Now he is playing consistent cricket, so those four and Trent Boult. I have picked four right-handers and one left-armer, so Trent Boult has to be part of my top-five,” Bangar said on The Rao Podcast.
Bangar, who has been associated with Punjab Kings in the IPL, also explained the reason why he didn’t pick Rashid in his top-five bowlers list.
According to him, “When you think of a question, you think what is the gold standard, and the gold standard is Test cricket. So, all my choices have been as per the gold standard. When you talk about top-five white-ball bowlers, then obviously Rashid Khan would certainly come in.”
The 51-year-old was also asked to pick his top-five batters, and he included Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Joe Root, Steve Smith, and Kane Williamson in the list.
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