Hyderabad: Pace, swing, seam -- you name it, and the fast bowlers that come to mind are Dale Steyn, Shoaib Akhtar, and Brett Lee. Steyn, considered one of the greatest in the world, was the fiercest competitor and he could challenge anyone from Sachin Tendulkar to Brian Lara on his heydays. In a chat with ICC, he discussed his five favorite bowlers of the tournament, who can make the impact for their respective teams and can make the ball talk regardless of the surface offered.
Here are the five bowlers:
Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje (South Africa)
Rabada is the leader of the South African attack. I'm hoping South Africa can go on and win this World Cup and him doubling up with Anrich Nortje as my other fast bowler from South Africa, I think the two of them in combination are just fantastic.
They've got great pace, they've got good skill especially in Australia, Rabada seems to up a level whenever he gets to Australia, so I'm looking for that competitive streak to come out of him, and the two of them can go on and help South Africa to win this World Cup.
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Mark Wood (England)
Mark Wood is a favourite of mine from England. I saw him the other night and he said to me he's going to bowl well. I think he's the first fast bowler to bowl all 24 balls in his spell of four overs over 140 kilometres an hour. He didn't look to bowl one slower ball, he’s just absolutely fantastic. He wants to rush batters, bowls a great yorker and a fantastic bouncer, and I think if England are going to go all the way, Mark Wood’s going to take them there.
Mitchell Starc (Australia)
He's just a fantastic fast bowler. He is well experienced here in Australia, has won the World Cup a couple of times - a 50-over World Cup as well as a T20 World Cup with Australia. Heaps of experience again, another big wicket-taker, left-arm, something different, he scares the batters with sheer pace and just through exceptional experience over the years and World Cup-winning medals, he knows how to win tournaments.
Shaheen Afridi (Pakistan)
And my final fast-bowler is Shaheen Shah Afridi, who again is another left-arm quick bowler. We saw him in the previous T20 World Cup and he was just absolutely amazing. He has great skill, does look to swing it back to the right-handers and has got good skill when it comes to the slower ball, a very fast bouncer and again, another guy that Pakistan are going to rely on if they want to beat South Africa to make it through to the semi-finals. Shaheen Shah Afridi's going to be the guy.
