London: Legendary England seamer and skipper Bob Willis, who will be forever remembered for Three Lions' historic 1981 Ashes win, passes away at the age of 70 after a short battle with thyroid cancer.
The fearsome pace bowler represented England in 90 Test matches and captained his country between 1982 and 1984.
Willis became a household name among cricket enthusiasts with his most memorable performance taking eight for 43 in the Australian second innings of the third Ashes Test in 1981.
Willis was called in England squad as a late replacement for the injured Alan Ward for Ashes tour in 1970-71 at the age of 21. He played an important role in their famous 2-0 win over arch-rivals Australia.
Willis claimed 325 wickets in 90 Tests matches for England between 1971 to 1984. The cricketer turn commentator is placed at the fourth spot in the list of highest wicket-takers for England in the longest format of the game.
The bowler also played for Surrey and Warwickshire in County cricket. He was nicknamed 'Goose' for his laid back attitude on the crease. However, the cricketer was capable of extreme hostility when it comes to the bowling.
Willis was also the only English pacer to the West Indies and Australian pacer that dominated the world cricket in 1970 and 1980s.
He was named Wisden cricket of the year in 1978 -- seven years after making his debut for England. He later went on to lead England on 18 occasions. He was also the English skipper when the Three Lions famously bounced back in 1982-83 Ashes after getting down to 1-2, they pulled off a remarkable three-run win in the fourth Test at Melbourne to level the series.
He replaced Keith Fletcher as English skipper in the wake of the 1981-82 tour of India and Sri Lanka. Even though Willis inherited a weakened team, he went on to claim nine wickets in his first match in charge, against India, which was played at the Mecca of cricket Lord's. He went on to lead the English side through to the visit of West Indies in 1984. He announced his retirement after the first Test of that summer as his country's leading wicket-taker. At that time, he was also the second-highest wicket-taker in the world, behind Australia's Dennis Lillee.
Later his long-term team-mate Botham surpassed his wicket tally (383). Just a few years back James Anderson (575) and Stuart Broad (471) also went past Willis. And currently, he is placed at the fourth spot in England's highest wicket-taker list.
Willis was also in charge of English team when Kapil Dev-led India thrashed them in 1983 World Cup semi-final at Old Trafford. India went on to win that World Cup by defeating West Indies in the finals.
He bagged 80 wickets in 64 One Day International (ODIs) for England and was part of England squad that lost the 1979 World Cup final against West Indies at Lord's.
He claimed 899 first-class wickets at an average of 24.99 in his 308 appearances.
Talking about his death, Willis' family in a statement said: "We are heartbroken to lose our beloved Bob, who was an incredible husband, father, brother and grandfather. He made a huge impact on everybody he knew and we will miss him terribly."
The former English pace sensation is survived by his wife Lauren, daughter Katie, brother David and sister Ann.
