There are some days when the main bowlers are unable to stop the opposition from scoring runs, in such situations captain looks toward the part time bowlers for breakthrough.The most recent Indian player that comes to mind after hearing the term part time bowler is Kedar Jadhav. Though Kedar couldn’t prolong his career as much as he would have liked to, he was the ‘Golden Arm’ as he used to provide crucial wickets with his unorthodox bowling action. In this article we will discuss the great part time bowlers who have a very good record.
Sanath Jayasuriya – The Srilankan opener whose swashbuckling batting revolutionized batting in powerplay in ODIs is one such player whose left arm off spin bowling made him an all-rounder. In more than 550 international matches he picked around 450 wickets out of which 323 were in ODIs. Even many great bowlers including Shane Warne do not have 300 wickets in ODIs. He is perhaps the most successful part time bowler till date. Though it would not be wrong to say that he was a proper all-rounder.
Sachin Tendulkar – The ‘God of Cricket’ as said by many of his fans, also has a very impressive bowling record in the international circuit. He was a unique bowler as he used to bowl both off-spin and leg-spin and sometimes even medium pace bowling.He has picked up 200 international wickets. In the initial stages of his career he used to bowl regularly but in the later stages he didn’t bowl otherwise his wickets tally could have easily matched Sanath Jayasuriya.
Shoaib Malik – The Pakistani all- rounder who has played close to 300 ODIs and more than 100 T20i for his country has provided many breakthroughs through his off-spin bowling. He has more than 200 wickets in his name across all the formats with 158 being only in ODIs. His experience over the years make him an asset for a young Pakistani side. In the recently concluded T20 World Cup also he bowled some overs for his team.
Andrew Symonds – The Aussie bloke who was a complete package with his extraordinary fielding skills along with hard hitting batting style also has a good record as a bowler. In 198 ODIs he claimed 133 wickets apart from 24 in tests and 8 in T20s. His bowling style was also unique as sometimes he used to bowl spin and sometimes he used to bowl medium pace. This made him quite a deceptive bowler.
Sourav Ganguly – The current BCCI chairman and former captain of the Indian Cricket Team under whose leadership Indian team achieved new heights and reached 2003 World Cup Final was a great batsman. But his part time bowling skills made him even more useful. His right arm medium pace bowling fetched him 100 wickets in 311 ODIs along with 32 test wickets. Like Sachin he also didn’t bowl in the later stages of his career.
Mohammad Hafeez – Another Pakistani all-rounder who has represented Pakistan in more than 350 matches has overall good bowling figures. His right arm off-break bowling helped him pick up 246 international wickets across the formats. Nicknamed as ‘ Professor’, Hafeez started as an opening batter but struggled to cement his place in the side as a batsman. But his consistency with bowling helped him to secure his position as an all-rounder.
