Australia legend Glenn McGrath picks his top five ODI bowlers

Former Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath picked his top five ODI bowlers and most of them turned out to be speedsters. McGrath, also known as the Pigeon, picked up 381 wickets in the 50-overs format in a career that spanned 14 years from 1993 to 2007. McGrath is also the all-time leading wicket-taker for the Aussies in ODI cricket and it won’t be easy to overhaul his tally.

As far as his pacers are concerned, he started with the legendary Wasim Akram, the Pakistan pacer, who has 502 wickets to his name. The Sultan of Swing is also the highest wicket-taker for his country in the shorter formats. Then McGrath went for fellow countryman Brett Lee, who has 380 wickets. Lee made his ODI debut in 2000 and played until 2012, ruffling a lot of feathers.

Glenn McGrath makes his picks

Lee was also one of the fastest bowlers of his generation. Lee, along with McGrath, made the ball talk and took down a number of quality batters in their career. McGrath put forth the names while speaking ahead of Australia’s third and final ODI against India on Wednesday, December 2 at the Manuka Oval in Canberra. As his third pacer, McGrath zeroed in on Chaminda Vaas.

Vaas is currently fourth in the list of all-time leading ODI wicket-takers. He was a stalwart for Sri Lanka and also picked up a hat-trick in the first over of the 2003 World Cup match against Habibul Bashar’s Bangladesh. Vaas also played in the 2007 edition of the mega event before last playing in 2008. McGrath’s last choice as the fast bowler was South Africa’s, Shaun Pollock.

Pollock picked up 393 wickets from 303 ODIs, but an economy of 3.67 meant that he was accurate and hardly allowed looseners to the batters. Apart from four pacers, McGrath picked Muttiah Muralitharan as his lone spinner. Murali is currently the all-time leading wicket-taker in ODIs. He is one of the two bowlers to get more than 500 ODI wickets. He had an economy rate of 3.93.

Here’s the list

Wasim Akram- 502 wickets, Muttiah Muralitharan- 534 wickets, Brett Lee- 380 wickets, Chaminda Vaas- 400 wickets, Shaun Pollock- 393 wickets