Best Bowler in the World: Current No.1s, Formats & Data

One line, straight up: the world no 1 bowler changes as series finish and tournaments roll, but at the time of writing the ICC lists are led by Jasprit Bumrah in Tests, Keshav Maharaj in ODIs, and Adil Rashid in T20Is. Rankings move. Form surges and dips. Context does the rest.

That reality is the heartbeat of this guide. “Best bowler in the world” isn’t a single crown. It splits by format, by skill type, by conditions, sometimes by the very phase of the game. The label means different things for a Test grind at Lord’s, a new-ball burst at Centurion, a white-ball powerplay in Colombo, or a knuckle-ball chess match at the Wankhede in the last two overs. Data must meet eyes, and the eyes must be trained.

What follows is the blueprint I use as a professional analyst: a living, evidence-backed evaluation that blends ICC rankings, deep stats, and what can’t be captured by columns alone—tactical nuance, matchup value, clutch spells, and those days when a bowler simply bends a game to their will.

How We Decide the Best Bowler in the World: Transparent, Repeatable, Unromantic

Great bowlers need romance. Rankings need rules. I use a weighted model that I refresh with every major series. It doesn’t replace watching—it sharpens it.

Core pillars of the model:

• Ranking points: ICC rankings as a baseline for form and consistency.
• Wickets and averages: Raw output matters, but only with context.
• Strike rate and economy: How quickly are breakthroughs made and how much damage is contained.
• Quality of opposition: Extra weight for wickets against top-seven teams and in knockout or fifth-day pressure.
• Home vs away: True world-beaters carry threat on roads as well as at home.
• Role-based impact: New-ball incisors, middle-overs stranglers, death specialists, red-ball marathoners.
• Recent form window: Last 12–18 months weighted higher than career numbers.
• Availability and workload: Durability counts; a bowler unavailable is a bowler not influencing results.
• Match-winning spells: Series-changing spells receive a clutch bonus.

I align the raw metrics with the visual evidence: seam presentation, repeatability, deception, field manipulation, changes of pace, and the mental tempo a bowler can enforce. The model’s aim is not to be perfect; it’s to be fair, and honest about uncertainty.

Top 10 Bowlers in the World Right Now

This list is format-agnostic and form-weighted. It accounts for skill distribution and the reality that different formats ask different questions. Positions are close; the edges are razor-thin.

1. Jasprit Bumrah (India, pace)
   The wicket-taking threat that refuses to leak. A rare combination of upright seam precision, heavy length, deceptive pace off the deck, and surgical death bowling. Red ball or white ball, Bumrah is a control freak in a chaos engine’s body. Best death bowler T20? He’s in that conversation on any day.

2. Pat Cummins (Australia, pace)
   Relentless. Classical high release, hit-the-deck awkwardness, and a tactical edge that’s sharpened by leadership. Cummins is the bowler captains dream about bowling with a reversing ball on a tired day five and with a new one under lights.

3. Rashid Khan (Afghanistan, leg spin)
   The most valuable T20 bowler of his generation, and a white-ball weapon who skews matchups at team selection. The slider is a scalpel, the googly is silent thunder, and his pace through the air reduces risk for batters who try to step out.

4. Mitchell Starc (Australia, left-arm pace)
   Brutal with a new ball swinging at the stumps, savage with a full length at high pace, and game-breaking in knockout pressure. When he bowls full and straight, pads and timbers tremble.

5. Kagiso Rabada (South Africa, pace)
   All conditions, all formats excellence. Rabada’s wrist position at release is textbook; the late movement is stubborn. In Tests, he nicks off lineups. In ODIs, he bends the innings at the first drinks break.

6. Trent Boult (New Zealand, left-arm swing)
   Left-arm angle, hooping swing, and unerring control of full length. White-ball openers build careers around surviving his first three overs. Still one of the best swing bowlers in the world.

7. Ravichandran Ashwin (India, off spin)
   In Tests, a grandmaster. Manipulates angles, tempts with loop, steals with the drift, and closes the trap with subtle changes of pace and seam axis. Better away than the clichés suggest.

8. Josh Hazlewood (Australia, pace)
   Method and metronome. Seam upright, length unbudging, line slightly subtler than the television graphic shows. In T20, his hard length on a back-of-a-length field is elite, and his powerplay economy is gold.

9. Shaheen Afridi (Pakistan, left-arm pace)
   Gets you early. Shaheen’s inswinger to the right-hander is a first-over tax, and his upright seam becomes bothersome in any format. Add a yorker that hunts toes, and you have a highlight reel spanning leagues and international.

10. Kuldeep Yadav (India, left-arm wrist spin)
    The reinvention is real. Pace through the air tuned up, release more compact, drift wider from over the wicket. Left-arm wrist spin is high variance by nature; Kuldeep has found a dependable repeat.

Best Test Bowler in the World: Red‑Ball Masters

What does “best Test bowler in the world” look like in practice? A bowler who can work a batter out over six overs without panic. One who sets fields that make sense two balls ahead. Someone who doesn’t need help—who is help.

Jasprit Bumrah

The gold standard for away menace right now. Think of the wobble-seam length outside off that looks innocuous and somehow keeps squaring batters up. Watch closely: he uses stride length to change release point by inches, not feet, and that small tweak resets the angle. Bumrah’s spells don’t just take wickets; they drag run rates through gravel.

Kagiso Rabada

An away series with him is an away series where your best batter’s off stump begins to feel lonely. He can find the shoulder on any pitch; when it reverses, he goes at the base. You can build an inning around surviving him; it’s still a plan, not a promise.

Pat Cummins

His length is “just” back of good, which is a lie. His best ball lifts late, not steep; batters don’t expect that subtle glide. He’s also a master at holding a field to his plan: two catchers in the cordon, a squarer gully, midwicket open inviting the clip off the hip—bait for the one that climbs and closes the face.

Ravichandran Ashwin

He is his own analysis department. From around the wicket to the right-hander, he aims at middle and makes the ball aim elsewhere. He’ll bowl a carrom ball into the wind to hold it in the air a heartbeat longer, then go quicker with the seam angled for dip. Test batting is a thesis; Ashwin is peer review.

Nathan Lyon

The overspin merchant. Lyon’s greatest weapon is not turn—it’s bounce. He measures out of hand to hit the splice, over and over, and he forces errors by making the inside edge feel like a viable escape. In fourth innings, he hunts.

Other names worth the whisper in any dressing room: Mohammed Shami’s seam-bowling clinic, James Anderson’s age-defying mastery of the nip-back length, and Matt Henry’s disciplined heavy length away from home that never seems to lose its cutting edge.

Best ODI Bowler in the World: Control and Breakthroughs

ODI bowling rewards those who attack early, absorb in the middle, and sting late. The best ODI bowler in the world treads that line with a bag of variations and the patience of a saint.

• Trent Boult: Powerplay artist. Full and straight with late bend, his outswinger to left-handers feels almost unfair. He builds three-over storms. If you paid money to watch a new ball talk, Boult is your show.

• Jasprit Bumrah: New ball in, old ball in, middle overs suffocation. ODI spells from him feel like drinks breaks came early.

• Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood: Together, they are complementary violence and denial. Starc hunts the base of middle; Hazlewood sits on fourth stump. One drains your confidence; the other drains your patience.

• Kuldeep Yadav: Wrist spin in the middle overs is ODI gold. Kuldeep’s success is a case study in tempo: the faster pace in through the air removed easy sweeps and forced batters square, where the leg slip lurks.

• Keshav Maharaj: A quiet killer of ODI innings. He bowls into the pitch with a slow rev rate that looks hittable and isn’t. The one that holds in the surface is his version of an inswinger.

• Mohammed Siraj: When the seam kisses at 140 clicks with that natural in-shape, he becomes a powerplay nightmare. His ODI peaks include spells where the slip cordon becomes a magnet.

Best T20 Bowler in the World and Best Death Bowler T20

T20 bowling is an exam you sit every six balls. Plans must refresh in real time. You are the spell and the damage control at once.

• Rashid Khan: Best T20 bowler in the world? It is difficult to pick anyone else. The ghost of his googly, delivered at pace, makes you play down the wrong line. His control of length under pressure is unmatched. He bowls his best balls when batters think they have to hit.

• Adil Rashid: Leg spin with game management. He runs the middle overs like a CFO: nothing lavish, everything measured, but just when you get comfortable, the big googly for a set batter. England learnt long ago that his overs shape chases, not just totals.

• Jasprit Bumrah: Best death bowler T20—this is his throne. The pre-ball routine slows the moment down for him, not the batter. The yorker is the headline, but the off-pace back-of-a-length ball is the knife. When batters pick lengths early, he throws seam-based deception at them.

• Shaheen Afridi: A T20 powerplay should belong to the left-arm angle. For Shaheen, it does. The first over is a lottery you don’t want to enter. And later, the yorker is hard-earned: when he nails it, you hear stumps.

• Mujeeb Ur Rahman: The knuckleball offspinner who everyone calls a mystery bowler and yet can’t solve. The carrom variation at the top of the innings makes slog-sweeps feel like a bad bet.

• Sunil Narine: As an opener with the bat he reinvented himself again, but with the ball, when used in small stints across phases, he still bends scoring charts with control and drift that looks like a trick of the light.

• Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah: Two ends of the same threat. Rauf’s top speed and hard length scald at the death; Naseem’s seam and smarts torture in the powerplay.

Best Women Bowler in the World: ODI and T20I

Men and women’s cricket must be discussed with equal seriousness. The patterns differ; the brilliance does not.

• Sophie Ecclestone (England, left-arm orthodox): The north star of the women’s game with the ball. Left-arm angle, relentless accuracy, and subtle flight that forces mistakes rather than chases them. Whether defending small totals or holding in the middle, she shapes outcomes.

• Ashleigh Gardner (Australia, off spin/all-round): The ODI and T20I balance piece every captain dreams of. She bowls the kind of off spin that keeps batters second-guessing lengths. Her handy pace off the hand allows her to hit hard lengths that are awkward to hit down the ground.

• Amelia Kerr (New Zealand, leg spin/all-round): A leg spinner with touch and nerve, and the batting chops to win matches. Her best spells come when batters go after her—she uses that aggression against them, changing line to the big boundary and finding dip late.

• Megan Schutt (Australia, pace): A powerplay squeezer. She reads batters well and gets the ball to wobble late. The knuckleball shows up at the end like a bad surprise.

• Deepti Sharma (India, off spin/all-round): The control merchant. A captain’s over when the chase is at a simmer. She holds a line into the pitch and dares batters to overhit with the spin.

• Shabnim Ismail (South Africa, pace): A pace pedigree that terrified batting lineups and changed games with spells of hostility. The legacy is secure; the blueprint for fast bowling in women’s cricket carries her stamp.

Best Bowler in IPL and Best Bowler in PSL/BBL/CPL

League contexts deserve their own tiers. Pitch behavior changes, boundary sizes vary, pressure is condensed. For the Indian Premier League and other big leagues:

Best bowler in IPL history

• Yuzvendra Chahal sits atop the most wickets chart. It isn’t an accident. His leg spin, when supported by captains willing to keep a slip for a while, has turned middles of innings into minefields.

• Lasith Malinga is the archetype: the yorker factory that made death overs a theater with one star.

• Dwayne Bravo, a T20 savant, turned slower balls into an economy lever, and his variations aged better than pace.

• Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave lessons on swing with the new ball and wiles with the old.

• Jasprit Bumrah’s economy plus strike rate combination in IPL is the template for modern pace excellence: wickets without leaks.

Best death bowler in IPL

• Bumrah leads this conversation, with Malinga as the historic touchstone, and Mohit Sharma’s late-career reinvention reminding everyone that clarity can beat pace at the death.

• Others to study: Rashid Khan’s phase flexibility, Harshal Patel’s change-ups and fields, and Sunil Narine’s layered tempos.

Best bowler in PSL

• Shaheen Afridi’s new-ball spells change chase mathematics; Haris Rauf turns death overs into coin flips; Rashid Khan’s cameo seasons press the brakes in the middle. Shadab Khan’s leg spin and match sense earn big points in that environment.

In BBL/CPL

• Adam Zampa, Jhye Richardson, and Rashid Khan have stamped their presence in BBL with plans that travel from Adelaide to Melbourne with no loss of sting.

• Sunil Narine and Dwayne Bravo are CPL royalty; Alzarri Joseph’s pace days in St. Lucia have been must-watch for any analyst charting release points and late dip.

Best Fast Bowler in the World vs Best Spin Bowler in the World

The question splinters. Fast bowling at its peak controls the vertical plane—bounce, chest-high life, the late tail. Spin bowling at its peak controls air and time—dip, drift, and the possibility of both sides of the bat being a chance.

Best fast bowler in the world

• Jasprit Bumrah for completeness and versatility

• Pat Cummins for red-ball dominance and control under pressure

• Mitchell Starc for high-leverage white-ball spells that delete top orders

• Shaheen Afridi for angle and inswing at pace

• Kagiso Rabada for the all-format any-surface guarantee

Best spin bowler in the world

• Ravichandran Ashwin and Nathan Lyon for red-ball mastery

• Rashid Khan for white-ball strangle power

• Kuldeep Yadav for ODI middle-overs incision

• Adil Rashid for setting T20 games up in the middle when batters expect a breather

Skill Spotlights: Best Swing Bowler, Best Yorker Bowler, Best Leg Spinner, Best Off Spinner, Best Left‑Arm Fast Bowler

Best swing bowler in the world

• Trent Boult is the clear flag-bearer in white-ball powerplays.

• Tim Southee’s subtle seam and late shape still draw false shots, particularly in the channel.

• Mohammed Shami’s upright seam with late nip in the red-ball format is a batsman’s private dread

• Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s spellcraft remains a template for coaching swing without excessive pace.

Best yorker bowler

• Lasith Malinga’s legacy lives on; he taught the modern generation, including Jasprit Bumrah, to attack the feet under floodlights.

• Currently, Bumrah’s ability to alternate between the yorker and a hit-the-splice length without telegraphing is unmatched.

• Shaheen Afridi’s left-arm yorker at the base of leg stump is a demolition tool;

• Mitchell Starc’s left-arm angle at high pace compounds the difficulty.

• Jofra Archer, when fit, delivers yorkers and a brutish bouncer platform off the same action.

Best leg spinner in the world

• Rashid Khan sits atop.

• Adil Rashid is the steadiest white-ball alternative.

• Kuldeep Yadav, a left-arm leg spinner by classification, has built a middle-overs attack blueprint.

• Adam Zampa’s success is a lesson in control of pace and length with good boundary-side fields.

Best off spinner in the world

• Ravichandran Ashwin’s variations and Lyon’s overspin define Test off spin.

• Moeen Ali’s white-ball overs remain high-utility when used aggressively with fields that match drift and dip patterns.

• In women’s cricket, Deepti Sharma and Ashleigh Gardner demonstrate different versions of off spin that can dominate.

Best left-arm fast bowler

• Mitchell Starc, Trent Boult, and Shaheen Afridi are the trilogy.

• Starc brings raw pace and late swing at the base,

• Boult offers peerless shape and control,

• Shaheen brings the new-ball event each innings seeks to avoid.

Records and All‑Time Touchstones: Highest Wicket Takers, Best Averages, Strike Rates, Best Bowling Figures

Records don’t end the argument; they frame it. Here are the anchors.

All-time wicket leaders (men):

• Tests: Muttiah Muralitharan sits at the summit with 800 wickets, followed by Shane Warne at 708. James Anderson and Anil Kumble sit alongside as the other two in the 600-plus club. Anderson’s longevity and skill evolution deserve their own monograph.

• ODIs: Muralitharan again leads with 534. Wasim Akram follows with 502; Waqar Younis, Chaminda Vaas, and Shahid Afridi form the core behind them.

• T20Is: The leaderboard is fluid by nature, but Tim Southee, Shakib Al Hasan, and Rashid Khan have stood in podium positions through multiple updates, with movement each international cycle.

Best bowling figures highlights:

• Tests: Jim Laker and Anil Kumble’s twin ten-fors are where folklore meets scorecard. Ajaz Patel joined that exclusive club with a 10 in an innings masterclass on a wearing track that rewarded bravery through the air.

• ODIs: Chaminda Vaas’ 8 for 19 stands as a specter over top orders that remember his spell-shaping outswing and clever use of the angle.

• T20Is: Six-fors are very hard to come by in four-over spells; a handful of bowlers have touched those heights, with elite economy to match on those days.

Best bowling average and strike rate:

• Tests: Malcolm Marshall’s average stands among the finest for bowlers of significant volume. Among contemporaries, the elite red-ball group sits in that 20s-to-low-30s range depending on role and surface splits—small differences over long careers matter.

• ODIs: Joel Garner’s ODI numbers remain a monument to control and intimidation. Among modern bowlers, those whose strike rate drops while economy stays sub-five are rare and treasured.

• T20Is: The best combine a strike rate under 18 with economy under seven across long samples—this is near unicorn territory; Rashid Khan’s prime numbers do this. Bumrah’s league numbers rival that standard over massive workloads.

Muralitharan vs Warne: The Best Bowler in Cricket History?

This debate is best enjoyed, not “won”.

Muralitharan’s case:

• Volume and versatility. Different doosras, different loops, different speeds. He adapted to laws and scrutiny and still found paths to wickets. On the last two days in Galle, he looked eight feet tall; yet look at spells abroad where he used drift more than turn to take outside edges. Captains built entire team shapes around his 30 over days.

Warne’s case:

• Revival and artistry. The flipper that didn’t bounce as it should, the leg-break that ripped the paint off the pitch, the bluff that had batters sweeping at shadows. Warne made captains braver; he made slip fields an act of faith that paid off. Away series, against the best, with the chatter on—he grew.

The wise conclusion: both are the best bowler in the world, depending on the wicket in front of you and the match story you want to write. That is the beauty of cricket’s plurality.

Player Comparisons: Bumrah vs Starc vs Shaheen

Bumrah vs Starc:

• Bumrah is a tactician’s fast bowler who can win a match in the last four overs without requiring a meltdown from the batting side. He takes length away at will. Starc is a knockout bowler whose best new-ball overs decapitate the run chase. When swinging full, his threat to the stumps is unmatched. If you must defend 10 in the last over, you want Bumrah; if you need two wickets in the first over, you want Starc.

Bumrah vs Shaheen:

• Both have lethal yorkers; the difference is angle and release. Bumrah’s comes from a steeper, slightly wider release, often zeroing in on middle-and-leg. Shaheen’s angle is more across and then in, hunting the base of leg. Early in the innings, Shaheen’s ball is the more dramatic; late in the innings, Bumrah’s is the more programmable.

Starc vs Shaheen:

• Similarities in silhouette, different in cue timing. Starc telegraphs less and releases later; Shaheen’s seam is supremely upright and allows for later indrift. Both are left-arm pace spectacles; captains sleep better knowing they are fit.

Best Test/ODI/T20 Bowler: What the Numbers and the Eyes Agree On

• Best Test bowler in the world: Jasprit Bumrah is the current standard, with Rabada and Cummins within touching distance depending on surface and series. On turning tracks, Ashwin sits in the same room as the pacers. On flat decks, Bumrah’s ability to extract life off a good length separates him.

• Best ODI bowler in the world: The mix shifts with tournament workloads. Boult and Bumrah are fixed points, Starc surges when new balls talk, and Kuldeep cracks games in the middle. Keshav Maharaj’s ODI economy and control render him a top-tier ODI bowler even without fast-bowler theatrics.

• Best T20 bowler in the world: Rashid Khan retains the mantle for phase flexibility and wicket-taking threat without surrendering economy. Bumrah is the best T20 death bowler; Adil Rashid’s T20I impact remains high; Shaheen in powerplays demands a plan you might not have.

Best Bowler in India, Pakistan, Australia, England

• India: Jasprit Bumrah for the complete package across formats. Ravichandran Ashwin in Tests is a giant. Kuldeep Yadav is now a confirmed ODI match-winner, and Mohammed Shami remains a seam machine any day the surface offers 1 percent help.

• Pakistan: Shaheen Afridi’s first over is a national event; Naseem Shah’s seam makes cricket lovers feel young; Haris Rauf turns T20 death overs into survival episodes. Shadab Khan’s leadership of leg spin is a key piece.

• Australia: Pat Cummins defines the red ball; Mitchell Starc is the white-ball hunter; Josh Hazlewood is the platform everything else stands on. Adam Zampa is a modern white-ball leg spinner whose standard keeps climbing.

• England: James Anderson’s longevity and skill evolution are historic. Jofra Archer, when his body allows, redefines speed excellence. Adil Rashid holds the line for T20 and ODI middle overs; Mark Wood’s top-end pace is theater and threat.

Tactical Notes From the Trenches: Little Things the Best Do

• Watch Bumrah’s heel tap before run-up—he calibrates tempo like a golfer with a pre-shot routine. The “no-run-up ball” occasionally appears as a disruptor.

• Rashid Khan changes the seam orientation for the slider late in the gather; it looks the same from the hand if you aren’t tracking his wrist tilt.

• Ashwin bowls against the breeze deliberately to extract extra drift; on that line, he sets a short midwicket for the misread-on-the-dip clip.

• Starc’s bouncer hides behind the fear of the yorker; batters pre-commit forward. When he pulls length back, gloves come into play.

• Boult’s outswinger to the left-hander is bowled to a 6–3 off-side field with a deep square leg. He dares the paddle and guards the inside edge.

A Short, Useful Comparison Table

Player	Format strength	Core weapon	Role fit	What the numbers say
Jasprit Bumrah	Test/ODI/T20	Wobble seam + yorker	New ball + death	Elite strike rate and economy across phases; high impact vs top teams
Pat Cummins	Test/ODI	Heavy length + late lift	Long spells + new ball	Exceptional average and SR in Tests away and at home
Rashid Khan	T20/ODI	Googly + pace through air	Middle overs + late	Sub-7 economy in leagues with high wickets; phase flexibility
Mitchell Starc	ODI/T20	Full inswinger + yorker	Powerplay + death	Tournament spikes with new ball wickets; high clutch index
Kagiso Rabada	Test/ODI	Seam + bounce	Strike spells across day	Consistent SR against top 7 teams; strong away record
Trent Boult	ODI/T20	Swing at the stumps	Powerplay specialist	Powerplay wickets per game among the best
R Ashwin	Test	Drift + dip + guile	Middle-long spells	Five-fors stacked across venues; match-winning at home, impactful away
Josh Hazlewood	Test/T20	Metronomic seam	Powerplay + middle	Rare combination of control and wickets in T20 powerplays
Shaheen Afridi	ODI/T20	Left-arm angle + inswing	First over + death	High proportion of wickets in first two overs
Kuldeep Yadav	ODI/T20	Wrong’un drift	Middle overs	Wickets per 10 overs among the best since tactical tweak

Best Bowler in Cricket History: Build Your All‑Time XI Attack

The all-time XI argument gives us the luxury of mixing eras. If you’re picking a four-strong attack:

• New-ball pair: Wasim Akram and Glenn McGrath. Wasim gives you shape and invention; McGrath gives you control and relentlessness.

• Spinner: Muttiah Muralitharan or Shane Warne; pick for match-up and pitch. On a dustbowl, Murali’s variations feel infinite; on a firmer track with bounce, Warne’s overspin and drift offer wicket options all day.

• Enforcer: Malcolm Marshall or Dennis Lillee, depending on your taste for controlled hostility vs brutal intensity. If you need left-arm variety, Mitchell Starc offers white-ball finishing and red-ball threat.

And if you allow five: add Richard Hadlee for seam mastery and batting depth, or Curtly Ambrose for that heavy length that never got old.

Who Is the Fastest Bowler in the World? Who Has the Best Yorker?

Speed guns change; fear in batters’ eyes is timeless. Shoaib Akhtar’s top-end pace lit the path; Brett Lee and Shaun Tait stared down limits. Today, the serious heat comes from Mark Wood, Haris Rauf, and Jofra Archer when the body allows. Raw pace alone doesn’t equal “best”. A fast bowler who lands it where it hurts, over and over, is priceless.

For yorkers, the crown passed from Waqar to Malinga, and in the modern era sits most comfortably with Bumrah, with Shaheen Afridi and Mitchell Starc flanking him. What separates the very best yorker bowlers isn’t just accuracy; it’s their ability to hide it until the last frame of the release.

Most Economical T20 Bowlers: Why “Dots Per Over” Beats “Economy Alone”

A T20 economy under seven looks beautiful; context makes it truthful. Prime Sunil Narine and Rashid Khan combine high dot-ball percentages with wicket-taking. Bumrah’s dots per over at the death in big leagues are often the true match lever. Build your analysis not around economy alone, but around dots, false shots induced, and phase-specific economy.

Best Young Bowlers: The Next Wave

Watch these for the next phase:

• Naseem Shah: Red-ball seam artist learning the white-ball rhythm faster than rivals expect.

• Marco Jansen: Left-arm height and bounce with a developing new-ball shape; dangerous across formats.

• Reece Topley: When fit, offers awkward bounce with left-arm angle; white-ball overs are full of questions.

• Matheesha Pathirana: Slingshot release, pace off variations, and a temperament that embraces the death. A Malinga-school graduate with his own notes.

Best by Skill Type: A Quick Reference

• Best death bowler T20: Jasprit Bumrah; honorable mentions: Shaheen Afridi, Mitchell Starc, Haris Rauf.

• Best swing bowler: Trent Boult; honorable mentions: Tim Southee, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

• Best leg spinner: Rashid Khan; honorable mentions: Adil Rashid, Adam Zampa, Kuldeep Yadav.

• Best off spinner: Ravichandran Ashwin (Tests), Sophie Ecclestone (women’s white-ball as a left-arm analogue with similar match control), Nathan Lyon (Tests).

• Best left-arm fast bowler: Mitchell Starc and Shaheen Afridi; Trent Boult in white-ball settings is a force of nature.

How to Use Rankings Without Being Ruled by Them

ICC bowling rankings are the official ledger. They adjust for opposition and match status, and they’re updated with cadence. Use them to know who is hot. But the best bowler in the world for the pitch you’re about to play on might be someone else. On a low, slow surface, a high-ranked pace bowler can be neutralized and a canny spinner becomes an apex predator. In a cold morning session with overheads, a swing bowler with the new ball can be more valuable than a leg spinner with a higher ranking.

When you build your own assessment, do what teams do:

• Split by format and role.
• Note the phase where a bowler adds the most net runs saved vs average replacement.
• Map performance against top-7 teams.
• Chart last 10 innings with wicket value (top order vs tail).
• Tag home/away and pitch type.

Best Bowler in the World: The Human Factor

Stats explain a lot. The very best bowlers add things we whisper about later.

• Presence: You feel it at the top of the mark. Small pauses, deliberate breath, fielders taking half steps in. Great bowlers manage the tempo between balls. They set the next delivery with the walk back, not just the run-in.

• Adaptation: Bumrah returned from injury with a slightly shorter run and the same whip; Ashwin’s bag of tricks changes each series; Starc keeps nudging his wrist position for late tail. Good bowlers repeat; great bowlers refresh.

• Field craft: The field tells you the plan. Two slips and a short mid-on? Expect the ugly drag into the on side and the one that straightens. Deep third fine and point up? Expect the hard length with a fence behind a jammed cut.

• Resilience: The over after a boundary is the best bowler’s showcase. Dot, dot, soft single, dot, false shot, and now the batter wants a release. That’s when the change-up appears.

Best Bowler in IPL vs International Cricket: Why It Can Differ

In the IPL, matchups are tighter, data is denser, and boundaries are closer. Bowlers thrive by being specialists; captains milk their best two overs in the exact spots where opponent weakness lies. International cricket asks for touring resilience, big-spell endurance, the ability to bowl the fifth over of the day with as much clarity as the first.

That’s why a bowler like Bumrah translates across both with rare fidelity, while some exceptional league performers barge through tournaments without quite capturing the same rhythm in Tests. It isn’t a criticism; it’s the nature of the jobs.

Country-by-Country Bests: A Snapshot

• India: Bumrah (all-format), Ashwin (Tests), Kuldeep (ODIs/T20 in middle overs).

• Pakistan: Shaheen (new ball), Shadab (leg spin utility), Haris Rauf (death).

• Australia: Cummins (Tests), Starc (ODI/T20 new ball and death), Hazlewood (T20 powerplay and Test steadiness), Zampa (white-ball leg spin).

• England: Anderson (Tests), Adil Rashid (white-ball middle overs), Archer (pace with X-factor), Mark Wood (extreme pace).

• New Zealand: Boult (white-ball), Matt Henry (red-ball outswing and hustle), Tim Southee (skill longevity).

• Afghanistan: Rashid Khan (all white-ball contexts), Mujeeb (powerplay spin).

• South Africa: Rabada (all-format spearhead), Anrich Nortje (pace), Keshav Maharaj (ODI control).

• Sri Lanka: Wanindu Hasaranga (white-ball leg spin authority), Dilshan Madushanka as a left-arm pace riser.

• Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan (all-format utility in spin), Mustafizur Rahman (cutters under lights).

• Women’s game: Ecclestone (England), Schutt (Australia), Gardner (Australia), Kerr (New Zealand), Deepti Sharma (India), Khaka (South Africa).

What Users Usually Mean by “Best Bowler in the World”

This matters because intent shapes answers:

• “Who is the no 1 bowler in the world”: they want the ICC ranking leader per format, now.

• “Best test bowler in the world” or “best t20 bowler in the world”: they want form plus proof.

• “Best bowler in ipl” or “purple cap winners list”: they want historical leaders and current form.

• “Best women bowler in the world”: they want parity coverage, not a footnote.

• “Best swing bowler,” “best yorker bowler,” “best death bowler t20”: they want tactic-first, role-specific expertise.

A Working Definition You Can Trust

The best bowler in the world is the one who:

• Plays and excels across more than one condition set;
• Mixes wicket-taking with run prevention, not one or the other;
• Beats top batters more often than tailenders;
• Is trusted at the game’s hinges—first spell, before lunch; last over of a chase; fourth-innings trial;
• Has a plan you can write down and a gear you can’t explain.

Short Answers to Big‑Traffic Questions

• Who is the no 1 bowler in the world?
  At the time of writing: Jasprit Bumrah (Tests), Keshav Maharaj (ODIs), Adil Rashid (T20Is), per ICC rankings. These change frequently; check the ICC site for live tables.

• Who is the best Test bowler right now?
  Bumrah holds the edge for away series impact and strike rate against top teams, with Cummins, Rabada, and Ashwin forming the chasing pack.

• Who is the best T20 death bowler?
  Jasprit Bumrah, with the most reliable yorker-change-up pairing and superior dot-ball control under pressure. Shaheen and Starc are right behind in different match states.

• Who has the most wickets in Test/ODI/T20I?
  Tests: Muttiah Muralitharan leads. ODIs: Muralitharan leads. T20I leaders have rotated among Tim Southee, Shakib Al Hasan, and Rashid Khan.

• Who is the fastest bowler in the world?
  In pure pace terms across recent seasons, Mark Wood, Haris Rauf, and Jofra Archer set the speed traps alight when fit.

• Which bowler has the best yorker?
  Lasith Malinga is the gold standard historically; today, Jasprit Bumrah’s yorker at the death is the most bankable.

• Who is the best bowler in IPL history?
  Yuzvendra Chahal leads the wickets chart; Lasith Malinga and Dwayne Bravo define the death overs era; Jasprit Bumrah defines modern economy-plus-strike.

The Final Over: Why Greatness Travellers

A bowler is more than a stat and more than a vibe. The best bowler in the world at any moment is both: a set of numbers you can defend and a presence you can feel. Bumrah crouches at the start of his run. Rashid flares his fingers in the gather. Starc spins the ball in his palm, eyes on middle stump. Ashwin glances at the breeze. Rabada looks past the batter.

On a good day for batters, they still find a way to make you play at a ball you had no business touching. On great days, they write the scorecard as if no one else were on the field. That is what separates a ranking from a legacy. That is why the argument never ends—and why it’s worth having, again and again, every time a new ball is shined and handed to the right pair of hands.