It would be hard to make an argument that the best four bowlers in Australia are anyone but Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon. All four are in Australia’s top 10 Test wicket-takers, the first two closing on 300 scalps and the latter two comfortably past it. Collectively, their tally is 1443.
Since they first combined in the 2017-18 Ashes they have played 31 Tests together, by far an international record for any frontline quartet. Even with injuries and changed configurations in touring conditions, that makes almost half of Australia’s 64 Tests in that period, including 23 of 36 at home.
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And that includes the last nine Tests hosting India, across three series. Mitchell Marsh is the only other Australian bowler in those matches to take an Indian wicket. But in a country where India struggled for decades, against an all-time bowling attack, Australia have won two of those nine Tests. Five losses, two draws, which equals two series to India along with a 1-0 lead in the third.
It’s a strange one. This season’s loss at Perth can be blamed on the batting and there are others in this sequence where the specialists didn’t give their bowlers enough rest. Some of the bowling numbers across these matches are outstanding: Hazlewood with 35 wickets at 22, Cummins 38 at 25. Even in the losses and draws they have held their averages in the 20s. Starc and Lyon are more the issue, averaging 38 and 39 respectively, and both up to almost 47 in the matches Australia didn’t win.
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