The year we thought about institutions

The United States (US) may be about to receive a lesson in overconfidence.

- VISHAL MENON

Marrying skill, athleticism, and finesse, Mitchell Starc's bowling is a sight to behold. There is magic in the manner he powers to the crease and flicks the ball with his cocked wrist to generate late swing. One cannot blame Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill for looking like deer caught in the headlights, trying to negotiate Starc's devilish deliveries in the just concluded Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Adelaide.

Watching left-arm quick bowling at full tilt is one of cricket's most ethereal sights. Wasim Akram remains the high priest of left-arm fast bowling, although fans from a different generation may pick Australia's Alan Davidson over the Punjabi from Lahore.

Akram was a wizard who would hustle in from 15 paces to deliver at frightening pace backed by unmatched control over swing and seam. Over the course of nearly two decades, from 1984 to 2003, the "Sultan of Swing" had the impassivity to break a few skulls, even as he perfected the art of reverse swing under Imran Khan's tutelage.

Arguably Pakistan's greatest cricketer, Akram possessed cricketing intelligence to recalibrate his plans spell by spell, over by over, and ball by ball. Simply put, he was a captain's delight and a batter's nightmare.

Davidson, who plied his trade through the 1950s and early 60s, was a bowler with an economical action who could extract copious amounts of swing from the most benign surfaces.

Before Kapil Dev burst on to the national consciousness in 1978, India had a left-arm pacer from Rajkot named Karsan Ghavri. A bowler with a square jawline, lithe frame, and indefatigable spirit, Ghavri was the first Indian pacer to get 100 Test wickets.