There is a familiar thought that comes to mind whenever I see a T20 side having trouble with a right-handed opening pair. The answer, in my view, is to have a left-arm quick in the ranks.
It is something of a rarity and yet the one kind of bowler every T20 captain covets. In many ways the angle does the heavy lifting for you before the bowler has to put any real artistry into the delivery.
We will examine why left-arm seam is so prized in this format and profile the bowlers who have racked up the most wickets in T20Is as a result.
Most T20I Wickets by Left Arm Fast Bowlers
| Player | Inns | Wkts | BBI | Avg | Econ | SR | 5W |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mustafizur Rahman (BAN) | 129 | 163 | 6/10 | 21.14 | 7.38 | 17.1 | 2 |
| Arshdeep Singh (IND) | 93 | 141 | 5/51 | 20.02 | 8.52 | 14.0 | 1 |
| Shaheen Shah Afridi (PAK) | 103 | 136 | 4/22 | 21.35 | 7.83 | 16.3 | 0 |
| Richard Ngarava (ZIM) | 96 | 124 | 4/16 | 20.79 | 7.45 | 16.7 | 0 |
| Bilal Khan (OMA) | 78 | 110 | 4/19 | 17.44 | 6.78 | 15.4 | 0 |
| Imran Anwar (BHR) | 105 | 97 | 4/24 | 23.68 | 7.38 | 19.2 | 0 |
| Dinesh Nakrani (UGA) | 76 | 96 | 6/7 | 15.29 | 5.68 | 16.1 | 2 |
| Joshua Little (IRE) | 76 | 85 | 4/23 | 25.15 | 7.58 | 19.9 | 0 |
| Lucas Oluoch (KENYA) | 79 | 85 | 5/20 | 19.52 | 7.15 | 16.3 | 1 |
| Trent Boult (NZ) | 61 | 83 | 4/13 | 21.43 | 7.68 | 16.7 | 0 |
| Mitchell Starc (AUS) | 65 | 79 | 4/20 | 23.81 | 7.74 | 18.4 | 0 |
| JJ Smit (NAM) | 58 | 78 | 6/10 | 17.88 | 7.06 | 15.1 | 1 |
| Sam Curran (ENG) | 75 | 73 | 5/10 | 26.91 | 8.67 | 18.6 | 1 |
| Mohammad Amir (PAK) | 61 | 71 | 4/13 | 21.94 | 7.07 | 18.6 | 0 |
| Shoriful Islam (BAN) | 62 | 69 | 3/17 | 24.31 | 8.13 | 17.9 | 0 |
Why the Left-Arm Angle Works So Well in T20 Cricket
Geometry is what gives a bowler his value, not just skill. Take a left-arm seamer bowling over the wicket to a right-hander: he is angling the ball across him in such a way that it is naturally moving away from the bat.
You see the importance of this in T20 more than any other format. Where a right-armer must put in the work for variation with a cutter or a change of length, a left-armer has it handed to him by merely altering his angle on the crease; the ball will still be taken off the outside edge.
Then there is the matter of field placement. The left-arm angle makes the leg-side boundary a difficult proposition for a right-hander and tempts him to go through the off side, allowing a captain to position his field accordingly. Put in some swing with the new ball back into the right-hander and you have a powerplay threat to both edges. It is something very few right-arm seamers can pull off without sacrificing pace.
The Powerplay Specialists Among Left-Arm T20I Bowlers
You will not find the following distinction in most articles on the topic, yet it is what divides the all-time list into two very separate camps.
There are those who have put up their figures with the new ball. Take Shaheen Shah Afridi for instance; he is the archetype of this kind of bowler. His worth is to be found in the opening six overs, using pace and inswing to get a right-hander bowled or lbw as opposed to an edge. Trent Boult is of a piece with him, although he relies on seam and swing over sheer speed and is apt to come on full in the early going more than others. Then you have Mitchell Starc, who is something of a hybrid and can still be menacing when he comes on at the death.
What they have in common is a propensity for taking wickets as opposed to merely containing them, so do not expect an impressive economy rate from any of them. The captain is well aware of the trade off: a couple of early wickets will alter the course of a T20 innings in a way a tight over never could.
The Death-Overs Left-Arm Seamers
At the other end of the innings, the second group have put together their figures with a quite different type of bowler.
Take Mustafizur Rahman for instance. He is the prime example of one whose standing is built on low-arm cutters and slower deliveries, not swing. The West Indies have Obed McCoy to do much the same, as will Jason Behrendorff in Australia.
Then there is Arshdeep Singh, a contemporary who can do it all. India have fashioned their T20I attack to suit his versatility; he will come on with the new ball and be back for the final two overs instead of being confined to a specialist’s job.
Wickets are won in another way by death bowlers. When batters go on the offensive in the closing overs, the wicket count may look impressive but it is not as telling as one from the powerplay. One has to keep that in mind when looking at an all-time list, as does the cricket bettor who might find player or match markets on one of the top 10 cricket betting apps that account for these varying stages of a T20.
Where the Left-Arm Advantage Disappears
For a right-hander, the angle these bowlers present is their great asset; put a left-hander in at the crease and that same quality is turned on its head. A left-arm seamer can only so much straighten the ball when he is bowling to a left-hander, angling it in. The sort of delivery that would have taken an outside edge off a right-hander now does not trouble him, leaving the natural line open for runs down the leg side.
You will see some captains remove a left-arm quick as soon as a left-handed opening pair are set. The better teams will have a right-armer to go with their left-arm seamer instead of fielding two of a kind. And it explains why the numbers for a left-arm seamer might seem to waver from one series to the next even though his approach has not altered in the least.
Why So Few International Teams Have One
Then there is the matter of scarcity. One does not manufacture a left-arm seamer, and to date no coaching apparatus has been able to devise a surefire method for turning them out. Pakistan have been an exception, churning them out in steady numbers over the decades, from Wasim Akram all the way to Mohammad Amir, Wahab Riaz and now Shaheen. You see similar runs of form in Australia and New Zealand at times. India had to wait until Arshdeep to put down some roots after years of uncertainty; England have gone through a number of them yet to decide on a permanent first choice.
For the smaller countries the impact is all the more pronounced when one comes along. Fazalhaq Farooqi has made a world of difference to Afghanistan’s new ball options, while Richard Ngarava has been Zimbabwe’s most dependable source of trouble for a few seasons running.
Reading an All-Time T20I Wicket List Properly
There are two things to bear in mind before one puts much stock in the raw numbers as a measure of quality.
For a start, since 2019 T20I standing has been open to every ICC member nation. An all-time list will therefore have you comparing bowlers who have faced the world’s best with those whose wickets come from regional qualifiers; put a full-member filter on it and the order is quite another matter.
Then there is the question of how they are classified. Databases make a distinction between left-arm fast, fast-medium and medium, yet a bowler may be slotted into any of those categories at different points in his career. The line can be drawn in such a way as to alter the list, so the threshold should be made explicit.
If you look at it in the right way, the top left-arm seamers in T20I cricket are not defined by wicket count alone. It is the ones who have gone after the right-handers in the top order during the powerplay, for sides that have had to contend with the strongest opposition.
