Bowlers and their favourite hunting grounds

In the days prior to the commencement of the ongoing Test match between India and Sri Lanka at Galle, it was widely reported in the media that Prabath Jayasuriya, the left-arm spin bowler from Sri Lanka, is a superb performer at the Galle International Stadium. His tally of 81 wickets in the 11 tests that he has played on this ground, prior to the ongoing game against India, stands as testimony to his potency with the ball at this venue. Incidentally, he has picked up only 44 wickets in the 12 tests played at other venues, which shows that his wicket-taking abilities come down sharply when playing outside Galle. It is on account of this unique match-winning prowess that he exhibits as a bowler while playing at this venue that he has been nicknamed as the "King of Galle".

It is a well known fact that certain cricketers develop a special affinity towards certain grounds. Though, in theory, all grounds offer the same conditions to both sides, it is a fact that the home team gets an overwhelming say in deciding the nature of the pitch and other conditions. But this factor apart, some players develop a remarkable ability to perform better in certain grounds, despite being only occasional visitors to these venues. The best known examples of this phenomenon are Sunil Gavaskar and Dilip Vengsarkar. While the former seldom failed to do well at the Queen's Park Oval at Port of Spain in Trinidad, the latter scored a century on most occasions that he played at Lord's. This special affinity towards specific grounds is seen more amongst the batsmen and the fascination of bowlers for certain venues is comparatively less known.

This brings the question as to whether there are any other bowlers who share a similar fascinating relationship with a ground. Muthiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka, who mesmerised batsmen all over the world with his off-breaks and doosras, holds the record for taking the maximum number of wickets in Test cricket. Out of the 800 wickets in his kitty, 493 came from matches played in Sri Lanka. His tally of 166 wickets at Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in Colombo is the highest by any bowler in a single ground. However, Muralitharan was equally effective at other venues in his home country as his hauls of 117 and 111 wickets respectively at Asgiriya Stadium Kandy and Galle International Stadium show.

James Anderson and Stuart Broad formed a deadly combination that carried the England attack on their shoulders for close to two decades. The combined total of 1,308 test wickets against their names in Test cricket shows their prowess with the ball as well as the impact they made on other teams during their heydays. Their favourite hunting ground was Lord's, where Anderson has a total of 123 wickets while Broad's pickings on this ground amount to 113. The combination of the grass cover over the wicket and conditions that favoured seam and swing bowling were key factors that helped the duo to reap such rich returns at the "Mecca of Cricket".

Taijul Islam is not the most renowned left-arm spin bowler in the world, though he has been an integral part of the Bangladesh side for close to a decade and has 270 wickets in tests to his credit. But he owns a remarkable record of taking 94 wickets in the 18 tests he played at Shere Bangla National Stadium at Mirpur. However, his performances outside Bangladesh, where he has taken only 63 wickets in 20 matches, as against 207 at home in 41 games, show that his effectiveness with the ball increases manifold when playing inside the country.

However, the best strike rate amongst bowlers who have performed extraordinarily well at one ground belongs to Curtly Ambrose while bowling at Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain Trinidad. Though this is not a ground renowned for preparing pitches to suit fast bowlers, Ambrose has breathed fire and fury whenever he played here, as seen from his haul of 66 wickets in 12 Tests. His strike rate of 41.96, indicating that he took one wicket off every 7 overs he bowled shows his capacity to run through sides at will on this ground. Not surprisingly, he has six 5-wicket hauls in an innings, besides taking 10 wickets in a match once at this venue.

One interesting aspect that comes to light while analysing the records of bowlers is that there is no bowler, present or past, who has taken more than 45 wickets in a single ground outside his home country. The tally of 55 wickets of Yasir Shah of Pakistan at Dubai cannot be counted as playing abroad as during the years that he played international cricket (2014-2018), the Emirate in the Middle East was the official home ground of Pakistan side, who were not allowed to host international matches due to disturbances within the country.

If performances outside the home country are taken as the real test for determining the merit of a bowler, then some interesting results emerge. The legendary Shane Warne, who stands second behind Muralitharan in the list of all-time high wicket-takers in tests, emerges in the top slot here with 389 wickets to his credit outside Australia, while the Sri Lankan off-spinner has only 307 wickets in tests outside his home country. Courtney Walsh, whose total tally of 519 wickets in Tests includes 290 wickets outside West Indies, is another bowler who has fared better on grounds outside his home turf. Richard Hadlee, the master of cut and swing hailing from New Zealand, could perform equally well on all surfaces, whether within his home country or outside. Only 201 of his 431 wickets came while bowling inside his country, with the balance 230 taken on venues located outside New Zealand. Malcolm Marshall, the West Indian fast bowling great, too picked up more wickets outside (219) than he did in the West Indies (157). The others in this list include Daniel Vettori of New Zealand and Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis from Pakistan.

Incidentally, only one amongst the bowlers currently playing active test cricket has membership to this exclusive club. This is Nathan Lyon, the unassuming off-break bowler from Australia, who has a total tally of 568 wickets to his credit, out of which only 274 came from matches in Australia, with the remaining 294 picked from venues outside his home country.

Amongst the Indian bowlers, Zaheer Khan and Javagal Srinath have picked more wickets abroad than within the country. While 207 out of 311 wickets picked by Zaheer in Tests came on foreign grounds, Srinath took 128 out of 236 scalps abroad. Kapil Dev came close with 215 out of his total haul of 434 wickets coming on foreign pitches. Anil Kumble has the highest number of wickets outside India with 269 out of his total tally of 619 wickets in Tests coming in countries outside India.

Shane Warne also possesses the unique record of taking more than 100 wickets in a country outside his own. Out of his total haul of 708 wickets in Tests, 129 came from England, thus helping him achieve a rare century of wickets outside Australia. Dennis Lillee came close to the three figure mark but ended with a tally of 96 wickets in England. Malcolm Marshall also performed exceedingly well in England as seen from his tally of 94 wickets.

Where does this place bowlers like Prabath Jayasuriya, whose brilliance is usually limited to one ground? Batsmen who destroy attacks on flat tracks but are reduced to nervous wrecks when tasked with facing quality bowlers in difficult conditions are nicknamed "flat track bullies". Time may have come to find a similarly suitable name for bowlers who excel on one ground. Will the moniker "one track tyrant" fit the bill?