Best Bowler by Career ICC Ratings

In this post, we use the ICC Player Ratings to attempt to rate the best bowlers in Test cricket. This post attempts to decide the best bowler of all time by calculating the average (arithmetic mean) rating of a player over his entire career.

The ICC ratings glean all their information from a standard scorecard and hence are entirely objective. The ICC ratings take into account the match conditions and quality of opponents and hence are a better measure than raw career statistics. Because the ratings takes the quality of the opposition into account, individuals who make merry against weaker opposition do not get their ratings unduly inflated. Conversely, players who perform well against stronger opposition are rewarded.

Result Summary:

• George Lohmann, who holds the lowest lifetime Test bowling average among bowlers with more than fifteen wickets and the record for the lowest strike rate in all Test history, is the best bowler. He played only 9 matches though.
• Glenn McGrath, at number 5, is the first bowler with over 20 matches and is also the first player from the modern era.
• Curtly Ambrose, Shaun Pollock, and Alan Donald follow at 6, 7, and 8.
• Muttiah Muralidaran, Test crickets highest wicket-taker, comes in at number 9.
• McGrath and Muralidaran have 28 matches with 900+ points, the most for any of the players.
• Unlike the best batsman list, there are a plethora of modern era players in the top 10 and top 20 of the best bowlers list.

Data table:

Player	Matches	Rating Average	900s	800s	700s
G.A. Lohmann	9	828.78	3	3	2
J. Briggs	17	816.41	0	11	5
R. Peel	11	799.27	0	6	5
C.T.B. Turner	11	795.18	0	6	5
G.D. McGrath	124	790.86	28	75	3
C.E.L. Ambrose	98	777.24	6	68	6
S.M. Pollock	108	775.27	18	51	18
A.A. Donald	72	771.1	0	44	13
M. Muralidaran	133	770.1	28	54	20
J. Garner	58	768.74	0	36	12
D.W. Steyn	67	758.64	7	43	3
W.W. Hall	48	747.83	0	19	17
M.D. Marshall	81	740.9	10	48	6
R.R. Lindwall	61	739.97	0	33	14
V.D. Philander	18	739.61	1	8	4
D.K. Lillee	70	737.19	0	30	19
W.A. Johnston	40	736.48	1	19	10
F.S. Trueman	67	734.45	0	25	28
R.J. Hadlee	86	730.86	18	33	9
M.W. Tate	39	726.87	0	13	18
S.K. Warne	145	726.79	1	59	43
W. Barnes	2	718	0	0	2
S.F. Barnes	27	715.15	6	7	3
A. Kumble	132	714.2	0	13	88
W.J. O'Reilly	27	711.96	1	14	3
C.V. Grimmett	37	711.27	1	12	11
L.R. Gibbs	79	710.22	0	30	15
Imran Khan	88	710.1	5	31	27
S.R. Clark	24	709.79	0	11	5
Waqar Younis	87	709.3	7	16	28
G.P. Swann	57	701.28	0	8	33
C.E.H. Croft	27	700.37	0	6	11
C.A. Walsh	132	697.79	0	23	60
A.V. Bedser	51	696.12	4	10	11
Wasim Akram	104	694.32	0	16	53
I.T. Botham	102	686.83	6	29	15
A.M.E. Roberts	47	684.81	0	6	22
D.L. Underwood	86	679.24	1	16	33
K.R. Miller	55	677.91	0	20	13
G.D. McKenzie	60	677.73	0	11	30
I.R. Bishop	43	676.72	0	5	22
P.M. Pollock	28	675.64	0	8	10
M.A. Holding	60	673.82	0	24	21
R.G.D. Willis	90	661.03	0	12	46
Kapil Dev	131	660.6	0	15	44
H.J. Tayfield	37	659.84	0	10	15
M. Ntini	101	658.36	0	19	45
Fazal Mahmood	34	658.26	0	14	6
J.N. Gillespie	71	655.85	0	3	36
M.H.N. Walker	34	655.59	0	1	18
H. Verity	40	652.98	0	14	13
J.J. Ferris	3	651.33	0	1	0
H.H. Streak	65	645.94	0	0	31
J.A. Snow	49	645.37	0	7	23
A.L. Valentine	36	642.08	0	0	15
M.G. Johnson	51	640.18	0	6	21
G.F. Lawson	46	636.37	0	8	18
J.C. Laker	46	633.74	0	19	1
M.A. Noble	42	633.67	0	1	12
C.J. McDermott	71	632.79	0	0	24
T. Richardson	14	632.79	0	1	7
B.S. Bedi	67	631.7	0	2	31
W.P.U.J.C. Vaas	111	631.34	0	1	19
M.J. Hoggard	67	628.93	0	0	30
R.M. Hogg	38	627.68	0	0	11
J.R. Thomson	51	625.33	0	2	17
A.K. Davidson	44	622.84	7	12	7
D.R. Doshi	33	621.82	0	0	13
J.B. Statham	70	620.29	0	2	38
S. Ramadhin	43	619.63	0	0	13
K. Higgs	15	618.13	0	2	5
Harbhajan Singh	101	617.94	0	0	25
J.M. Anderson	87	617.17	0	5	35
N.A.T. Adcock	26	616.31	0	6	6
S.J. Harmison	63	615.51	0	10	16
P.M. Siddle	46	614.33	0	5	12
D. Gough	58	614.05	0	0	17
Mohammad Asif	23	614	0	3	9
C.C. Griffith	28	612.82	0	0	13
A.R.C. Fraser	46	610.04	0	0	7
B. Lee	76	609.28	0	1	14
R. Benaud	63	608.95	0	20	16
G.A.R. Lock	49	607.53	3	7	5
Saqlain Mushtaq	49	598.51	0	0	22
B.S. Chandrasekhar	58	597.29	0	0	6
G. Ulyett	1	597	0	0	0
J.M. Gregory	24	593.83	0	0	5
M. Morkel	51	590.69	0	0	27
Danish Kaneria	61	590.52	0	0	4
M.G. Hughes	53	588.75	0	0	25
Saeed Ajmal	30	586.53	0	11	2
G. Giffen	14	585.29	0	0	3
S.C.G. MacGill	44	584.05	0	0	4
S.P. Gupte	36	583.08	0	1	10
W.J. Whitty	14	582	0	1	3
T.M. Alderman	41	576.49	0	0	7
A.A. Mailey	21	575.52	0	0	0
F.H. Tyson	17	575.35	0	0	5
G.G. Arnold	34	569.74	0	0	8
H. Ironmonger	14	568.21	0	5	1
D.G. Cork	37	565.92	0	0	0
T.L. Goddard	41	565.22	0	0	8
A.R. Caddick	62	565	0	0	14
F.R. Foster	11	562.64	0	0	0
F.J. Titmus	53	562.26	0	0	19
D.L. Vettori	112	560.32	0	0	0
Zaheer Khan	88	557.64	0	0	13
Shoaib Akhtar	46	556.85	0	8	12
A.A. Mallett	38	554.39	0	0	4
S.C.J. Broad	62	553.39	0	0	16
E.A.S. Prasanna	49	552.96	0	0	6
H. Trumble	32	552.28	0	9	3
C.S. Martin	71	549.83	0	0	0
R. Ashwin	17	549.41	0	0	4
J. Srinath	67	548.3	0	0	8
A. Nel	36	548.06	0	0	7

Notes:

• A player takes 20 innings to start receiving full points, so players with very few innings (i.e. fewer career test matches) are at a slight disadvantage via this averaging scheme. 
• These ratings include Test matches until 9th November 2013.
• Read more about ICC Ratings on their FAQ page.