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A 'bowler' in the sport of cricket is usually a player whose speciality is bowling, analogous to a pitcher in baseball. A bowler who is also a competent batsman is known as an all-rounder.
There are several types of bowlers and most teams will have a variety available in the team to take advantage of pitch or weather conditions or known weaknesses of the opposition.
A ''fast bowler'' is usually the mainstay of a team's attack. They will take a long run up before bowling each ball to build momentum and rhythm and can deliver the cricket ball at speeds up to 160 km/h (100 mph).
A ''medium pace bowler'' bowls somewhat more slowly and will often have some other weapon in their bowling arsenal rather than relying on speed. This might take the form of being able to swing the ball in the air or disguise the speed or length of his or her delivery to fool the batsman. Some medium pacers are simply accurate; they can repeatedly deliver the ball to a place which forces the batsman to defend rather than scoring runs.
A ''spin bowler'' usually bowls quite slowly and puts tremendous spin on the ball causing it to bounce at an angle off the pitch, forcing the batsman to treat each ball carefully. Generally spin bowlers give up the most runs but they all have "tricks" that they use to fool the batsman and get him or her out (such as the arm ball, googly, flipper, topspinner or doosra). Spin bowling is very much about deceit rather than speed.

Contents

Bowlers by Country (current)

Australia

Bangladesh

England

Pakistan

South Africa

New Zealand

India

Sri Lanka

Ireland

See also

Bowlers by Country (current)

Australia

Pace bowlers

★ Shaun Tait

★ Brett Lee

★ Mitchell Johnson

★ Nathan Bracken

★ Stuart Clark

★ Ben Hilfenhaus

★ Shane Harwood
Spin Bowlers

★ Dan Cullen

★ Brad Hogg

★ Stuart MacGill
Bowling All-Rounders

★ Andrew Symonds

★ Shane Watson

Bangladesh

Pace Bowlers

★ Mashrafe Mortaza

★ Syed Rasel

★ Aftab Ahmed
Spin Bowlers

★ Mohammad Rafique

★ Abdur Razzaq

★ Mohammad Ashraful

★ Saqibul Hasan

★ Enamul Haque Jr

England

Pace Bowlers

★ Stephen Harmison

★ Matthew Hoggard

★ Simon Jones

★ Liam Plunkett

★ James Anderson

★ Ryan Sidebottom

★ Sajid Mahmood

★ Stuart Broad

★ Jon Lewis
Spin Bowlers

★ Monty Panesar
Bowling All-Rounders

★ James Dalrymple

★ Andrew Flintoff

★ Paul Collingwood

★ Ravinder Bopara

Pakistan

Pace Bowlers

★ Shoaib Akhtar

★ Mohammad Sami

★ Mohammad Asif

★ Umar Gul

★ Rana Naved-ul-Hasan

★ Shabbir Ahmed

★ Rao Iftikhar Anjum

★ Yasir Arafat
Spin Bowlers

★ Danish Kaneria
Bowling All-rounders

★ Shahid Afridi

★ Shoaib Malik

★ Abdul Razzaq

★ Mohammad Hafeez

★ Azhar Mahmood

South Africa

Pace Bowlers

★ Makhaya Ntini

★ Shaun Pollock

★ Andre Nel

★ Charl Langeveldt

★ Roger Telemachus

★ Dale Steyn
Spin Bowlers

★ Paul Harris

★ Robin Peterson
Bowling All-Rounders

★ Jacques Kallis

★ Justin Kemp

★ Andrew Hall

New Zealand

Pace Bowlers

★ Shane Bond

★ Chris Martin

★ James Franklin

★ Kyle Mills

★ Mark Gillespie

★ Daryl Tuffey

★ Michael Mason
Spin Bowlers

★ Daniel Vettori
Bowling All-Rounders

★ Jacob Oram

★ Scott Styris

★ Craig McMillan

India

Pace Bowlers

★ Sri Sreesanth

★ Munaf Patel

★ Zaheer Khan

★ VRV Singh

★ RP Singh

★ Ajit Agarkar
Spin Bowlers

★ Anil Kumble

★ Harbhajan Singh

★ Piyush Chawla

★ Ramesh Powar
Bowling All-Rounders

★ Irfan Pathan

★ Yuvraj Singh

Sri Lanka

Pace Bowlers

★ Chaminda Vaas

★ Ruchira Perera

★ Dilhara Fernando

★ Nuwan Zoysa

★ Lasith Malinga

★ Nuwan Kulasekara
Spin Bowlers

★ Muttiah Muralitharan

★ Malinga Bandara

★ Upul Chandana
Bowling All-Rounders

★ Farveez Maharoof

★ Sanath Jayasuriya

★ Tillakaratne Dilshan

Ireland

Pace Bowlers

★ David Langford-Smith

★ Boyd Rankin
Spin Bowlers

★ Kyle McCallan
Bowling All-Rounders

★ Trent Johnston

★ Andre Botha

See also

★ Types of bowlers in cricket

★ Comparison of cricket bowlers

★ Cricket terminology

★ All-rounder

★ Batsman

★ Fielder

★ Wicket-keeper