3 min readApr 3, 2026 07:14 PM IST
Lasith Malinga and Jasprit Bumrah emerged as the undisputed top two bowlers to feature in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on the Fast Bowling Cartel podcast hosted by former Australian quicks Glenn McGrath, Damien Fleming, and Jason Gillespie.
While discussing the franchise-based league on their YouTube channel, the former Aussie greats discussed a range of fast bowlers to play in IPL, but ended with listing Jasprit Bumrah and Lasith Malinga as the top two bowlers, with Malinga as number one and Bumrah as number two.
Sri Lankan legend Malinga played his whole career for the Mumbai Indians, featuring in 122 matches and taking 170 wickets with a strike rate of 16.63 and an economy of 7.14. During his playing days, Malinga mentored a young Bumrah, who would go on to take the mantle from him and become one of the best in the world. Bumrah has 183 wickets from 146 games for the Mumbai Indians with a strike rate of 18.37 and an economy of 7.26.
“It was tough for me to decide the top two. I think the only reason Bumrah is second in my list is because he is still playing. I think by the end of his career, he would leapfrog Malinga,” McGrath said, explaining the ranking. “Malinga was class with 170 wickets in 122 matches. Not many bowlers could nail yorkers at the death as Malinga did.”
Similar to McGrath, Gillespie and Fleming picked Bumrah and Malinga as their top two. Gillespie, who was the first one to pick his top five bowlers, predicted that the top two would be the same.
“I think we are going to be pretty similar here, boys, not sure about one or two,” Gillespie had said.
Fleming termed Bumrah as ‘freakish’. “Commentators in this IPL have been saying that when playing against the Mumbai Indians, you just have 16 overs to attack. That’s crazy. He has a stutter in his run-up and unbelievable execution,” quipped Fleming.
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Gillespie shared an interesting anecdote of how Malinga practised to make himself most precise. “When I was with the Punjab Kings (then Kings XI Punjab), during a practice session, he just put a shoe at the middle stump and kept hitting it with precision. That shows you why he was able to execute it so efficiently.”
Debate over Bravo
New Zealand pacer Trent Boult was another common fixture across all three lists, with the Kiwi occupying the fourth spot.
Former West Indies Legend Dwayne Bravo featured on the list of Fleming and Gillespie, but McGrath said that he was more of an all-rounder than a fast bowler.
“Do you class Bravo as a fast bowler? He is an exceptional all-rounder and quality player. He is a champion like that song which Brian Lara used to sing,” McGrath replied cheekily while explaining his top five.
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He mentioned the likes of Dale Steyn for his economy of 6.91 throughout his career, but picked Indian bowler Mohammed Shami as his fifth pick.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was picked by McGrath and Fleming as their third pick, while Gillespie picked Kagiso Rabada as his third pick.
