Test Cricket has been the toughest format of the game of Cricket. It brings lots of passion and dedication along with lots of patience, skills, and techniques required to become the best in this format. The Test captains always have added pressure of leadership because every moment of captaincy can be tested in this red-ball cricket format.
We have seen that most of the cricket captains are either batsmen or wicket-keepers but some bowlers did a great job as captains. They led their team brilliantly, led from the front, and won many Test matches and captaincy also took them to places.
In this article, we are going to identify the five best bowling figures by captains in Test cricket.
5. Courtney Walsh (West Indies) – 7/37 vs New Zealand (Basin Reserve, 1995)
Courtney Walsh is one of the most impactful pacers in cricket history. He has a wonderful Test record on his name as the right-handed pace bowler picked 519 wickets in his Test career. He led the West Indies in a total of 22 Test matches where he picked a total of 85 wickets in his captaincy period.
West Indies played a two-match Test series at New Zealand in 1995. In the second Test, the West Indies captain opted to bat after winning the toss and posted a huge total of 660/5. Adams, Lara, and Murray scored a hundred in the first inning. In the second inning, Walsh picked 7 wickets by conceding just 37 runs and forced the follow-on to the hosts. The Windies skipper bowled 7 maiden overs out of 20 in that inning with the very least economy rate of 1.81.
In the third inning again, Walsh picked 6 wickets for just 18 runs and became the man of the match as West Indies won the match by an innings and 322 runs.
