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Within the fast bowling sphere, there are lots of different subcategories that can be applied but, whilst many have heard of them, what do they actually mean?
Fast Medium vs Medium Fast Bowlers: What is the Difference?
In very basic terms, a fast medium bowler is quicker than a medium fast bowler. The clue is in the order of the words – fast vs medium or medium vs fast.
A fast medium bowler is capable of quicker deliveries than their medium fast counterparts who are on the faster side of medium.
Classification of Fast Bowlers According to Speed
These can be confusing terms but we can look at individual players and use them as examples in order to clear things up.
Also, while there are no official figures to define each of the following four categories, by bracketing them into different speed parameters we can also make things easier to understand.
1. Fast Bowlers
These are the fastest bowlers of them all and, while there are no defined speeds for any of these categories, the quickest are capable of hitting 90 miles per hour on a regular basis.
Good examples here might include Australia’s Pat Cummins and the England duo of Jofra Archer and Mark Wood.
2. Fast Medium Bowlers
If we’re using those miles per hour categories to define a fast medium bowler, they will generally average out at between 80 and 87 mph.
Many of them will be capable of hitting 90 mph at times but these will be rare, surprise deliveries and you won’t see these kinds of speeds on a regular basis.
Fast medium bowlers lack the pace of the outright quicks so they will tend to rely more on other techniques such as swing and seam.
Australia’s Glenn McGrath with his almost-perfect seam position was a great example of this while other fast medium bowlers would include England’s James Anderson and Ishant Sharma of India.
3. Medium Fast Bowlers
These guys are slower still – usually at around 70 to 79 miles an hour and they may not be regular members of a bowling attack. Medium fast bowlers might also be used more in a one day match where pace off the ball is seen as a better weapon than in test cricket.
Medium fast bowlers can still use swing and seam and they will also try to use upper body strength in order to generate some bounce off the pitch.
A good example from the recent past is England’s Paul Collingwood while Colin de Grandhomme of New Zealand is slightly more up to date.
4. Medium Bowlers
You may occasionally hear them referred to as ‘trundlers’, these are the slowest bowlers within this particular category. In fact, their lack of pace may mean that they are not regular members of the attack and their deliveries will typically range between 65 and 70 miles per hour.
India’s Virat Kohli is a good example here: We rarely see him bowl but he does occasionally bring himself on and he had eight international wickets as he went into the 2021 T20 World Cup.
