Former Indian player Rahul Dravid has named Glenn McGrath and Muttiah Muralitharan as the two toughest bowlers he ever faced in his 16-year international career. Dravid played 164 Tests, 344 ODIs, and one T20I from 1996 to 2012, scoring 24,208 runs.
Throughout his career, he faced some of the game’s greatest bowlers, from Shane Warne and Wasim Akram to Shoaib Akhtar and James Anderson. But when Ravichandran Ashwin asked him about the toughest bowlers on his show ‘Kutti Stories with Ash’, Dravid picked Glenn McGrath and Muttiah Muralitharan.
“As a fast bowler, it had to be Glenn McGrath. I thought McGrath was… I kind of played Wasim (Akram) and Waqar (Younis) at the back end of their careers. So it’s not kind of fair… People who played Wasim earlier say that he was in a different league, and I could imagine after seeing the videos, I can imagine… And even bowling at the back end of his career, he was damn good. But I played McGrath at his peak. He was a phenomenal bowler. He challenged my off stump more than anyone ever did,” Dravid said.
Dravid also explained why Muralitharan was such a different challenge: “As a spinner, Muralitharan was the best bowler that I played against. Great skill. He had the ability to spin the ball both ways. Especially when he came round the wicket and got the doosra away from you. So, he was someone who was never tired and bowled really long spells. He kept at you and kept at you… and he is just a phenomenal spinner.”
McGrath took 563 Test wickets, 381 in ODIs, and five in T20Is for Australia. On the other hand, Muralitharan finished with 800 Test wickets, 534 in ODIs, and 13 in T20Is for Sri Lanka.
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