Brett Lee has labelled Australia’s current bowling attack the country’s greatest ever, declaring Pat Cummins’s men have now surpassed his group from the early 2000s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Australia’s attack will take one step closer to being reunited in Adelaide this week, with Cummins and Nathan Lyon back in the team alongside Mitchell Starc.<\/p>\n
Josh Hazlewood remains out, but Scott Boland has proven to be, arguably, the best back-up bowler in the game’s history since his 2021 debut.<\/p>\n
Cummins, Starc, Lyon and Hazlewood have now played 389 Tests between them and taken a total of 1,586 wickets.<\/p>\n
Three of the four have passed the 300-wicket milestone, while Hazlewood sits on 295 and will doubtless join them when he returns from injury.<\/p>\n
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Scott Boland (second right) is not a bad backup. (Getty Images: Cricket Australia\/Morgan Hancock)<\/p>\n
Of the 35 Tests all four have played together, Australia have won 22, lost nine and drawn four.<\/p>\n
The 567 wickets the quartet have taken in matches while playing in the same side is also a record.<\/p>\n
Boland is not included in those figures, but his 69 wickets at 18.17 means the Victorian still has the best Test average of any bowler in the past 90 years.<\/p>\n
Australia’s first-choice group from the early 2000s of Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Jason Gillespie and Lee is usually considered the yardstick of great attacks.<\/p>\n
They won 10 of 16 Tests they played together, and were a key part of Australia’s dominance of world cricket with a combined 1,842 Test wickets.<\/p>\n
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The formidable golden era crop of bowlers will take some beating. (Getty Images: PA Images\/Chris Young\u00a0)<\/p>\n
But Lee said he believed the current group had now usurped them.<\/p>\n
“They’re the best ever, I reckon,” said Lee, who is in commentary for Kayo this summer.<\/p>\n
“It’s different eras, and hard to compare, but I would put them above us.<\/p>\n
“If you look purely on stats, everyone has taken over 250 Test wickets, and that’s never been done before.<\/p>\n
“Scott Boland, if he is included in that, is a bit like Michael Kasprowicz, didn’t really get an opportunity but a wonderful bowler.<\/p>\n
“These guys are so good that the Australian public won’t recognise how good they are until they’re gone.”<\/p>\n
Told of Lee’s remarks ahead of the summer, Cummins pointed to the differences in the quartet as a key component to their strength.<\/p>\n
“That’s pretty awesome for him to say,” Cummins said.<\/p>\n
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Pat Cummins will return in Adelaide after missing the first two Ashes Tests. (Getty Images: PA Images\/Robbie Stephenson)<\/p>\n
“We’ve been lucky we’ve all had our careers coincide with each other. I wouldn’t have had anywhere near the career I have had alongside other guys.<\/p>\n
“Those guys push me and are the best coaches.<\/p>\n
“You have the control Nath brings. Starcy is different as a left-armer. Josh has the bounce and swing. It opens me up to be a bit more creative.<\/p>\n
“It feels like we can really dovetail nicely into each other.”<\/p>\n
As Starc points out, comparing eras is hard.<\/p>\n
Cricket changes from one generation to the next, and in the past five years pitches in Australia have become easier to bowl on.<\/p>\n
But with that has also come finer margins, with Australia’s current group regularly needing to either keep their side in a game or dig them out of a hole.<\/p>\n