Vernon Philander has proven to all that he IS the future of fast-bowling

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February 15, 2013 by Tejmgas

For all of you who aren’t familiar with the name ‘Vernon Philander’, let me give you a briefing on who he is and why you should care.

Philander, or ‘V-Dawg’ as he is known to his teammates, is a South-African right hand medium-fast bowler, currently a member of the team Cape Cobras as well as the South-African national side. He made his international debut at the age of 22 and has since then taken the cricketing world by storm.

For those who are familiar to the sport, you will know 22 isn’t exactly an early start to an international career, with lots of people nowadays starting before they reach 20. But what we must remember, is that he has made it into a pace attack regarded as the best in the world. With the likes of Steyn and the Morkel brothers, its going to be difficult to even get into the squad, let alone the first team.

Yet the way Philander has been playing, he has put those bowling greats to shame. Here are just some of his stats:

In his test debut against Australia, he took 5-15 in Australia’s 2nd innings and was awarded man of the match.

In his ODI debut against Ireland, he took 4-12, a match winning performance.

He is the 2nd fastest bowler in the history of test cricket to reach 50 wickets.

After just 2 years, he already has 9 Test 5-Wicket hauls

To add to this already glittering CV, he is pretty handy with the bat as well. A 25.00 average in ODI’s is not the worse you will see and in many cases he has proved to be a valuable lower order batsman.

What’s not to like?

He took his most recent 5-wicket haul just today against a talented Pakistan side and batsmen just seem to have no answer to him. He is without a doubt the hottest bowler in world-cricket right now.

If I were you, I’d be keeping an eye on this guy, ‘the next Glenn Mcgrath.’

Let me know what you think in the comments below, is he really worth the hype, or is he just another average bowler?

-Tejmgas