Ryan Harris retires: A look at Rhino’s career

Ryan Harris retires: A look at Rhino's career

Ryan Harris announced his retirement from all forms of cricket mere days before the start of The Ashes 2015. His loss will be a huge blow for Australia, and a void that will take some effort to fill. Shiamak Unwalla takes a brief look at the career of the very aptly-nicknamed “Rhino.”

In years to come, future generations might wonder exactly what made Ryan Harris such big name. He played just over 50 international matches across formats, was often injured, and rarely had the menacing air of Mitchell Johnson about him. And yet, “Rhino” was very much the kind of player a captain dreams of. Read: Ryan Harris: Australia’s bowling workhorse and late bloomer

Harris’ true value to the side was beyond numbers. One need just think back to his Herculean spell at Cape Town in 2014. With Australia on the brink of a massive win, they were up against the tremendous stonewalling of AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, JP Duminy, Vernon Philander, and Dale Steyn. Harris — with dodgy knees, an impending surgery, and against a stubborn line-up — bowled almost 24 overs and took the last two wickets within the space of three balls to award Australia the Test and the series with 27 balls remaining in the match.

That being said, let us take a look at his stats. They too tell a compelling tale:

Had Harris been fitter, he would have been a sensation in One-Day Internationals (ODIs). He could only play 21, but he managed to take 44 wickets at an unreal 18.9. His economy rate of 4.84 in the Twenty20 era is mind-boggling in itself. But it was in Tests that Harris’ worth was fully realised. Read: Ryan Harris: From an uncertain player to a potential workhorse for Australia

Since his debut in 2010, Harris has been outstanding in Tests. Here is a list with the top five bowling averages since 2010:

Harris enjoys the third best average in this period, behind only Steyn and Vernon Philander. The fact that he has taken only five five-wicket hauls and no 10-wicket hauls but still features prominently on the list says a lot about his consistency. Though he may not have run through oppositions, he rarely ended with no reward, and almost never went for runs.

Now let us look at where Harris stands against his fellow Australians. Here is the list of top 10 Australian bowlers of all time in terms of strike rate, with a cut-off of 100 wickets:

As seen above, Harris is second only to Johnson when it comes to frequency with which he took wickets. His partnership with Johnson was a devastating one. Though purists will argue that the Dennis Lillee-Jeff Thomson pair was the more fearsome one, it cannot be denied that Harris and Johnson were as lethal, if not more so.

Harris is also the first fast bowler to have debuted after the age of 30 and still taken 100 Test wickets, the others being Clarrie Grimmett, Dilip Doshi, and Saeed Ajmal. But then, for man as large-hearted as Harris, age was merely a number. Perhaps if he had been unearthed earlier he would have played twice as many Tests, but that is not something Harris would care about. Read: Ryan Harris: First fast bowler to take 100 Test wickets making debut after 30

For as long as he played, Harris was the man to bank on. On helpful surfaces, Johnson could be devastating. On turning tracks, Lyon was a handful. But regardless of the surface or the opposition, you could bet that Rhino would put his heart and soul into every spell. His loss will be felt big time by Australia. One feels England might just sleep a bit easier tonight.

(Shiamak Unwalla, a reporter with CricketCountry, is a self-confessed Sci-Fi geek who loves cricket more than cricketers. His Twitter handle is @ShiamakUnwalla)