Jarrod Kimber does not make claims like this casually. The cricket analyst, author and talkSPORT contributor has built a reputation on data-driven arguments about fast bowling, and his latest one landed on September 15, 2026.
“If he can harness line and length, he could be close to the best bowler that’s ever existed.”
Jarrod Kimber, talkSPORT, September 2026
The bowler in question is Marco Jansen. South Africa’s 26-year-old left-arm fast bowling all-rounder. Six foot eight. Ranked fifth in the ICC Test bowling rankings. A World Test Championship winner at 25.
Kimber then explained why.
“He can swing it, he can seam it, he has pace, he has bounce.”
Jarrod Kimber, talkSPORT, September 2026
Four attributes. That is the foundation of the claim. Not one. Not two. All four, from a left-armer standing 203 centimetres tall.
🤯 “If he can harness line & length, he could be close to the best bowler that’s ever existed.”
✅ “He can swing it, he can seam it, he has pace, he has bounce.”@ajarrodkimber makes a HUGE claim about South Africa all-rounder Marco Jansen 😳 pic.twitter.com/wghGrGwvpQ
— talkSPORT Cricket (@Cricket_TS) September 14, 2026
dir=”ltr”>This is not the first time Kimber has used this framework. In 2021, writing for ESPNcricinfo, he applied the same logic to Kyle Jamieson before the WTC Final. His argument: tall bowlers who combine swing with pace at speed are extraordinarily rare because most tall bowlers avoid pitching the ball up. Fuller deliveries from height get punished, so they sacrifice swing for safety. The ones who refuse to sacrifice it are close to bowling perfection.
Kimber has a pattern of identifying outlier talent through statistical frameworks. His Jamieson analysis called it “close to fast-bowling perfection.” Five years later, he has gone further with Jansen. Not “close to perfection.” Close to the best bowler that has ever existed. The distinction matters. Perfection is about method. Best ever is about outcome.
The evidence since late 2024 explains why.
In November 2024, Jansen took 7/13 against Sri Lanka at Kingsmead. Sri Lanka were bowled out for 42, their lowest Test score in history. It was the best bowling by a left-arm seamer in South African Test history, breaking a 101-year record. One statistical comparison placed it alongside Hugh Trumble’s effort in 1899: it took 120 years for someone to match what Jansen did in 6.5 overs.
A year later, in November 2025, South Africa toured India for a Test series. India had not lost a home Test series to South Africa in 25 years. Jansen took 6/48 in the second Test’s first innings and scored 93 with the bat in the same match. He was Player of the Match. South Africa won the series.
In June 2025, South Africa won the World Test Championship Final against Australia. Jansen took four wickets, including the scalps of Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head.
At the 2026 T20 World Cup, he took 4/22 against India. Against New Zealand in the semi-final, he scored a 30-ball 55 when South Africa were 77/5. He also revealed a new slower ball variation: “It’s not a knuckle, but it’s also not a palm. It’s like out the back of the hand or deep in the hand. It’s a mixture of the two.”
Twenty-one Tests. 89 wickets at 21.12 with four five-wicket hauls. Average of 19.88 at home, 22.78 away. 624 runs at 23.11 with the bat. He does not pad his numbers in friendly conditions.
The Condition Kimber Set
Kimber did not say Jansen is the best bowler who has ever existed. He said “if he can harness line and length.” That conditional is doing all the work in the sentence.
Line and length is the difference between a bowler with extraordinary weapons and a bowler who wins matches with those weapons every single time he plays. It is the gap between raw potential and sustained dominance. Every fast bowler in history who reached the highest tier had periods where the talent was obvious before the consistency arrived.
Jansen knows this about himself. During the 2026 T20 World Cup, after bowling in Delhi, he said: “It’s always going to be tricky… if your angles are in the wrong spot, the ball can fly everywhere.” That is not modesty. That is a bowler who understands that his height creates both his greatest advantage and his greatest vulnerability. At 203 centimetres, every degree of angle error is amplified.
The evidence of him working on exactly this problem is visible. During IPL 2026 with Punjab Kings, Josh Hazlewood’s metronomic Test-match lengths influenced Jansen’s approach. He embraced hard lengths and adapted his method for bowling with the older ball, proving effective without new-ball swing. He described the shift as becoming “comfortable in my own skin.”
ESPNcricinfo journalist Rohit Sankar captured where Jansen stands in September 2026: “Marco Jansen the talk everywhere, but he’s nowhere near his ceiling yet and that’s quite scary. Possibly the best athlete in cricket today.”
Not near his ceiling. At 26. That is the part that makes Kimber’s claim more than hyperbole.
Insider Read
Facing a 6ft 8in left-arm fast bowler who has all four weapons is unlike facing any other type of bowler. Most tall seamers give you one problem to solve. Bounce, usually. Occasionally pace. You adjust your backlift, play later, leave more. The issue with Jansen is that you cannot commit to solving one problem because the next ball presents a different one. He swings it, so you have to play at deliveries outside off stump. He seams it, so the ball that looks straight can jag either way off the pitch. He has pace, so your reaction time is compressed. He has bounce, so even a good-length delivery arrives at rib height.
The left-arm angle makes it worse. The ball comes from wide of the crease, naturally angling across the right-hander on a line that demands a stroke. Against a right-arm bowler of the same height, you can leave more on judgment. Against a left-armer, the geometry forces engagement. When all four weapons are loaded, you cannot settle into any plan. The bowlers who have had that complete toolkit at pace and height can be counted on one hand. Kimber’s argument is that the ceiling is significantly higher than where Jansen stands today. Line and length is the lock. Everything else is already in place.
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