When former India captain Sunil Gavaskar was asked about the quickest bowler he had ever faced, he named Thomas and also shared a funny anecdote from a Test match between India and Australia in Sydney.

“The quickest was Jeff Thompson and we dismissed Australia for batting first at Sydney. Australia had won the toss and we dismissed them for something like a 140 or thereabouts and you know what happens when toss is won by the captain, the fast bowlers are only in their track suit for the whole day” he said.

“Man he was something. He was not happy about bowling at that stage. Then what had happened was my opening partner Chetan Chauhan used to play this slash, that used to send the ball racing. And the team was teasing him about it. So he played that shot off Tommo and it went off the top edge, one bounce into the boundary for four”, he added.