You know what really grinds my cricketing gears?

[NZTailender]

Michael Clarke.

 

[duffer]

Virender Sehwag.

Nice

 

[JimmyGS]

Go on, name me a part-timer who was a patch on Giles

Virender Sehwag.

Chris Gayle.

Aaron Redmond
Mark Waugh
Carl Hooper
Graeme Hick

Michael Clarke.

Hahahaha. So completely owned.

 

[NZTailender]

Forgot to mention Simon Katich, Michael Vaughan, Michael Bevan and Darren Lehmann.

 

[NZTailender]

Forgot to mention Simon Katich, Michael Vaughan, Michael Bevan and Darren Lehmann.

And Sanath Jayasuriya!

 

[Precambrian]

Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting.

 

[Flem274*]

Jimmy Neesham

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Taibu (and he's also a better keeper than Ashley Giles)
Grant Flower

 

[Flem274*]

Heath Davis










jks jks l0l

 

[Uppercut]

Haha, wouldn't agree with all of those, but Chris Gayle in particular has a better average than Gilo and bowls on even less turning pitches than Giles did. And only ever comes on when batsmen are set.

 

[Uppercut]

And no, I don't think he failed to get turn out of pitches most fingerspinners (eg, Swann or MSP) would get turn out of. Not at all. I think lots of the false expectations about MSP would never have been got-up if he'd played some of his early Tests on the pitches Giles was repeatedly wrongly selected on in 2002 and 2003.

He definitely doesn't give the ball a great tweak. It's always quite difficult to tell how much is the dead pitch and how much is the ability to turn the ball, but i'd say if you look at Panesar's career, he's turned the ball at times when spinners on the opposite team didn't- Vettori at OT, Harris at Edgebaston. Obviously he wasn't very effective in the latter, and that's because he's a pretty poor bowler. But in terms of getting turn he's well ahead of Giles.

 

[Richard]

Virender Sehwag.

Chris Gayle.

Aaron Redmond
Mark Waugh
Carl Hooper
Graeme Hick

Michael Clarke.

Forgot to mention Simon Katich, Michael Vaughan, Michael Bevan and Darren Lehmann.

And Sanath Jayasuriya!

Taibu (and he's also a better keeper than Ashley Giles)
Grant Flower

Hahahaha. So completely owned.

Not really. Of the 14 mentioned, Sehwag, Redmond, Mark Waugh (who was a very poor spinner though decent seamer), Clarke, Hick, Katich, Bevan, Vaughan, Gayle and Taibu don't come remotely close, they were\are all very poor indeed. Most of them struggle to pitch the ball in the same place five times an over, the two who can (Clarke and Gayle) spin it even less than Giles and have less variation.

Jayasuriya, Lehmann and Hooper are all worthy of comparison, but that's it. Giles was quite obviously better. How much this would be true if the above three had not had batting to prioritise is another question.

 

[_Ed_]

How much of Redmond have you seen, out of interest?

 

[Richard]

He definitely doesn't give the ball a great tweak. It's always quite difficult to tell how much is the dead pitch and how much is the ability to turn the ball, but i'd say if you look at Panesar's career, he's turned the ball at times when spinners on the opposite team didn't- Vettori at OT, Harris at Edgebaston. Obviously he wasn't very effective in the latter, and that's because he's a pretty poor bowler. But in terms of getting turn he's well ahead of Giles.

I don't think he's well ahead at all. And I'm absolutely 100% confident in saying that MSP would've got nothing out of the surfaces Giles got wrongly selected on in 2002 and 2003.

MSP spins the ball more, and at a better angle than, Giles, but the difference is not so collossal as some like to think. I hope one day we'll be able to measure amount of spin to put supposition on this matter to rest.

 

[Richard]

How much of Redmond have you seen, out of interest?

Plenty, back in 1998. We always told him not to give-up his day-job (ie, batting).

He was an overseas-pro and there were third-team bowlers better than him. I honestly believe that if I can develop my bowling to the level I'm hoping to in the coming years, I'll be one such.

 

[_Ed_]

Fair enough. I find that surprising though, when I've seen him bowl at domestic and international level he's impressed me more often than not.

 

[Richard]

Maybe he's gotten better in the intervening time. He didn't seem enormously different in the Test bowls I saw him send down though.

 

[Mister Wright]

Have probably mentioned this numerous times.

Tailenders scoring runs.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Have probably mentioned this numerous times.

Tailenders scoring runs.

*Victorian tailenders

 

[Craig]

People who say Test cricket is dead:

Your opinion is nice, but STFU, this Australia South Africa Test match has proven otherwise.