Harry Harrison
Banned
Changed my mind many times about Shahid Afridi as a batsman. His leg spin is always under-rated.
-
Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.
You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.
When You Changed Your Mind About a Player
- Thread starter Athlai
- Start date
Evermind
International Debutant
Me too! At first I thought he was merely unreliable, but in the end I realised he was hopeless.
Goughy
Hall of Fame Member
He just had a poor season in England. He has always been a decent bowler.
Regarding the question, Im still wrestling with my opinion of Sehwag.
BoyBrumby
Englishman
Matty Hayden: I'm still not a massive fan or anything, doesn't have a technique I especially admire and occasionally speaks without thinking, but a bloke get so much crap thrown his way before one starts to root for him a bit. To read some posters on here you'd think he stayed in the Oz team for the last 8 years on the back of an average of 35 & a couple of tons versus Bangladesh on featherbeds. My volte face probably has as much to do with the crap-thrower(s) as much as any particular qualities Hayden has himself.
Graeme Smith: Yeah, I know. I still think he's a wanker, but he's played some great knocks this year, especially when one factors in that he's been crippled with tennis elbow. I personally felt he'd been well and truly sorted out as a player after his superlative form when he first emerged. Tactically has come on in leaps and bounds too. Now if he'd just stop dyeing his hair & get on the Atkins...
Brad Haddin: Quick turnaround on Bradley, but I'm mercurial like that. When he first came into to Aussie test side his batting looked to have been crippled by coaching; everything he did was so painfully orthodox. Now he's relaxed a bit he's finally looking like the stroke-maker our esteemed Australian posters suggested he was all along.
Graeme Smith: Yeah, I know. I still think he's a wanker, but he's played some great knocks this year, especially when one factors in that he's been crippled with tennis elbow. I personally felt he'd been well and truly sorted out as a player after his superlative form when he first emerged. Tactically has come on in leaps and bounds too. Now if he'd just stop dyeing his hair & get on the Atkins...
Brad Haddin: Quick turnaround on Bradley, but I'm mercurial like that. When he first came into to Aussie test side his batting looked to have been crippled by coaching; everything he did was so painfully orthodox. Now he's relaxed a bit he's finally looking like the stroke-maker our esteemed Australian posters suggested he was all along.
Harry Harrison
Banned
Just hopeless? He is really trash. I would love to see those selectors who select him as a top order batsman.
Harry Harrison
Banned
Furball
Evil Scotsman
A Test batting average of 37 with 5 centuries is an indicator of the talent Afridi has.
His problem is in his application - his batting in ODIs is utterly brainless. If he actually tried to bat, instead of hit every ball out of the ground, he'd be a good batsman.
Mr Mxyzptlk
Request Your Custom Title Now!
One of the most notorious flat track bullies.
ozone
First Class Debutant
Yea, I sort of agree with this but I think the clincher for me was actually the fact he couldn't buy a wicket in this series in India.
Uppercut
Request Your Custom Title Now!
No spinners really can though itbt. He's in the team to finish off teams in the fourth innings of matches- nothing else, he contributes nothing else for the entire match- and when he failed to do it twice in three games that was it for me.
Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
I rarely hate or like players TBH but I change my mind on their calibre all the time. It's inevitable - very, very few players stay the same all their careers.
Like you I thought Iain O'Brien was diabolical (he was) in his first 4 Tests and initially I presumed he was just another useless Kiwi domestic bowler who'd never be remotely good at Tests but I now think he was probably always a pretty decent bowler who just had a shocking time of it in his first few Tests.
Andrew Symonds is the most obvious example I always use - I thought he was an utterly hopeless OD batsman (he was) until THAT innings in WC2003. Obviously I didn't change my mind based on that single knock, but that knock was the start of the mind-changing and it was complete by the end of the WI tour of 2003 and Symonds is now undoubtedly one of the better ODI batsmen of recent times IMO.
Andrew Strauss I've changed my mind on twice now - obviously he started brilliantly and I like everyone had high hopes, but by the end of 2007 I was beginning to think he'd become a waste of space, wanted him dropped and wasn't amused when he was recalled immediately after he was axed. And I was gutted when he saved his place with that easy knock against a fourth-rate bowling attack at the last-gasp at Napier as I thought it'd mean we had to suffer his failures for another 4 or 5 games then. But instead the knock inspired him to completely reinvent himself and go back to playing as he had been originally and now I'm only too happy to have him at the top of the order once again.
Geraint Jones too - backed him to come good right to the very end of his Test career. Only after that forlorn pair did I really contemplate the fact he was just a very, very poor batsman who'd had his best season at the right time and would never have come remotely close to initial selection, never mind retention for 3 years, if he'd had that season at some other time.
I try not to come too hastily to many conclusions so I don't generally tend to jump in and decide a player is brilliant\crap after he's been on the scene 5 minutes but I was perhaps guilty of that with old O'Dire-to-O'Brill-en. Mohammad Asif was another. And I've changed my mind on him more times than you could wish for - first I thought he looked diabolical and a no-hoper, then like the best thing to hit the game since Curtley Ambrose, now currently I think he's a waster of the biggest proportion, and knowing the way of Pakistan I reckon I'll probably have to change my mind again before his time's out.
Oh, and on that note, even I was fooled once - back in 2000 or so - by the "has Shoaib come good this time?" I was wary of it on all subsequent 2456256 occasions, though, and I always turned-out to be right.
Harry Harrison
Banned
Does he have any technique? How many of these centuries were scroed against Australia, South Africa or West Indies?
Jamee999
Hall of Fame Member
Agree with Katich, I didn't think he was up to much during the '05 Ashes (strangely one of my first cricketing memories is his first test, when he came into bat in the last over of the day, but didn't get to face a ball because the batsman had crossed over. I thought that was a bit harsh, getting psyched up for your first ball in a Test, and then having to wait till the next morning...)
Anyway, I didn't think he was up to much, but I've been mucho impressed with his reinvention into a Test opener.
Anyway, I didn't think he was up to much, but I've been mucho impressed with his reinvention into a Test opener.
Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
Yeah, old Merv was apparently quite a joke when he first faced England in '86/87 but got quite a bit better and between his England tours of '89 and '93 averaged 25.92, played 40 out of 45 Tests and a huge part in making Australia the side they would become.
Healy took rather longer to get going but he too was a massive influence for much longer than Merv was.
Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
Never got those who didn't rate Katich. I thought he looked like a terrific player when I first saw him, in 2000, and that was in a OD game FFS, a form he's clearly less good at than the longer one.
Wasn't remotely surprised he came good in Tests when he finally got in the team in 2003/04 (after the false-start in 2001 mentioned by Master Gray) and thought it was pretty obvious that in 2005 he was just worked-over by some magnificent bowling which precious few would've countered. Was really surprised he had that bad innings against WI (hit one straight to point IIRR) that resulted in him being dropped for Hodge, thought he could've come good again straight after the England series. Sadly it wasn't to be, and he's had to wait until a random opening at the top of the order came at the age of 33 before it happened.
