Players who handled one type of bowling awsomely but failed against the other.

[fredfertang]

I could be wrong,but i always felt his biggest weakness was against Leg Spin.He looked clueless everytime i saw him against a leg spinner.

All English batsman bar one looked clueless against good legspin from the time I started watching cricket until relatively recently, primarily because they never saw it - they were all at sea against Abdul Qadir, the one classy one, and even the likes of Peter Sleep and Bob Holland were treated with enormous respect - the bar one was Ian Botham who looked perfectly at ease against it - another reason why he was so frustrating - what a great batsman he could and should have been

 

[robelinda]

Botham at ease against legspin....ask Trevor Hohns what he thinks about that.....

 

[Uppercut]

I remember one innings he played, a televised knock against Surrey, on a turning pitch, when Fred destroyed Saqlain and (admittedly less of a scalp) Salisbury en route to a superb hundred. It was the first time I had seen him score runs and it was bloody awesome to watch. And I think he got some runs against Warne in '05.

Having said all of which I agree he wasn't, overall, great against the slow stuff

I'd have said that when he was in form he handled both spin and pace pretty well, but when out of nick (i.e. most of the time) he was average against pace but lolbad against spin.

 

[Outswinger@Pace]

Navjot Sidhu - Superb against spin. Except that double-hundred in West Indies, not much to write about against pace

Sourav Ganguly - Magnificent against all kinds of spin and medium pace. Atrociously poor against quick, short-pitched stuff. How this guy made his debut in the mid 90s (facing Ambrose, Walsh, Donald, Pollock, McGrath, Gillespie, Gough and Caddick regularly) and ended up averaging 40+ is one of the great mysteries of cricket for me!

Robin Smith - Probably one of the truly great players as far as real pace was concerned. Found it very difficult against spin with his tendency to push with hard hands.

Ashwell Prince - Very good against pace and medium-paced swing. Woeful against spin.

Thilan Samaraweera - Read S C Ganguly above. A true dud against pace. A genuine FTB and certainly the worst player to average 50+ IMHO. His rise as a player and the worldwide plummet in fast bowling standards are not coincidental.

Sherwin Campbell - This is a peculiar case. While Campbell was a mediocre batsman on the whole, his profound weakness against one type of delivery stood out - the fast inswinger/off-cutter. For an opener, he had a very weak defense against the incoming delivery.

 

[Outswinger@Pace]

Cullinan worth a mention, folks? I saw him score a superb century in Kandy against the vicious Murali and certainly he wasn't a poor player of spin to be able to do that. Maybe, leg-spin was the Achilles' heel for him.

 

[Uppercut]

Thilan Samaraweera - Read S C Ganguly above. A true dud against pace. A genuine FTB and certainly the worst player to average 50+ IMHO. His rise as a player and the worldwide plummet in fast bowling standards are not coincidental.

Samaraweera isn't notably better against spin than pace, he doesn't really belong in this thread. He's more of a home-track specialist.

 

[zaremba]

All English batsman bar one looked clueless against good legspin from the time I started watching cricket until relatively recently, primarily because they never saw it - they were all at sea against Abdul Qadir, the one classy one, and even the likes of Peter Sleep and Bob Holland were treated with enormous respect - the bar one was Ian Botham who looked perfectly at ease against it - another reason why he was so frustrating - what a great batsman he could and should have been

To be fair Gooch looked pretty good against Warne in 1993.

 

[Xuhaib]

Devon Snith-Mediocre player overall a tail ender against off spin and takes it further and turns into Chris Martin vs Mohammad Hafeez.

 

[fredfertang]

Botham at ease against legspin....ask Trevor Hohns what he thinks about that.....

Indeed - Botham had well and truly wasted his talent before he came up against Trevor Hohns in 1989

 

[robelinda]

Was pretty funny though!!! that hoick was so awful, just a wild slog, he thought it was 1981 again, his form had long deserted him by 1989 indeed. I was just watching that test yesterday, Hohns was a very average bowler indeed, but did ok on that 89 tour.

 

[Spark]

I don't think Sameraweera has really played enough outside the subcontinent to say, tbh. Not played a Test here. Certainly looks a bit meh against good swing/pace bowling though.

 

[salman85]

Laxman's weakness against fast bowlers moving the ball in worth a mention?

Great batsman otherwise,but he has been out to that delivery quite a few times.Maybe it's just the bowler being on fire than anything else,but i always felt that was a weak part in Laxman's technique.I remember Asif and Gul exploiting it quite regularly when India last toured Pakistan.

 

[Outswinger@Pace]

Laxman's weakness against fast bowlers moving the ball in worth a mention?

Great batsman otherwise,but he has been out to that delivery quite a few times.Maybe it's just the bowler being on fire than anything else,but i always felt that was a weak part in Laxman's technique.I remember Asif and Gul exploiting it quite regularly when India last toured Pakistan.

That's a fair point. For a great player, Laxman does tend to get bowled a lot through the gate by sometimes not-so-special deliveries. Flintoff bowling him in the Bangalore Test, 2001 (through a foot-wide gate 'tween bat and pad) is still vivid in my memory.

Having said that, his record against one of the greatest off-cut exponents - Glenn McGrath - is very good. I am sure that it is more of a mindset than a serious flaw.Trying to flick deliveries outside off to mid-wicket isn't always on!

 

[Andre]

Cullinan worth a mention, folks? I saw him score a superb century in Kandy against the vicious Murali and certainly he wasn't a poor player of spin to be able to do that. Maybe, leg-spin was the Achilles' heel for him.

Na played all types of spin really well. Just Warne had him completely in the head, was a walking wicket against him.

 

[weldone]

Imperious against spin, mediocre against pace:

Navjot Singh Sidhu
Vinod Kambli

 

[akilana]

Ponting against Bhajji

 

[slowfinger]

Graeme Hick.

Could handle pace very well,but arguably the worst specialist batsman i've seen against Leg Spin.

Yeah, won't argue with that. But so are most Englishmen.

 

[zaremba]

Well, looking at his career figures he averages about 35 aganist both India and Australia who had the best leggies during his career (not flash, but better than his overall test figure of of 31.32), as opposed to 15.76 against the Pakistan of Waqar and Wasim and 29.35 against the Windies.

The Pakistan of Waqar and Wasim also had Mushtaq Ahmed and I remember Hick being made to look silly by Mushy in the 1992 series. CBF checking how often he dismissed him though.

On the other hand, it's fair to say that Shane Warne is one player who speaks very highly of Hick's ability. And of course he (in)famously knocked seven shades of **** out of Warne's bowling in the warm-up match before the 1993 Ashes, scoring an enormous hundred. Warne is said to have been under instructions not to show his full repertoire in that match, but I'm not sure how seriously to take that.

 

[fredfertang]

Mind you Hick smacked around a top class West Indian pace attack in this game when he was nobbut a lad of 22, but he was still ****ing awful when he met them again three years later

 

[slowfinger]

Mind you Hick smacked around a top class West Indian pace attack in this game when he was nobbut a lad of 22, but he was still ****ing awful when he met them again three years later

Mind, Hick in county cricket was a sight to behold. Too much county cricket and little exposure to international level kinda ruined him IMO.