smash84
The Tiger King
He was watching videos of Clarke's batting on his honeymoon and has been following him ever closely ever since
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MJ Clarke - numero uno Test batsman?
- Thread starter KungFu_Kallis
- Start date
Xuhaib
International Coach
not been watching much cricket this year apart from when Pakistan is involved and I admit a lot of my judgement is cricinfo based but the numbers tell me the extra gear that Clarke has found at home has not yet translated to his away form. Maybe being the only World class batsman in the side takes its toll on him when he is on the road but he has to have one really gun away series aka Amla in England last year or AB in UAE this year to really convince me that he is a class above the Mo Yo's and the Mahela's.
Spikey
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Xuhaib
International Coach
He is not batting badly away he does avg 47 in his last 8 away tests but the domination that he is doing at home is not happening I am sure the likes of Ponting, Sachin, Dravid Lara were dominating attacks away during their peak years.In recent time Amla, AB, and Cook have done it but when your best away series is still your debut series after 10 years then it shows there needs to be some improvements in that area.
Daemon
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Need to bring Marsh and North whenever they tour overseas obviously.
benchmark00
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What conditions has Clarke not found a way to succeed in? That's my question.
The issue is who is the best batsman, and it's one that shouldn't be just based on stats. Clarke has succeeded in every type of environment you can name, he's ticked all the boxes, he has nothing else to prove in that respect.
The leading group is Amla and Clarke, then there's a considerable distance back to the next group of bats. I don't blame people for saying Amla, it's easy to make a case for him and hard to make a case against, but it's the same with Clarke as well and for me I'd have him #1 purely because he's proven he can play a back to the wall style innings more often than Amla, but that's the only reason.
The issue is who is the best batsman, and it's one that shouldn't be just based on stats. Clarke has succeeded in every type of environment you can name, he's ticked all the boxes, he has nothing else to prove in that respect.
The leading group is Amla and Clarke, then there's a considerable distance back to the next group of bats. I don't blame people for saying Amla, it's easy to make a case for him and hard to make a case against, but it's the same with Clarke as well and for me I'd have him #1 purely because he's proven he can play a back to the wall style innings more often than Amla, but that's the only reason.
Xuhaib
International Coach
I might be wrong in regards to AB as I pointed this year I have mainly watched Pakistani stuff which did involve a lot of AB. I think my top 3 are interchangeable (Ab, Sanga, Amla) but my point on Clarke still stands.
Xuhaib
International Coach
Benchy,
Clarke can be very good in every condition I am not labeling him a home track bully but he does have consistencies issue away from home through the course of a series and its not a temperament issue as he does not have the same problem when batting at home so you have to wonder what the issue is.
Spark
Global Moderator
I wouldn't have AB in my top five. Would probably scrape into my World XI but only just.
Classic case in when you make your runs being rather important beyond just how many.
Classic case in when you make your runs being rather important beyond just how many.
The wonderful thing about statistics and small sample sizes, they let us ascribe tremendous meaning to things which really are quite meaningless.
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
I think it depends a bit on how you approach the question. When I ask myself who the best batsman in the world is - or the best bowler, or the best team - I don't entirely base on it on their past results. It's mainly that, but also somewhat prediction I suppose, extrapolating those results into an idea of how you think they'd go in a variety of circumstances in the short to medium term.
Once you've retired that's it, you should be judged on your results, but your quality right now isn't always reflected entirely by your record. That Clarke has demonstrated the ability to play great innings in all conditions goes to point that he's likely to improve his away record in the short-term - not just if he improves his batting, but just if he plays more cricket and maintains the current standards of his play. The standard of his batsmanship right now is better than his away record suggests. If he retires without really proving that then he can suck eggs and be rightly compared to someone like Jayawardene but a "right now" type comparison is something I approach a bit differently.
Once you've retired that's it, you should be judged on your results, but your quality right now isn't always reflected entirely by your record. That Clarke has demonstrated the ability to play great innings in all conditions goes to point that he's likely to improve his away record in the short-term - not just if he improves his batting, but just if he plays more cricket and maintains the current standards of his play. The standard of his batsmanship right now is better than his away record suggests. If he retires without really proving that then he can suck eggs and be rightly compared to someone like Jayawardene but a "right now" type comparison is something I approach a bit differently.
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Burgey
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Jono
Virat Kohli (c)
AB is a gun. Is he #1? No. But the backlash to him being #1 suddenly means people are underrating him I reckon.
Jono
Virat Kohli (c)
PEWS is Mike Sheahan!!!
Sanga is the worst example possible if you want to pull down another player for not doing well away. Sanga averages in some countries : 30 in England, 36.5 in India, 35 in SA, 34 in West Indies. Outside of the subcontinent he averages 40 if you exclude Zimbabwe. Clarke's away average doesn't look as bad now does it? As for AB, he is just a downhill skier in both ODIs and tests. There was a reason he was MoM in two dead rubbers against Pakistan in the 8 ODIs that were played recently and went AWOL in the other games generally. In the series in 2010 that India won 2-1 he scored a 100 in a hopeless cause in the 2nd ODI when the match was gone and then another 100 in the dead rubber then against India C. He is a bit of a choker in ICC tournaments. In tests also there is a similar pattern I still remember the test series against India...smashed a 200 in the first test last time when the top order had put up about 2000 runs, failed miserably in the next game when he was needed. Scored a 200 against Pak after being dropped a million times too. Very talented player but he cannot play under pressure. Amla is the only real comparison to Clarke and even doesn't have nearly the same ability to play under pressure as Clarke does.
Spark
Global Moderator
Nah I've said this for a while tbh
EDIT: Not sure where this idea that Amla doesn't have the same ability to play under pressure as Clarke comes from, though? Okay sure he hasn't played as many balls-to-the-wall 3/30 knocks as Clarke but that's more because that SA are rarely ever 3/30.
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