Most Underrated Cricketers in Cricket Chat

[sumantra]

Two South Africans come to mind right away - Mike Procter from old days and Shaun Pollock from modern times. Anyone else you have observed?

 

[trundler]

Nah. Both get picked in drafts as premium bowling ARs. Funny thing with Pollock is that everyone brings him up as an underrated bowler so often that he isn't actually underrated.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Ray Price
Mohammad Rafique
Nuwan Kulasekera

 

[Gob]

Dennis Lillee

 

[sumantra]

Nah. Both get picked in drafts as premium bowling ARs. Funny thing with Pollock is that everyone brings him up as an underrated bowler so often that he isn't actually underrated.

?

Never see him in any sides picked around his era though...another interesting observation in that regard, though Ambrose is rated as highly as McGrath, sometimes even higher, McGrath is almost always picked ahead of Ambrose in sides...

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

Ravi Jadeja.

 

[_00_deathscar]

Sehwag.

Yea everyone points to his home/Asia record, but the truth is he really lost it the last few years (including that horror year).

Here's his record up until end of 2010:
86 tests, 7,670 runs @ 54.01 at 82 S/R.
vs AUS: 17 tests @ 48.36
v PAK: 9 tests @ 91.14
vs NZ: 10 tests @ 44.41
v SA: 14 tests @ 53.41

Home bully you say?
in AUS: 7 tests @ 59.50
in ENG: 4 tests @ 39.50 (okay not great but not awful - it was to become awful later)
in PAK: 6 tests @ 91.50 (okay still subcontinent though)

He did have a horrible average in NZ and SA though.

All hindsight of course but if he had quit there and then, would he be rated much higher instead of clearly declining like he did?

 

[_00_deathscar]

?

Never see him in any sides picked around his era though...another interesting observation in that regard, though Ambrose is rated as highly as McGrath, sometimes even higher, McGrath is almost always picked ahead of Ambrose in sides...

Cos early Pollock, as good as he was, had to content with Ambrose, Donald, McGrath, Wasim, Waqar
And later Pollock had to contend with McGrath, Shoaib and Steyn, and he also was no longer quite as good by that stage.

Realise there's not a complete overlap there but sort of going by approx 5-10 year periods.

 

[sumantra]

Sehwag.

Yea everyone points to his home/Asia record, but the truth is he really lost it the last few years (including that horror year).

Here's his record up until end of 2010:
86 tests, 7,670 runs @ 54.01 at 82 S/R.
vs AUS: 17 tests @ 48.36
v PAK: 9 tests @ 91.14
vs NZ: 10 tests @ 44.41
v SA: 14 tests @ 53.41

Home bully you say?
in AUS: 7 tests @ 59.50
in ENG: 4 tests @ 39.50 (okay not great but not awful - it was to become awful later)
in PAK: 6 tests @ 91.50 (okay still subcontinent though)

He did have a horrible average in NZ and SA though.

All hindsight of course but if he had quit there and then, would he be rated much higher instead of clearly declining like he did?

Lots of suppression there...

In fact, I feel, he is one of the most overrated here.

 

[_00_deathscar]

Lots of suppression there...

In fact, I feel, he is one of the most overrated here.

I know he was pretty beastly in home conditions (and pitches in the 2000s were generally quite flat), but these are the openers who scored 1,000+ runs during Sehwag's "good years" before he fell off a cliff. To do what he did, at the strike rate he did it at, is pretty extraordinary.

 

[Jayro]

Richard Hadlee, Curtly Ambrose, Shaun Pollock,

 

[sumantra]

Richard Hadlee, Curtly Ambrose, Shaun Pollock,

Not sure about Hadlee, agreed on two others

 

[trundler]

Richard Hadlee, Curtly Ambrose, Shaun Pollock,

That's the 3rd, 4th and 18th greatest pacer respectively as per the forum. All considered ATGs.

 

[sumantra]

Cos early Pollock, as good as he was, had to content with Ambrose, Donald, McGrath, Wasim, Waqar
And later Pollock had to contend with McGrath, Shoaib and Steyn, and he also was no longer quite as good by that stage.

Realise there's not a complete overlap there but sort of going by approx 5-10 year periods.

Not solely as a bowler actually, more as an all rounder, a no. 7 kind of...see Kallis batting at 6 in many of these sides, Gilly at 7, wonder why not Gilly at 6 and Pollock at 7...at least in some of them. Kallis at 6 as a batsman is bit of a waste, and not sure if he can get good players out at a consistent basis...Kallis surely can come into anybody's side purely as a batsman though...Pollock might provide a better balance...so yeah, underrated more as an all rounder than purely as a bowler...

 

[sumantra]

That's the 3rd, 4th and 18th greatest pacer respectively as per the forum. All considered ATGs.

Ambrose, I don't know, may be rated higher, but McGrath almost always gets a nod ahead, when it comes down between the two in atg sides...bit baffling really.

 

[ataraxia]

Monty Noble

 

[Pothas]

Courtney Walsh

 

[Shady Slim]

Nah. Both get picked in drafts as premium bowling ARs. Funny thing with Pollock is that everyone brings him up as an underrated bowler so often that he isn't actually underrated.

tbf i would argue the draft posters are a subset of CC and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the broader forum

on topic, the answer is shane watson (though he is better rated here than he is amongst gen pop)

 

[sumantra]

I know he was pretty beastly in home conditions (and pitches in the 2000s were generally quite flat), but these are the openers who scored 1,000+ runs during Sehwag's "good years" before he fell off a cliff. To do what he did, at the strike rate he did it at, is pretty extraordinary.
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You are on a hard mission mate. You want to prove he isn't a home bully, and you put his performance in Pakistan, how different was Multan from his home? Point out his average in sub continent and outside sub continent, write down his performance in SENA, all his double and triple hundreds came in the sub continent, averages 20 in N. Z, 27 in England, 25 in S.A, come on...may be a little better than Dilip Vengsarkar, but still a BIG time home bully for sure.

 

[ataraxia]

tbf i would argue the draft posters are a subset of CC and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the broader forum

Drafters generally try to get the best possible side by the standards of CW (and I'd reckon that Shaun Pollock appears in a fair few draft-winning sides).