Fuller Pilch
Hall of Fame Member
Fair point
True, but Steak was no where the bowler Vaas was in ODIsl, arguably he is even better than Kapil in ODIs. Only Wasim would be better than him in ODIs among Asian bowlers. SL had so many bowling all rounders (or bits and pieces players), Vaas was not required to bat regularly.I know it is a different format, but Streak averaged 28 with the bat in ODIs which is genuinely good. Vaas averaged less than 14.
Kapil by 1990 was nearly done. He was the sole seamer of any note for his entire career in a country historically starved of seamers, playing in an era where captains would have had little clue about managing workloads. We complain about Kohli bowling Bumrah into the ground; Kapil played some ridiculous number of consecutive Tests for India, over a hundred if I remember right. I can't imagine what his body went through bowling day in day out on unforgiving wickets. He's a legend. Like Imran for Pak, there is no modern Indian seam tradition without him.That's because you saw him bowl well in Australia and the other 2 struggle. I remember Kapil touring NZ in 1990 and was hyped up against Hadlee and he looked 2nd rate compared to Hadlee and Danny Morrison.
What are your thoughts on Don Bradman?ffs not this again. Heath played for Zim and that too in the 90s when every top 8 team were nearly as good as eachother
Fannie was one of the players struggling to hold down a berth in the team because of too much similar competition (and a related debatable selection policy). Only played 18 tests, with a really similar role to streak, and a better career record.You might be right, though for him to have been the (then) 3rd highest U21 wicket taker in the history of test cricket (and that without test-class support at the other end) would suggest that he was definitely good enough. Throw in his handy lower-order batting and you'd have to say he would've rounded out the Donald-Fannie partnership very nicely in the mid-90's. Was also one of the finest ODI all-rounders of the 90's-early 00's (29 with the ball and 28 with the bat), though again South Africa weren't exactly short of players who could fill that role in the late 90's.
Always felt his workload was too heavy - overcooked, you could say...True, but Steak was no where the bowler Vaas was in ODIsl, arguably he is even better than Kapil in ODIs. Only Wasim would be better than him in ODIs among Asian bowlers. SL had so many bowling all rounders (or bits and pieces players), Vaas was not required to bat regularly.
Steak was a rare talent, only bowled Medium Pace but most of his performance had people saying 'Well Done'Always felt his workload was too heavy - overcooked, you could say...
He was a medium rare!Always felt his workload was too heavy - overcooked, you could say...
Not really. His average hovered around the high 28-29 level pretty much since 1982/83, except for a brief dip back below 28 in late '83.numbers got really affected for carrying on for too long.
Retiring at that point wouldn't have been a fair comparison. Streak's career lasted 1993-2005, you are talking about the first 6 years for Dev.Streak had 215 wickets in 65 tests @ 28.14.
Vaas had 355 wickets in 111 tests @ 29.58.
Kapil before the age of 24 had 247 wickets in 62 tests @ 27.7 (along with 2483 runs @ 30)
If Kapil had retired for whatever reason at that point, his career would still be very much comparable to the other two bowlers. He ended up playing for 11 more years and took 187 more wickets (along with 5000+ total runs) contributing tremendously to the team over a ridiculously long career without missing a single game.
I think Vaas is underrated as well. My point is that is forgotten just how much of a freak early Kapil was. I think he definitely could've blossomed into an even greater bowler if he didn't have to play the most amount of test cricket any cricketer has ever played that young while shouldering the burden of being the only test class bowler in the side and also being an all-rounder.
Resposting the below image from a previous post regarding the support he was working with during his peak:
View attachment 29019
PFK will manipulate these stats into oblivion somehowRetiring at that point wouldn't have been a fair comparison. Streak's career lasted 1993-2005, you are talking about the first 6 years for Dev.
Since you want to take the segment of Dev's career which was best - his first 6 years.
Dev 247 wickets @ 27.7 in 62 tests first 6 years at 3.98 per game.
Streak 114 wickets @ 23.1 in 26 tests first 6 years at 4.38 per game.
They were both 19 years old on debut, Streak younger. This was 47.3% of Dev's games and 40% of Streak's. Despite the statistical advantage of playing more percentage of games when younger for this particular comparison, Dev still took less wickets per game overall at a worse average, worse economy and worst strike rate than Streak. On top of this Streak bowled more overs per innings in his overall career (22 vs 20). Using Dev's first six years to try to discredit Streak doesn't work, nor is it remotely fair. You cannot penalise a player because their team played less often when they played 65 tests in total - a career of this length in years.
Zimbabwe's second highest ever test wicket taker is on 80 wickets overall - some extra perspective. Even in his 7th year Streak only played 1 test - which he took 5/93 in the first innings (Australia were set 5 to win in the 4th innings and chased it off 4 balls off Strang). Meaning Streak took 119 wickets @ 22.9 in his first 7 years in test cricket - 27 tests at 4.4 per game, ATG level bowling in a seven year segment..