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Kapil Dev vs Ryan Harris

Who was the better bowler?(Tests)

  • Kapil Dev

    Votes: 32 71.1%
  • Ryan Harris

    Votes: 13 28.9%

  • Total voters
    45

subshakerz

Hall of Fame Member
he won tests, so he is a proper international bowler. you can't just watch a bloke win games and average 23 and pretend like he wasn't a proper bowler. that's internet nerd checkbox lord stuff that doesn't actually win real games of cricket.

harris was at worst the 3rd best of his mini era (i put him 2nd) and comfortably makes the list of top tier pace bowlers i've seen (mcgrath, cummins, harris, gillespie, haze, steyn, pollock, philander, rabada, bond, bumrah, anderson, shoaib) and makes the best australian side i've seen (though gillespie and haze are a good shout).

like, what kind of person thinks siddle is a proper test bowler but harris wasn't? they're both proper bowlers because they took test wickets in that role man.
Exactly. Just annoyed at how posters on this thread are trying so desperately to get us to ignore the quality of Harris we actually saw as one of the top bowlers in the world and pretend like it's an abheration
 

harsh.ag

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
he won tests, so he is a proper international bowler. you can't just watch a bloke win games and average 23 and pretend like he wasn't a proper bowler. that's internet nerd checkbox lord stuff that doesn't actually win real games of cricket.

harris was at worst the 3rd best of his mini era (i put him 2nd) and comfortably makes the list of top tier pace bowlers i've seen (mcgrath, cummins, harris, gillespie, haze, steyn, pollock, philander, rabada, bond, bumrah, anderson, shoaib) and makes the best australian side i've seen (though gillespie and haze are a good shout).

like, what kind of person thinks siddle is a proper test bowler but harris wasn't? they're both proper bowlers because they took test wickets in that role man.
Please learn to not take words for their exact literal meaning always, and get the essence. Same goes for Bond. Sneaky sneaky putting him in that list.
 

Teja.

Global Moderator
Anyway are you guys really saying that Kapil Dev had extended periods where his bowling was as good as peak Ryan Harris? It runs counter to everything I've heard but I'm not going to dismiss it completely
I’d say better.

Kapil in his first full year in test cricket in 1979 at the age of 20, led the wicket taking charts in tests by a massive margin. He took 74 wickets @ 22.9 and scored 609 runs @ 30.9 in 17 tests.

In the subsequent year, in the Indian tour of Australia in 80/81, Australia were leading 1-0 and had to chase 143 to win in the third and final test in Melbourne. Kapil took 5-28 to bowl Australia out in the 4th innings for 83 for a historic win to seal a very unlikely series draw.

Kapil Dev had 75 wickets in 1983 @ 23.18 bowling as the sole test level bowler in his side for most of the time with only batting AR Ravi Shastri as his support. The second highest amount of wickets that year was 54 by Marshall. 11 of those 18 tests were against the ATG WI side against whom he took 46 wickets @ 20.89. The remaining 6 tests were against Pakistan which was the second best side at the time. He also scored 579 runs @ 22.26 to add to the above including a 100* out of 95 balls against a bowling attack of Marshall, Holding, Roberts and Garner at Port of Spain.

He did this despite also to this day having the most intense workload for a young fast bowler in test history along with the additional burden of batting. He has 247 wickets @ 27 under the age of 24. Nobody else is even close to that volume for at that age.

The below puts into context the bowling attack Kapil was working with in 1983:

1666989872217.png
 
Last edited:

Gob

International Coach
Some p bad comments. Didn't see Kapil and don't know much about his career but on longevity grounds, he is definitely a 'greater' bowler than Rhyno Harris

But Harris himself is a ****ing phenomenal bowler. Only time I can actually recall him bowling badly was in SA back in 14 for the first two tests but even then he came back to win the last test on one leg. I'd have him ahead of McDermott, Gillespie, Hazlewood, Starc, Johnson, Thompson etc for sure
 

subshakerz

Hall of Fame Member
I’d say better.

Kapil in his first full year in test cricket in 1979 at the age of 20, led the wicket taking charts in tests by a massive margin. He took 74 wickets @ 22.9 and scored 609 runs @ 30.9 in 17 tests.

In the subsequent year, in the Indian tour of Australia in 80/81, Australia were leading 1-0 and had to chase 143 to win in the third and final test in Melbourne. Kapil took 5-28 to bowl Australia out in the 4th innings for 83 for a historic win to seal a very unlikely series draw.

Kapil Dev had 75 wickets in 1983 @ 23.18 bowling as the sole test level bowler in his side for most of the time with only batting AR Ravi Shastri as his support. The second highest amount of wickets that year was 54 by Marshall. 11 of those 18 tests were against the ATG WI side against whom he took 46 wickets @ 20.89. The remaining 6 tests were against Pakistan which was the second best side at the time. He also scored 579 runs @ 22.26 to add to the above including a 100* out of 95 balls against a bowling attack of Marshall, Holding, Roberts and Garner at Port of Spain.

He did this despite also to this day having the most intense workload for a young fast bowler in test history along with the additional burden of batting. He has 247 wickets @ 27 under the age of 24. Nobody else is even close to that volume for at that age.

The below puts into context the bowling attack Kapil was working with in 1983:

View attachment 33344
Two years of worldclass performances in a 15 year bowler career versus someone who was a world-class bowler for half of his overall career and all of his international career.
 

_00_deathscar

International Regular
Two years of worldclass performances in a 15 year bowler career versus someone who was a world-class bowler for half of his overall career and all of his international career.
“All of his international career” are 27 matches you ****wit.
A couple of years of Kapil comprise more tests than that.

Harris is Mitch Johnson if Mitch were only picked for the tests he was a literal God, and if he’d been injured/dropped/not even selected/not even a consideration for the test squad/not even doing it in domestic cricket for the rest of his career.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
Saltshakerz is just butthurt abt how this WC is gng so far. U can see a pretty simple pattern to his posting. More India are successful more his obvious hatred comes through. Similarly, the more Pak suck the more obvious the hatred towards Indian cricket comes out.
 

TheJediBrah

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Harris is Mitch Johnson if Mitch were only picked for the tests he was a literal God, and if he’d been injured/dropped/not even selected/not even a consideration for the test squad/not even doing it in domestic cricket for the rest of his career.
Brah that's just wrong and representative of the major form of cognitive dissonance perfusing this thread. You can't just compare every game a guy played to the best of the same amount of games of another guy and pretend it's a fair comparison.

The thread is clearly a terrible comparison but logic has flown at the window
This is somehow the worst post in this dire thread.
Textbook projection, someone call Dr Phil
 

subshakerz

Hall of Fame Member
Sadly many of these Indian fanboys take any slight against any of their greats, no matter how debatable the point, as the ultimate unpardonable national offense. I've never seen a more easily triggered fanbase.

Kapil not as good as Harris? Wow, you India-hater.

Sehwag didn't play as well as Anwar in SENA? You frickin biased **** &%*^&.
 

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