Garry Sobers vs Brian Lara?

[a massive zebra]

He averaged 83 and 89 against India and Pakistan who were minnows in their time. Without them his average falls 49. Still good but he did a bit of minnow bashing.

Compared to Lara who has a more well rounded record.

Both are in my top 10 tho.

It's misleading to call India and Pakistan minnows in Sobers era.

Pakistan's record in Tests involving Sobers is a very competitive won 3 lost 4. Fazal Mahmood, the godfather of Pakistani pace bowling, played in all WI vs Pakistan Tests involving Sobers, taking 41 wickets @ 26.

Five of India's six leading wicket takers in Test matches involving Sobers were Bedi, Gupte, Prasanna, Chandrasekhar and Venkataraghavan. These are amongst the best spinners ever produced by India and four of them formed a famous spin bowling quartet.

 

[Slifer]

He averaged 83 and 89 against India and Pakistan who were minnows in their time. Without them his average falls 49. Still good but he did a bit of minnow bashing.

Compared to Lara who has a more well rounded record.

Both are in my top 10 tho.

Then you'd have to take out his stats vs NZ as well since they were minnows as well. Against Australia and England he averaged a more than passable 53.7 with 14 100s in 55 tests.

 

[Slifer]

It's misleading to call India and Pakistan minnows in Sobers era.

Pakistan's record in Tests involving Sobers is a very competitive won 3 lost 4. Fazal Mahmood, the godfather of Pakistani pace bowling, played in all WI vs Pakistan Tests involving Sobers, taking 41 wickets @ 26.

Five of India's six leading wicket takers in Test matches involving Sobers were Bedi, Gupte, Prasanna, Chandrasekhar and Venkataraghavan. These are amongst the best spinners ever produced by India and four of them formed a famous spin bowling quartet.

India certainly weren't minnows. They won series away in England and WI during Sobers' time.

 

[ataraxia]

Sobers only averaged 15 in NZ. lol

who cares?

(except us Kiwis who didn't get to see him at his best, it seems)

 

[Adorable Asshole]

It's misleading to call India minnows in Sobers era. Five of India's six leading wicket takers in Test matches involving Sobers were Bedi, Gupte, Prasanna, Chandrasekhar and Venkataraghavan. These are all amongst the best spinners ever produced by India and four of them formed a famous spin bowling quartet.

Being the India's best bowler is not a big deal. Bumrah only has 128 wickets and he is our best bowler ever.

Anyway, Kumble, Ashwin and Jadeja are better than them.

Then you'd have to take out his stats vs NZ as well since they were minnows as well. Against Australia and England he averaged a more than passable 53.7 with 14 100s in 55 tests.

Yes Sobers was good but Lara was better

 

[Coronis]

Being the India's best bowler is not a big deal. Bumrah only has 128 wickets and he is or best bowler ever.

If they were all so **** why did Lara suck against them?

 

[Adorable Asshole]

If they were all so **** why did Lara suck against them?

Lara was too much of a chad to be a minnow basher

 

[Coronis]

Lara was too much of a chad to be a minnow basher

Or maybe they would’ve actually won a few more matches..

 

[subshakerz]

Sobers was Lara except better.

 

[Sunil1z]

Lara was too much of a chad to be a minnow basher

India weren’t minnows in 90s and 00s. Why are you giving this sort of argument?

In fact WI last won a test series against India in 2002 and last won a Test series in India in 83 iirc.

 

[Calm_profit]

Lara actually missed tours of U. A.E, India and Bangladesh in 2002 due to eye surgery.

 

[Adorable Asshole]

India weren’t minnows in 90s and 00s. Why are you giving this sort of argument?

During Lara's time, India was among bowling side in the world(with NZ and England) plus it was a tongue in cheek reply

 

[ankitj]

For shame @honestbharani

 

[honestbharani]

lol... there are only two batsmen I vote ahead of Lara in these polls.. Bradman and Sobers.

 

[Adorable Asshole]

lol... there are only two batsmen I vote ahead of Lara in these polls.. Bradman and Sobers.

Why though? While i rate Lara as the 2nd best bat, there are many good arguments for Sachin, Viv, Hobbs Gavaskar even Smith being better than him but Sobers is definetly not one of them. He mostly batted at 6 and didn't face that many great bowlers.

 

[honestbharani]

Nah... I only rate Bradman and Sobers above Lara. All the rest you mentioned are easily below him for me as test batsmen.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

During Lara's time, India was among bowling side in the world(with NZ and England) plus it was a tongue in cheek reply

Not sure what an among bowling side is, but it sounds quite dangerous.

 

[Xuhaib]

Not sure who was better but watching Sobers youtube clips is just love. I dont think i have seen a better combination of grace/flair/technique.

 

[Days of Grace]

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/e...8;spanval1=span;template=results;type=batting

10 years averaging 73. No minnows. 82 against England. Enough said.

 

[h_hurricane]

Why though? Why i rate Lara as the 2nd best bat, there are many good arguments for Sachin, Viv, Hobbs Gavaskar even Smith being better than him but Sobers is definetly not one of them. He mostly batted at 6 and didn't face that many great bowlers.

Sobers averaged 60.62 when he batted at no.5 or above, and scored around 60% of his runs at these positions. His great average is in spite of batting at 6, not because of it.

Also, others you mentioned did not have the workload of bowling an insane 40 overs per match, hence could focus on their batting alone. One more reason why I rate Sobers as the best ever batsman after Bradman. A unique cricketer in history whichever way you look at it.