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Wasim Akram vs Dennis Lillee
- Thread starter PlayerComparisons
- Start date
TheJediBrah
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Proper weight training won't help you bowl faster unless you're a very, very weak person to begin with. Some light to moderate functional resistance work is essential for any human that can safely do it though.
bagapath
International Captain
Pollock and Walsh didn't bowl out as many teams as Botham did. The number of times he ran through batting line ups in the first few years of his career was quite scary. Beefy was the best bowler in the world when Lillee and Roberts and Holding were firing on all cylinders. By the time Imran and Hadlee and Garner and then Marshall hit peak form he had started to fade away, though. Walsh and Pollock were not in this league of bowlers in my opinion. This is the Ambrose, McGrath, Steyn zone. One step about them.
subshakerz
Hall of Fame Member
Pollock from mid-nineties to early 2000 was a supremely underrated bowler.
h_hurricane
International Vice-Captain
No disrespect to Bagapath, but there is no ****ing way Botham was as good a bowler as Pollock or Walsh. 5 wicket haul is an interesting metric, and it gives a player edge over another player with a similar average but lesser 5 wicket hauls but that is clearly not the case here.
bagapath
International Captain
Botham was the best bowler in the world for about 4 years.
stats.espncricinfo.com
Wickets/ SR/ Avg/ five wicket hauls... he was the leading fast bowler in a world full of superstar pacers.
Walsh and S Pollock were never consistent world beaters like Beefy was for the first half of his career. Running through famed batting line-ups was his hobby. That ability to turn the match around with a cluster of wickets is what I am talking about. Not just 2/3 wicket hauls. I would happily take a 5 for 75 over a 3 for 40 any day.
Bowling records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPNcricinfo.com
Wickets/ SR/ Avg/ five wicket hauls... he was the leading fast bowler in a world full of superstar pacers.
Walsh and S Pollock were never consistent world beaters like Beefy was for the first half of his career. Running through famed batting line-ups was his hobby. That ability to turn the match around with a cluster of wickets is what I am talking about. Not just 2/3 wicket hauls. I would happily take a 5 for 75 over a 3 for 40 any day.
bagapath
International Captain
Loved him during that phase and even beyond. In fact even when he was past his peak, he never became a **** bowler that beefy was for the second part of his career. I also firmly believe S Pollock had the wood on Tendulkar throughout their careers. Accurate and relentless and intelligent always. What a cricketer he was!
He was not as a big a match winner as Botham, though.
4 years is a very short amount of time to judge a full length career on. Mitchell johnson had a peak not too far off this in terms of time. Rate him up there too? And Imran as the GOAT?Botham was the best bowler in the world for about 4 years.
Bowling records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPNcricinfo.com
Wickets/ SR/ Avg/ five wicket hauls... he was the leading fast bowler in a world full of superstar pacers.
Walsh and S Pollock were never consistent world beaters like Beefy was for the first half of his career. Running through famed batting line-ups was his hobby. That ability to turn the match around with a cluster of wickets is what I am talking about. Not just 2/3 wicket hauls. I would happily take a 5 for 75 over a 3 for 40 any day.
Think you are overlooking competition for wickets a bit re. Walsh and Pollock. Walsh was fighting up to 3 ATG strike bowlers. Peak Pollock sometimes had a 7th bowler averaging in the low 30s, plus peak Donald. Not to say they outperformed him over a length of time you are specifically picking to suit Botham... there is a strong argument. But over a more meaningful length of time, he is clearly behind.
CodeOfWisden
U19 Cricketer
Dennis Lillee ahead of Akram in tests.
Adorable Asshole
International Regular
Except he wouldn't have been able to.
Adorable Asshole
International Regular
I don't understand why are people comparing Akram 18 year old career to Lillee 13 yar old career. Here is Akram 13 year old career before he got diabetes
His stats in SA, India and WI are unimpressive but overall still better than Lillee imo
His stats in SA, India and WI are unimpressive but overall still better than Lillee imo
subshakerz
Hall of Fame Member
Diabetes ain't no excuse. Him debuting earlier is an excuse. I would count from last 80s onwards maybe
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
Hoggard.
Coronis
International Coach
Tell that to my one legged uncle.
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
Is he a Stokes too?
Coronis
International Coach
Maybe…
Adorable Asshole
International Regular
Wow. 31-31
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
I wonder if my exaggerated anti-Lillee propaganda has moved the needle enough in the past two years to get a more decisive Wasim result if we ran the poll again from a fresh start.