A comparison of Test bowlers with 300 wickets

[Archer6K]

 

[Archer6K]

Lance Gibbs is underrated

 

[Archer6K]

View attachment 39494

Credit to cricketing view

 

[Burgey]

Lance Gibbs is underrated

And Malcolm Marshall seems over rated

 

[TheJediBrah]

And Malcolm Marshall seems over rated

Still have to all these in context. You can't just ignore all other factors.

For example Marshall played with other ATG WI fast bowlers so despite being as good as he was the "Average Difference" isn't going to be as good as bowlers that played with less good bowlers.

Murali played a lot of cricket against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe who had weak bowlers bowling to SL batsmen in those same games so his "Average Difference" is going to be higher.

Nathan Lyon's is high mostly because overseas spinners don't know how to bowl in Australia

Tbh while it's an interesting stat to look at I don't think it really tells us much we don't already know

 

[Coronis]

It does help that most of Gibbs’ career he was the only world class spinner, he did better than the quartet though but I already had him ahead of them. Favourable comparison with Underwood though.

 

[_00_deathscar]

Steyn gun
Anderson meh, barely better than Kapil, if at all.

 

[Coronis]

Spinners inherently seem to have an advantage by this metric - since they usually only have a single serious competitor, and some shoddy part timers no doubt.

Pollock’s numbers impressive too, no doubt due to the relative dearth of quality pacers aside from himself and McGrath during the 00’s.

 

[trundler]

Vettori being 1% worse than the average spinner is hilarious.

 

[Patience and Accuracy+Gut]

View attachment 39494

Could probably add few more like Barnes, O’Reilly etc.

 

[Howe_zat]

Career average is still a pretty weak measure so using it still doesn't produce great comparative results. This is a way of making a good point about a handful of specific players though.

 

[Archer6K]

Could probably add few more like Barnes, O’Reilly etc.

O’Reilly: 22.59 average, other spinners in the matches O’Reilly played: 29.90, 24% better
Barnes: 16.43 average, other fast bowlers in the matches Barnes played: 23.83, 31% better

 

[thierry henry]

What this says about Vettori is 100% accurate

 

[ataraxia]

Vettori being 1% worse than the average spinner is hilarious.

tbf to him (and Ishant I guess) if he didn't exist the average spinner average in his matches would have been significantly higher.

 

[Coronis]

And just some other sub 300’s

the current big 3:

Cummins: 22.59, others 30.17, 25% better
Rabada: 22.05, others 25.60, 14% better
Bumrah: 20.39, others 25.69, 21% better

Cummins rules, Rabada drools

notable pacers:

Garner: 20.97, others 28.72, 27% better
Holding: 23.68, others 28.34, 16% better
Bedser: 24.89, others 31.73, 22% better
Lindwall: 23.03, others 29.20, 21% better
Roberts: 25.61, others 29.49, 13% better
Davidson: 20.53, others 29.16, 30% better
Miller: 22.97, others 28.94, 21% better

Davidson and Garner for life @Prince EWS

notable spinners:
Underwood: 25.83, others 37.15, 30% better
Jadeja: 24.15, others 34.84, 31% better
Benaud: 27.03, others 32.63, 17% better
Grimmett: 24.21, others 31.12, 22% better
Laker: 21.24, others 29.22, 27% better
Tayfield: 25.91, others 31.52, 18% better
Verity: 24.37, others 36.80, 34% better

English spinners best spinners

notable AR’s
Kallis: 32.65, others 31.36, 4% worse
Shakib: 31.06, others 34.02, 9% better

@trundler clearly right, Kallis sucks. Worst bowler to take 292 wickets

didnt do Sobers cos he bowled both

 

[Immenso]

For the small sample size guys. (If I have understood the maths correctly)

Kyle Jamieson: 19.74, Others 31.86. 38% better.

 

[Xix2565]

For example Marshall played with other ATG WI fast bowlers so despite being as good as he was the "Average Difference" isn't going to be as good as bowlers that played with less good bowlers.

I mean in his case, he's going from good to great with his figures compared to the rest of the pack. I don't think this is overrating him at all, it just highlights what a great cricketer he was to be able to stand out from the pack like this.

 

[Bolo.]

I mean in his case, he's going from good to great with his figures compared to the rest of the pack. I don't think this is overrating him at all, it just highlights what a great cricketer he was to be able to stand out from the pack like this.

See: Walsh looking like a bog average player.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Vettori being 1% worse than the average spinner is hilarious.

Hardly much of a surprise though as I suspect if you compared his performance to a hypothetical alternative NZ spinner, he'd still be much better. Vettori took 300+ test wickets in part due to him being the only half decent option available for most of his career. I doubt that'd be the same for many in this list.

Also, not much SLA in this 300+ club is there.

 

[thierry henry]

Hardly much of a surprise though as I suspect if you compared his performance to a hypothetical alternative NZ spinner, he'd still be much better.

100%. But I always thought that was a perverse source of praise for Vettori - "actually he's great, because all of our other spin options are terrible" never made a lot of sense to me.

He's a rare case of a guy taking 300+ wickets despite being only serviceable in his role, because there were no other options. Might be just about the best example of it ever. And that's precisely why there's a very good argument he's the worst bowler in the 300 club.