One thing that must be noted is that South Africa had one of the best bowling attacks of their era.. Even greater than Pakisthan line up of the 70s and 80s
Donald , Pollock and Ntini
Steyn, Pollock and Ntini
Steyn (rank 1 for 6 years) , Morkel and Philander (at peak took 50 wickets in just 7 tests)
so the fourth seamer Kallis on many occasions was not given the extreme ‘NEW BALL’ .
Though of mediocre quality Kallis was a swing bowler rather than bowler who relied much on speed, bounce or seam
most of you mention that without these support his average would’ve reached late 30s. Well in Sub Continent, Australian and New Zealand conditions if he was tested like that his average would’ve dropped.
But Kallis getting more exposure with the new ball in the South African Greeny conditions would have definitely improved his wickets per match and by which would’ve boosted his average.
In English conditions Kallis averages 29.
Im not saying he would average mid 20s or something with the new ball in these conditions. But definitely he would average better than 29 and 30 in English and South African conditions respectively.
In England
Tests : 15
Wickets : 39
Wickets/ match : 2.6
In South Africa
Tests : 88
Wickets : 166
Wickets/ match : 1.88
In West Indies (Bowling against Lara, Chanderpaul, Gayle etc makes them non minnows atleast in batting, also considering his best bowling performance against them came in the 90s and early 2000s)
Tests : 12
Wickets : 27
Wickets/ match : 2.25
combined Kallis has
Tests : 115
Wickets : 232
wickets/ match : 2.01 >> 1.75 (292 off 166)
and these 115 tests account of 69% of the Tests played. He was very worse in other conditions except in Bangladesh and Zimbabwe that his wicket/ per match dropped much. Had Kallis more exposure to new ball like a third seamer (South Africa’s bowling quality would’ve reduced) he would have made around 2 wickets per match overall.
While mentioning Imran’s batting , you mention it always as 40 (1980s) rather than 37 which is his overall but when it comes to Kallis you reduce it to around 1.5 from 1.75 (wkts / per match)
@subshakerz degrades him with the ball such to 6th seamer or so. How many 6th seamers peaked in the top 20 rankings ever? leave no.6