PlayerComparisons
International Captain
How would you rank Imran, Hadlee, Botham, and Kapil based on their performances against the West Indies (best team of their era)?
Yea I don’t understand why some people rate Botham far ahead of Kapil. They’re in the same tier for sure.Imran
Kapil
Hadlee
Botham
Kapil played some stunning innings vs WI and some epic spells too, but think overall Imran's bowling brilliance edges out. Kapil's amazing efforts vs WI is why I think he is pretty underrated and very close to Botham overall, who shrank embarrassingly vs them.
Their bowling is in a similar area but Botham was a clearly superior bat. I’m not sure where they respectively fielded either tbh but Botham does have twice the amount of catches Kapil does fwiw. It also depends how much value you give for performance against a single team.Yea I don’t understand why some people rate Botham far ahead of Kapil. They’re in the same tier for sure.
Botham averaged 29 with the bat if you take out his runs vs India (who had a very poor attack apart from Kapil, basically no good spinners). Kapil didnt bash the poor teams anywhere near as much and did great vs WI. I think at the very least it's way closer between the two as all rounders overall than people like to think.Their bowling is in a similar area but Botham was a clearly superior bat. I’m not sure where they respectively fielded either tbh but Botham does have twice the amount of catches Kapil does fwiw. It also depends how much value you give for performance against a single team.
They didn't stop this in 1985, Viv continued this formula pretty much as long as he was the captain. Border was targeted and given a torrid time in 1988-89 series. His 100th Test match was something he would like to forget. Nevertheless some opposition captains handled it better than others.Not meant as an excuse but what I remember most about the 1980-85 West Indies fearsome pace quartet is how well they targeted the opposition captain.
Botham as captain was destroyed by WI in 1980/81, Greg Chappell had his famous 7 ducks across formats in 1981/82 and then it was Kim Hughes' turn in 1984.
I mean why did anyone think back to back tours playing 10 tests in a row against the mighty Windies would be a good idea? It ended Hughes career and probably should have ended Botham's, which makes Botham's '81 Ashes even more of a miracle.
Imran and Dev both did tbfThey didn't stop this in 1985, Viv continued this formula pretty much as long as he was the captain. Border was targeted and given a torrid time in 1988-89 series. His 100th Test match was something he would like to forget. Nevertheless some opposition captains handled it better than others.