@Randomfan
Steyn played peak of cricket in super flat era period. Some hosts even made more flat to counter Steyn and Co. Anyway, pitches everywhere were more flat during his playing days. After 2014, nature of pitches were more bowler's friendly.
That is fine, but Australian pitches statistically did not improve until 2020, the Pakistan series had roads, the Ashes 2017 were roads, 2010 was roads and so forth, the Australian pitches were so flat that their own fans were disappointed, now that we're a good while away you're attempting to rewrite history here but that's not how this works. in the 2000s Australian pitches were flat enough for bowlers for away pacers to average 38 on them, more than 2000s Indian wickets which are generally considered flat.
for a while, India was genuinely a better place to bowl pace in than Australia.
That's why when anyone cites career avg of batsmen during 2000-2014 period, I don't take career average literally. On flat pich, you can bash even good bowling sides in your peak and if you can play lots of cricket against poor sides on super flat tracks during your peak then you can simply cash in big big time. That's the reason I always look for how players did against top sides compared to others in the same time. At least, you have top sides as opposition even if pitches were flat.
Everyone avg will be lower after 2014 including Ashwin
see my friend, the problem here is simple.
Your cutoff point is nonsensical, infact, until 2015-2019, Australia recorded comfortably the highest Run per wicket on planet Earth.
38
let me put it like someone else on this site would put
T H I R T Y E I G H T
H
I
R
T
Y
E
I
G
H
T
for reference
stats.espncricinfo.com
the average is 30.49 since the second world war, Australia deviated from the average in those years by nearly 25%, and it's obvious too, look at the averages of australian batters home and away from this era.
Michael Clarke: 62 at home, 39 away
Shaun Marsh: 40 at home, 29 away
David Warner (till 2019): 64 at home, 34 away
Michael Hussey: 61 at home, 41 away
here is a report of a pitch from the time, The Dreaded MCG pitch
Australian cricket has been embarrassed by the ICC rating the MCG drop-in pitch for the Boxing Day Ashes Test as "poor" following a dull draw in which only 24 wickets were taken over five days
www-espncricinfo-com.cdn.ampproject.org
It's very obvious Australian pitches changed during 2018-19 BGT or the COVID, you don't need to change history just because you prefer Ashwin over Anderson.
in 2014/15 England got weaker, India became minefields, South Africa became spicier once Steyn started playing less, Australia was one of the last places to change.
I am not citing this to show that Ahswin's record was great in most unfriendly conditions for him after 2014. I am simply showing that clubbing entire 2010 will miss the point how pitches started changing around 2014. All bowler's benefitted from that including Anderson and Ashwin
first thing, I only use 2010 because that's when Anderson got his old action back and Ashwin debuted around 20 months later and retired only a couple months after Anderson retired so the cut off works.
second, I don't particularly care where Ashwin ranks between spinners, the fact that Joe Root somehow shows up in the top 10 just tells you everything you need to know about spin bowling, the fact is that there is really no great spinner around, in history you've 3 spinners on the level of great pacers, a top 10 spinner might not be top 30-35 pacers, in modern day most attacks have 3-4 pacers and barely one spinner and even the spinner gets dropped at times. (IE, Ashwin on SENA tours)
so at the end, even with all of this, and a much later cut off that poses seriously longevity question marks, Anderson in unhelpful condition is still 24.8 compared to 33 for Ashwin.
You can prefer Ashwin for home record, tha
t's fine, but pretending their away record is even is silly
