Kapil Dev vs Courtney Walsh

[subshakerz]

Kapil averaged 26 and 33 with bat and ball respectively away from home. These numbers weren't better at any stage of his career. On eye test, limitations in both disciplines are very clear to see.

Gun player and had a very good career, but he gets a bit overrated and some of the excuses&cherry-picking analysis he receives on here verges on laughable.

I am not arguing about his batting or that he is even a better bowler than Walsh.

All I am arguing is the bowling gulf between him and Walsh is not as huge as their averages make them out to be.

 

[subshakerz]

Feels like people sometimes seem to forget how good Pakistan were outside of Imran in the 80’s. Their bowling wasn’t the greatest outside of Imran, but their batting was pretty darn good.

No. Their batting was pretty good in the 70s not the 80s.

 

[subshakerz]

What argument though. Who's picking Kapil over Walsh for a test team?

What's the argument for that?

4th bowler. You made the argument yourself.

 

[Coronis]

No. Their batting was pretty good in the 70s not the 80s.

40+ average batsmen for Pakistan in the 80s… (decent sample size)

Miandad 76 matches @ 54.77
Abbas 48 matches @ 48.23
Shoaib 26 matches @ 45.38
Malik 56 matches @ 41.28
Nazar 61 matches @ 40.09

Team with the highest batting average for the decade (33.69) - higher than the 70’s - in a decade where the average bat scored less than the 70’s. But their batting wasn’t pretty good? Ok.

 

[DrWolverine]

If you had to choose your no. 1 fast bowler for a series, are you choosing Walsh or Kapil.

Walsh and it’s not even close

 

[Coronis]

Walsh and it’s not even close

If you had to pick one batsmen are you choosing Bradman or Sobers? And how close is it?

 

[honestbharani]

That is a list of numbers that I'm pretty sure everyone will manage to interpret in a way that confirms their existing position.

Obviously Prabhakar > Imran Khan.

Pioneered using finger nails instead of bottle caps too. WAG.

 

[subshakerz]

40+ average batsmen for Pakistan in the 80s… (decent sample size)

Miandad 76 matches @ 54.77
Abbas 48 matches @ 48.23
Shoaib 26 matches @ 45.38
Malik 56 matches @ 41.28
Nazar 61 matches @ 40.09

Team with the highest batting average for the decade (33.69) - higher than the 70’s - in a decade where the average bat scored less than the 70’s. But their batting wasn’t pretty good? Ok.

I should have qualified. The better era of Pak batting was mid 70s to early 80s when they had Miandad, Zaheer, Majid Khan, Wasim Raja, Mushtaq and Asif Iqbal.

Relatively better than the mid 80s onwards batting.

 

[h_hurricane]

Talking about other advantages/disadvantages these two had, Kapil had a cordon of Gavaskar, Azhar and Vengsarkar. Walsh on the other hand had Viv, Lara and Hooper at varying points. The second set is easily better, so Walsh obviously had an advantage there. I hold it against Kapil though, that given his influence in Indian cricket, he didn't lobby hard enough to improve the cordon that would have undoubtedly benefitted him.