Curtly Ambrose vs Brian Lara

[h_hurricane]

Was he noticeably less penetrative or is this just a myth?

pre shoulder injury:
48 matches 91 innings 219 wickets @ 21.08 SR 53.9 11 5fers

post shoulder injury:
50 matches 88 innings 186 wickets @ 20.88 SR 55.3 11 5fers

Notably all 3 10’fers came pre shoulder injury, before it he averaged 21.6 overs per innings, vs afterwards 20.9 overs per innings. He seems to have bowled slightly less after the shoulder injury - though this could also be due to age later in his career. Interesting misleading stat as well, actually bowling more innings in fewer matches pre injury than post injury.

India and Pakistan were his worst teams overall - its interesting looking at him vs them in his career.

India - 9 matches 15 wickets @ 38.26 (all at home)

Pakistan - 14 matches 42 wickets @ 27.85
Home - 9 matches 27 wickets @ 29.33
Away - 5 matches 15 wickets @ 25.20

Any ideas why he struggled against India/Pak, particularly at home? (especially since across the same period Walsh consistently outperformed him)

On the India matches, his first series against India came very early in his career(1989) when he was still settling in the team.

The second series came on really placid pitches in 1997 where boring draws and rain affected matches were common, Barbados match where India was bowled out for 81 chasing 120 apart.

In all India matches, he only bowled 27 overs per match as against career average of 37 overs per match. Don't think he got too many opportunities for 4th innings destruction against us (which was his forte) except the Barbados match where he still played a crucial role. Other than that, I don't see a good reason on why he was unsuccessful against India. It was before our batting lineup peaked.

Walsh was consistently better against India, yes. Ambrose against India in 1994 would have been interesting, if he was fit to play.