Do you rate Mitchell Johnson?

[Jakester1288]

After 13 Tests

47 wickets at 33.76 econ 3.19 s/r 63.30 - Johnson
42 wickets at 32.59 econ 2.76 s/r 67.60 - McGrath

They are completely different bowlers.

Krejza has had a better start to Test Cricket than Warne, and by no means is he going to be any better.

I think he's a decent bowler with good potential, but ATM not really concerned at the threat he will pose to the English batsmen next summer. Also, think that Shaun Tait will end up as a better bowler.

Shaun Tait ending up a better bowler? ITSTL...

He has a really strong action and is a really powerful boy.

Ive said before that Ive often been disappointed with his pace after lots of hype, but he certainly bowls a very heavy ball.

It appears (and I could be wrong) that on the right tracks and in rhythm he can be a real handful. Probably needs to add a little bit more to his game to force wickets when the going is not so fair.

What are his slower ball and bouncer like?

Never seen him bowl a slower ball, his bouncer is good and when on target, his yorker is one of the best in the game.

 

[Richard]

Harsh. I think quite a few on that list will be quite good, with a few exceptions, like RP Singh and Plunkett.

OK, let's go through on a case-by-case basis:
Steyn - don't see him being anything other than a very good bowler, but certainly not the top-shelf stuff some people seem to think.
Anderson - still not convinced, but he did better last summer than he'd ever done before and better than ITBT I'd ever expected him to do.
Pathan - be very surprised if he amounts to much.
Malinga - tricky one. There's just no knowing about him, but I certainly don't see him being especially good. OK, maybe; better than the likes of Dilhara Fernando, sure. But I'd not be expecting him to have any particularly long successful phases of a Test career (eg, 3 years averaging 23 or something along those lines)
Mortaza - Bangladeshi, don't care, shouldn't be playing.
Gul - being a Pakistani it's extremely difficult to know how much he's going to play in the next few years, but certainly has some potential, though not I don't think as much as some seem to.
Taylor - not convinced, but has promise.
Asif - brilliant, but whether he'll ever play again I'm not sure.
Sreesanth - don't rate and never have, will be surprised if he amounts to much.
Johnson - discussed previously this thread.
RP Singh - don't really rate and don't see him amounting to all that much.
Sharma - excellent potential but being Indian retains pitfalls.
Morkel - has potential but will need to do more than he currently does, unlike some seem to suspect.
Patel - fitness still a huge issue.
Broad - still got a fair bit to do, should still never have played a Test.
Plunkett - useless, not even county standard.
Zondeki - really not sure, he's been around a while and hasn't really done very much. Still, has some potential, undoubtedly.
Tait - no way of knowing here IMO.
Southee - excellent prospect, if he can conquer the Kiwi seamer injury curse.
Tanvir - very poor, don't think he's likely to amount to much.

Of the above, there's only Southee, Steyn and maybe Ishant Sharma who I have genuinely high hopes for, though there's a few others I have some amount of it.

 

[four_or_six]

So far, Mitchell Johnson has very similar figures for the series as Zaheer Khan. I reckon that is to his credit.

Midge: 13 wickets at 38, SR 70, ER 3.3
Zak: 10 wickets at 39, SR 71, ER 3.3

 

[SJS]

That's still good.

I suppose you are right. I must go back and recheck

 

[NUFAN]

Out of Richard's list the one player I'd slightly disagree with is Jerome Taylor.

I think he's terrific and has so much potential. I can see him finishing his career with 250 wickets at close to the 30 mark.

 

[Richard]

Taylor certainly looks far more promising than any West Indian seamer has for a while, apart from anything else he's clearly a very smart bowler, you can hear that by listening to him talk even. But the fact that it's been so long (Ian Bishop was the last, and he was 20 years ago now ) since we had a West Indian seamer who was much good that I'm almost wondering if it's ever going to happen again. Reon King could've been damn good I know, but if it's not been lack of skill it's been injury, which Taylor has already suffered from more than once.

 

[FBU]

That list was the fast bowling under 27s playing/played that I like to keep an eye on to see how they progress. The bowlers that I think will play 50+ Tests and do well would be

Steyn
Anderson
Asif
Johnson
Sharma .
Tanvir

I would also like to add Hilfenhaus (25) to that list but he hasn't played any Tests yet.

 

[Richard]

Sohail Tanvir?

And TBH, I'm amazed anyone is confident that Asif's career is going to go anywhere at the current time. There's just no way of knowing what's going to happen next.

 

[pup11]

Sohail Tanvir?

And TBH, I'm amazed anyone is confident that Asif's career is going to go anywhere at the current time. There's just no way of knowing what's going to happen next.

Its the PCB we are talking about here, so one can be rest assured we would see Asif back on the field playing for Pakistan sooner or later.

 

[Richard]

Much as that does indeed seem likely, there's only so much "I'm a Pakistani so I can perform alcatraz after alcatraz" that can happen.

We've already seen ample evidence that Asif doesn't seem capable of learning from his mistakes so it seems inevitable that at some time he'll get himself into a scrape involving someone other than the PCB, over whom the PCB have no influence.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Which is a shame, because Asif was a pretty damn good bowler when he bothered about it.

 

[Richard]

He could've been hands-down the best bowler of the next decade, no doubt in my mind about that whatsoever.

To see such potential wasted, one could weep.

 

[inbox24]

Without this doping scandal, Pakistan could have had an awesome pace attack:

Tanvir
Akhtar
Asif

You've got a good combination of left-armer, fast bowler, and McGrath-eque bowler and even a bit of spin from Tanvir at times.

 

[Richard]

Even Asif isn't McGrath-esque. And Shabbir Ahmed and Umar Gul are both massively superior bowlers to Sohail Tanvir.

Heck, Shahid Nazir, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Rao Iftikhar Anjum are probably better.

 

[FBU]

Even Asif isn't McGrath-esque. And Shabbir Ahmed and Umar Gul are both massively superior bowlers to Sohail Tanvir.

Heck, Shahid Nazir, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Rao Iftikhar Anjum are probably better.

I think you will proved wrong on Tanvir.

 

[Richard]

Why? He's clearly not got much ability. About all he's done is perform in that Twenty20 thingy. Seems to have given many people mistaken ideas about his skills.

 

[pup11]

Why? He's clearly not got much ability. About all he's done is perform in that Twenty20 thingy. Seems to have given many people mistaken ideas about his skills.

Yup agree with this, he just isn't a test class bowler for me, people who face him for the first time might have a few problems against him, but otherwise he is pretty much an average bowler, might have a bit of success in T20 and ODI cricket but in test cricket he would get owned big time.

 

[inbox24]

Why? He's clearly not got much ability. About all he's done is perform in that Twenty20 thingy. Seems to have given many people mistaken ideas about his skills.

How can you judge if a player has ability?

 

[Richard]

Well, by, you know... watching them do whatever their speciality is.

In the case of Sohail Tanvir, bowling.

 

[Athlai]

Tanvir's alright, nothing special though. Needs to do a fair bit more in ODI's against good teams and in Tests against any team to deserve some of this praise he's getting.