most under-rated cricketer

[iamdavid]

He's a swing bowler, as far as I was aware, anyway.

2002/03 Wisden says "the player of the championships was Zimbabwe captain & all rounder Tatenda Taibu , who made 250 runs & took 12 wickets with his off spin"
:P :P :P

 

[iamdavid]

Under-rated: Vinod Kambli.
Made 4 centuries in his first 7 tests, including 2 double-tons; FC average >60, Test avg. >54.
Apparently dropped after a run of poor form (no fifties in 7 tests), but surely someone who can score double-centuries at test level deserves more of a run than, say, Chopra?
I suspect there was another reason for him being dropped which i don't know about, but seems as though he deserved a long test career.

He was a difficult customer , used to break the rules set down by the BCCI a bit & it counted against him at the selection table , he was given plenty of chances in the one day arena in the late 90's , had he taken those chances then in all likelihood he would have come back into the reckoning for test honours , but he failed & thus hasnt been seen since.

He's 32 now so I think we can safely say its over.

 

[Neil Pickup]

2002/03 Wisden says "the player of the championships was Zimbabwe captain & all rounder Tatenda Taibu , who made 250 runs & took 12 wickets with his off spin"
:P :P :P

Everything I've read on Cricinfo mentions his medium pace :P

 

[Bazza]

Odd, seeing as they are one and the same now!!

I vote (I know it's not a poll!) for Shaun Pollock - although in the thread about which one player would you pick in your fantasy team (in other words who is the most valuable?), Marc picked him, I still feel he is ridiculously under-rated for what he has achieved.

For most bowlers, 300+ test wickets at 20 would be enough to go down as an all time great, but factor in almost 300 ODI wickets at 23 and an econ of 3.74, just about the best you can get, and he is clearly a great bowler.

But what about batting? Most fast bowlers average <10 but Pollock has nearly 3000 test runs at 34 including a couple of tons and nearly 2000 ODI runs at 23 with seven 50s and a SR of 83.

Combine that with solid fielding and an impressive captaincy record and you have one of the best allrounders ever. Oh yeah, and he's only 30.

Statistically probably only Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee and Keith Miller have contributed so much with both bat and ball (and Miller never played ODIs of course).

Pollock could definitely be in the top 2 by the end of his career, yet people seem to think of him as lacking enough pace to trouble decent batsmen.

 

[Eclipse]

Pollock could definitely be in the top 2 by the end of his career, yet people seem to think of him as lacking enough pace to trouble decent batsmen.

On flat pitches I think he can lack the penatration to get top quality batsman out.

The good thing for him though is even if he is not looking threatening he rarely gets punnished by batsman so his avrage will always remain's quite good.

When Australia played South Africa in there last test series Pollock struggeld against Hayden, Ponting and Gilchrist in particular but he never really took much tap from them exept form Gilchrist.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Pollock will never be acknowledged as one of the all-time greatest allrounders... even if he finishes statistically above all others.

 

[Craig]

With the batting genes in the Pollock family, I would expect him to be a decent enought batsman!

 

[iamdavid]

Everything I've read on Cricinfo mentions his medium pace :P

Tatenda Taibu's Cricinfo player profile

Note the part that says

Bowling Style Right Arm Off Break

:P :P :P :P :P

 

[luckyeddie]

Statistically probably only Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee and Keith Miller have contributed so much with both bat and ball (and Miller never played ODIs of course).

IT Botham? GS Sobers?

Saying that, Shaun Pollock's stats are remarkable and stand up to comparison with anyone.

I rate him as one of the all-time great all-rounders

 

[Richard]

And I don't even rate him as the best all-rounder in his own team!
But Pollock's achievements are almost beyond comprehension, true. Sobers is simply acknowledged as the best all-rounder ever because it's so glaringly obvious (I never fail to be amazed that people consider Bradman the best cricketer ever without consideration) but it's really not possible to comprehend how good he was. He was just too good to be true.
But Pollock is not a million miles behind and the fact that he's almost incomprehensible means he's very, very underrated.

 

[Adamc]

Pollock is definitely valued far less than he deserves. This is probably largely due to the fact that he is not as charismatic or endearing as (I imagine) Imran Kahn and Ian Botham were. It is also generally more common for batsmen than bowlers to produce memorable performances, so it is perhaps not surprising that many rate Kallis higher. It seems as though Kallis is now being used more as a specialist batsman, bowling 5th, so perhaps will be less of an allrounder in the future.

 

[CDAK]

Statistically probably only Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee and Keith Miller have contributed so much with both bat and ball (and Miller never played ODIs of course).

.

Forgot KapilDev? He's the only test player with 400 wickets & 4000 runs.

 

[NikhilN]

Rahul Dravid

 

[CDAK]

Rahul Dravid

I don't think so.All knows Rahul is the second best(after Sachin)in the Indian line up. Whenever he was under-rated, he proved it wrong.(Like ,he was exempted from the oneday-side saying he was not suitable for it then he proved his talent by scoring most number of runs in the next world cup(top scorer). During TVS cup, Hayden called Dravid as one of the slowest players.Then we saw his attacking 50 off 22 balls.!!!)

 

[shankar]

Rahul Dravid

One reason why he's never been in the limelight in the past is because everytime he made big score somebody outshone him.

Debut 95 ganguly 130
at calcutta 180 laxman 281

ODI's
WC agst. SLanka 145 Ganguly 183
Vs. NZLND 153 Sachin 183*

 

[krkode]

One reason why he's never been in the limelight in the past is because everytime he made big score somebody outshone him.

Debut 95 ganguly 130
at calcutta 180 laxman 281

ODI's
WC agst. SLanka 145 Ganguly 183
Vs. NZLND 153 Sachin 183*

And to add to that, the outshiner couldn't have done it without Dravid. Sadly, that rarely gets noticed.

Btw, Tendulkar hit 186 against NZ

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Gary Kirsten I think is under-rated. He has near perfect technique and make batting look ridiculously easy. I can't think of many cricketers who look so hard to dislodge and bat with such ease.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Jacob Oram. Good lower order batsman, and very accurate and economical medium paced seamer.

 

[Bazza]

Kirsten is a good point - maybe Gibbs too. Alot of the South Africans have been underrated because they aren't as fashionable or exciting as Australia yet they don't have a star like Lara or Tendulkar (maybe because the team as a whole is stronger).

Anyway regarding all rounders, no I didn't forget Kapil Dev. He was excellent, but in terms of averages, Pollock beats him hands down in all four categories. I wouldn't bet against Pollock becoming the second member of that club! Averages are more important than totals - Alec Stewart has alot more runs than DGB, but who was better? (Note I am a big fan of Stewart - just making a point!).

Sobers was one of the greatest batsmen, but his bowling record isn't that great. Same goes for Kallis (whose bowling has been terrible of late) - probably too dominant in one form to be a true all rounder).

And Botham falls into the same category as Dev. Some feel he played on too long and maybe his record is dragged down by some poor performances later in his career but the fact is his record isn't THAT great in the end.

I stand by my initial statement that only Imran, Hadlee and Miller really compare.

 

[Ford_GTHO351]

Heath Streak.
He has proved that not only his bowling is good, but his batting is not bad at all. Streak is experenced in both forms of the game, he is a good team leader and he is one of the few shining lights in an overally dissapointing (results wise at least) Zimbabwe side.