Players Who Went Downhill After Excellent Starts To Their Test Careers

[wpdavid]

Tim Robinson springs to mind. After his first 2 series, in India and at home to Aus, he averaged over 60, including several large hundreds. Then he toured WI and came horribly unstuck, his confidence was shattered and he was in and out of the side for a couple of years before joining Gatting's "rebel" tour in 1989.

 

[wpdavid]

Nick Cook's another. He came in for the final 2 tests against NZ in 1983 and took loads of wickets. He went on the subsequent winter tours, and, although he didn't do much in NZ, he took, IIRC, 11 for about 65 against Pakistan in Karachi and I thought we had a real find. But that was about it. His performances tailed off on that tour and, after a tough time in a couple of tests against WI in 1984 he disappeared without a trace. Something of a waste, I always thought.

 

[Richard]

To add another here, I've just examined Abdur\Abdul Razzaq's ODI bowling record:
First 64 games, 95 wickets at 4.34-an-over and an average of 22.34.
Next 92 games (removing those 8 games against the substandard Zimbabweans, Bangladeshis, Kenyans, Hong Kongese and Dutch), 72 wickets at 4.66-an-over and an average of 42.39.
!!!!!
Something of a transformation.
His batting, incidentally, has gone the other way:
In the same periods:
989 runs at 23
and
2277 runs at 35.03
Amazingly, the turnaround really did coincide almost exactly, and so even though his bowling has become a bad joke, he's become a batsman capable of turning ODIs on their head.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Overall I'd say Razzaq is a very valuable ODI player simply because, even over his down period, he's been able to deliver 10 overs for 46 runs with a wicket and still contribute a quick 35 runs (as per the averages listed). That's pretty useful to say the least.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

I'm assuming he means downhill from the double centuries he took off the English pies in 2003.

Interestingly enough he's scored 1092 runs in 14 Tests since at a fair average of 43.68 with 3 centuries and 4 half-centuries.

 

[marc71178]

That's still a fair drop.

 

[tooextracool]

or if you look at his last 9 games, he averages 59.......
downhill?

 

[LongHopCassidy]

That's still a fair drop.

What did you expect? Commemorative bats that had "Smith 401" on them a year later?

 

[PAKMAN]

muhammed zahid

 

[Richard]

What did you expect? Commemorative bats that had "Smith 401" on them a year later?

I really think that's only a matter of time.
And if WPB were to follow-on 400 behind with 2-and-a-half days left (admittedly pretty inconceivable) I'd not bet against a "Smith 502*" or something.

 

[Richard]

A pretty well known - and very obvious in reasoning - example:
Derek Underwood's first 23 Tests (approximately 28% of his Test-career - in terms of balls bowled), 1966-1971: 100 wickets at 18.53
Next 63 matches, 1971-1981\82: 197 wickets at 29.54 - these get a bit worse when you exclude 6 matches in India and Sri Lanka - 160 wickets at 32.61.

 

[Camel56]

One player who will be remembered for a slow start but then developing into the single most brutal batting force in cricket history is none other than yours truely. Even now my batting prowess makes Bradman look like one of the all-time batting bunnies.