Those who proved you wrong

[morgieb]

Never thought Chanderpaul would go on to accumulate as many runs as he did over his career when I saw him tormenting us around the early 2000s. Always saw Sarwan and Hooper as more dangerous. The old "style-over-substance" fallacy I guess..

Comparing Hooper to Chanderpaul/Sarwan seems strange, he's nearly 15 years older than the latter.

 

[morgieb]

Also predicted Phil Hughes to blitz every batting record and end up with a Bradmanesque average after his initial SA series

Umar Akmal and Darren Bravo.

Two wasted talents who could have achieved much more than they have.

Also these haha

Although Bravo hasn't been that bad. Hard to believe he averages 20 more runs away from home then at home though.

 

[mr_mister]

yeah but Hooper had a renaissance in the early 00s IIRC when he came back out of retirement

 

[vcs]

yeah but Hooper had a renaissance in the early 00s IIRC when he came back out of retirement

Yeah I've got a series in WI in 2002 in mind, when he played really well against India.

 

[honestbharani]

I refuse to acknowledge this thread until Dan comes in and posts "Murali Vijay"...

 

[andruid]

Australia- Thought Steve Smith was done after 2011 world cup

Bangladesh- Didn't think Tamim would hack it in test cricket at all

England-Ravi Bopara underwhelmed

India: Thought both Rohit and Ishant Sharma were gonna be world class

New Zealand: Jesse Ryder

Pakistan: The Akmals

South Africa: Amla outdid my expectations by far

Sri Lanka: Angelo.Mathews is proving to be a gun batsman, rather than a bits a pieces guy I had him pegged for.

West Indies: Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor. Genuinely thought they could lead a revival in high quality fast bowling.

Zimbabwe- Vusimuzi Sibanda. Never went as far as comparing him to Sehwag but he should have been able.to average in the mid to high 30s with bat

 

[Magrat Garlick]

I don't know what I had for breakfast yesterday let alone whom I might once have picked for greatness at cricket.

 

[Zinzan]

Australia- Thought Steve Smith was done after 2011 world cup

Bangladesh- Didn't think Tamim would hack it in test cricket at all

England-Ravi Bopara underwhelmed

India: Thought both Rohit and Ishant Sharma were gonna be world class

New Zealand: Jesse Ryder

Pakistan: The Akmals

South Africa: Amla outdid my expectations by far

Sri Lanka: Angelo.Mathews is proving to be a gun batsman, rather than a bits a pieces guy I had him pegged for.

West Indies: Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor. Genuinely thought they could lead a revival in high quality fast bowling.

Zimbabwe- Vusimuzi Sibanda. Never went as far as comparing him to Sehwag but he should have been able.to average in the mid to high 30s with bat

You thought Ryder would be better or worse than he turned out?

 

[Zinzan]

I forgot Tino Best. When I first saw him as a young effervescent bowler on his debut, someone who could get it through at 145-150 clicks, I thought I was watching the next of the great West Indies quicks. How wrong I was on that one. Who could have believed he'd turn out to be as ineffective and erratic as he did.

Also Finel Edwards while we're on Windies fast bowlers.

 

[Red]

I underestimated Hazlewood. Thought he was by far the worst out of him, Pattinson, Starc and Cummins. Also thought Starc was meh, and that Pattinson was the real deal.

Agreed on Hazelwood. Thought Patto and Cummins were the shiz. Still might be but not so far.

 

[Zinzan]

Hazelwood is a fine Test bowler, and his recent numbers have been very good, but I can still see any of Starc, Pattinson or Cummins ending up at least as good. Barring in jury, all 4 of them have tremendous potential.

 

[Furball]

There was that glorious year or so where Tim Bresnan proved me gloriously wrong. Didn't rate him at all.

Ishant probably the biggest flop of players I've backed to be good that I can remember.

 

[Athlai]

Steve Smith is probably the biggest one I can think of.

 

[Cabinet96]

Wouldn't have picked Joe Root when they did and thought some of the early hype went too far in the first 18 months or so. Read that one wrong...

Didn't expect Faf to do as well as he did when he came into the test side. Hales averaging 50 in 2014 and 2015 is better than I ever thought he'd get to at First Class level.

If we include periods and not just a career than Mitchell Johnson 13/14 is an obvious addition.

 

[straw man]

That's Umar Akmal for me. I thought he'd be the next 'great batsman' following his 129 & 75 on debut in a low scoring Test against NZ in '09, an attack including Bond, Martin, O'Brien & Vettori in NZ conditions.

Yeah he was hugely impressive there and I thought if he kept playing like that, tempered with a little maturity, he would be a very very good batsman.

Pity about that maturity bit.

 

[Athlai]

Also am I the only one who can't help but think about when Skinner accidentally bursts out with a "these children HAVE NO FUTURE"?

"Prove me wrong kids, prove me wrong."

 

[FBU]

Yeah same here with Maxwell. Shame.

I thought Pujara by now would be on KW levels of awesomeness. Still has it in him.

Was very wrong about Kohli. Thought he'd be poo after he played in the 2011 Windies series.

I thought Pujara would have had a 300 by now. . By his 19th Test he had 2 double hundreds.

 

[Black_Warrior]

Steve Smith is probably the biggest one I can think of.

Thought Amla , KW, Root, Smith would be terrible or at best average. I also had Sreesanth pegged as a lock for the best Indian pacer since Kapil.

Australia- Thought Steve Smith was done after 2011 world cup

Steve Smith - That he'd be merely a decent Test batsman.

'I knew Steve Smith would average 60 before he was born' - Furball

 

[TheJediBrah]

I forgot Tino Best. When I first saw him as a young effervescent bowler on his debut, someone who could get it through at 145-150 clicks, I thought I was watching the next of the great West Indies quicks. How wrong I was on that one. Who could have believed he'd turn out to be as ineffective and erratic as he did.

Also Finel Edwards while we're on Windies fast bowlers.

You could say that about almost every young Windies quick over the last 15 years

Hazelwood is a fine Test bowler, and his recent numbers have been very good, but I can still see any of Starc, Pattinson or Cummins ending up at least as good. Barring in jury, all 4 of them have tremendous potential.

I still believe Pattinson has the most potential as a Test bowler out of all of them, if he could just stay on the park.

 

[wpdavid]

Hick and Ramprakash are the obvious under-achievers.

Broad has done significantly better than I expected