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Worst ever spinner to get 100 test wickets

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
No Tiger O'Reilly on that list. Is he classed a medium pacer?

Weird that in test match history only 3 spinners have taken 100 wickets at less than 25 apiece.

Although pretty sure Tiger should be amongst them. If Deadly's a spinner, so was O'Reilly.
He's on Page 2. Page 1 only displays the 50 with the worst average.
 

weldone

Hall of Fame Member
No. He is the worst to 200, 300, and 400 but not the worst to 100
Nah, worst to 400 is the only one I agree with. He was certainly better than the likes of Vettori and Kaneria overall. Don't judge him by the last 1-2 years of his career alone - he was worse than Sehwag during that time.
 
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Xuhaib

International Coach
yeah harbhajan for the first 300 test wickets pretty gun only tailed off during last 3rd of his career.
 

Black_Warrior

Cricketer Of The Year
Its just that Harbhajan was just so average to the point of being dire against any team that had good players of spin. Averages 52 against Pakistan and 38 against Sri Lanka.
He played against Pakistan in the 05, 06 and 07 series and never did I feel he was a threat for Pakistan the way Kumble used to be.
 

weldone

Hall of Fame Member
Its just that Harbhajan was just so average to the point of being dire against any team that had good players of spin. Averages 52 against Pakistan and 38 against Sri Lanka.
He played against Pakistan in the 05, 06 and 07 series and never did I feel he was a threat for Pakistan the way Kumble used to be.
He was no Kumble of course.

Had some excellent performances (some extraordinary series) against some great Aussie batting lineups. And Aussies in the first half of the last decade were no slouches against spin - in fact, they were pretty good...
 

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
Its just that Harbhajan was just so average to the point of being dire against any team that had good players of spin. Averages 52 against Pakistan and 38 against Sri Lanka.
He played against Pakistan in the 05, 06 and 07 series and never did I feel he was a threat for Pakistan the way Kumble used to be.
That's all well and good but that doesn't make him worse than Carl Hooper or Paul Harris.
 

Black_Warrior

Cricketer Of The Year
Yeah that 2001 series he was phenomenal no doubt.. and I think that one series has been fetching him praise all his career..but 1 great series in a career of more than 10 years?
 

weldone

Hall of Fame Member
Yeah that 2001 series he was phenomenal no doubt.. and I think that one series has been fetching him praise all his career..but 1 great series in a career of more than 10 years?
He had quite a few great series throughout his career. Without listing them, a more important point is that for his decline he was as much responsible as his captain MS Dhoni IMO. The way Ganguly handled Harbhajan (from field-settings to length of spells to the end from which he should bowl) was just phenomenal. Dhoni doesn't have much of an idea about how to set an attacking field to a spinner in test matches. I have never understood his mandatory leg-slip position and his reluctance to set a forward short-leg for an attacking off-spinner. Under Ganguly, Harbhajan picked up 177 wickets @ 26.

Overall, I believe there have been several spinners with more than 200 wickets who were worse - Vettori and Danish Kaneria being two prime examples.
 
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Black_Warrior

Cricketer Of The Year
Kaneria is terrible but not worse than Harbhajan.

The reason Dhoni does not set attacking fields for him is because he does not have any confidence in him.. For too long he has disappointed as the leading spinner of the team. And his worst record is against Pakistan and Dhoni did not captain him against Pakistan. It was Ganguly, Dravid and Kumble.
 

weldone

Hall of Fame Member
So, bowling badly against Pakistan makes him worse than Kaneria?

Frankly speaking, some serious underating of Harbhajan's career is going on here. He has been terrible for the last 2 years, but that doesn't mean he has always been a bad bowler.

Among Indian spinners, I shall keep him at par with Mankad (or slightly above) after Kumble, Bedi, Gupte, Chandrashekhar and Prasanna.
 
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