Unpopular Cricket Opinions

[Park cricketer]

1. Virat Kohli has been a failure in the big matches of the world cup. Has repeatedly failed in almost all the knockout matches he has played till date and while he is undoubtedly one of the best ever players to have played the ODI game, his final standing will be a bit lower if he fails to influence atleast one knockout match in the world cup in his career (although I think he'll do it this year because of his driven nature to success).

2. AB de Villiers' world cup record is a bit overrated. He averages 63 at an astonishing sr of 117 with 4 tons but remove the minnows + west indies (who have been pretty much minnows for the entirety of AB's career) and it drops to 43 with zero centuries. Still good, but not one befitting of a GOAT candidate like him. Also for some reason, he often buckled under pressure either due to crazy runouts or poor shots in knockout matches and the last world cup semifinal was probably the first one when he made a very good contribution in a do or die match for South Africa.

Sorry Kohli and AB, Sir Viv is still the undoubted GOAT in ODI cricket.

3. Brian Lara is overrated as a match winner in test cricket by many, probably influenced by that unbelievable innings at Bridgetown. In a career spanning 131 test matches (230 odd innings), he scored just 8 centuries that resulted in wins and he did have two decent bowlers in Ambrose and Walsh (& Bishop for a while) for much of his career. He was a player who could win a match on his own, but not to the extent that's often believed in cricketing circles.

Proper unpopular opinions.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

I don't even like the guy or want him back in the team so not sure how that makes me delusional. Facts are he is in the best 6 batsmen in the country and Justin Langer loves him.

Odds are he won't play again until Warner's retirement. After the media blew up over the fact he used the word "Dave" it seems highly unlikely the two will play together again.

 

[The Swans Blog]

Recency bias much?

Cameron Bancroft really never was a "best 6" batsman in Australia. He might get another chance, but it's clear that Harris, Burns and Renshaw are above him in the pecking order.

 

[The Swans Blog]

3. Brian Lara is overrated as a match winner in test cricket by many, probably influenced by that unbelievable innings at Bridgetown. In a career spanning 131 test matches (230 odd innings), he scored just 8 centuries that resulted in wins and he did have two decent bowlers in Ambrose and Walsh (& Bishop for a while) for much of his career. He was a player who could win a match on his own, but not to the extent that's often believed in cricketing circles.

For the majority of his time playing, the WI were a truly shocking test team.

 

[The Swans Blog]

Tim Paine only has an assured spot in the team because the 'leadership' imploded

I think he's got another 3-4 years left in him, at the very least until 2022. They should really be looking at the next captain now, and not consider Steve Smith, although I suspect they'll just hand it back to him anyway.

 

[JackOutback]

Cameron Bancroft really never was a "best 6" batsman in Australia. He might get another chance, but it's clear that Harris, Burns and Renshaw are above him in the pecking order.

Burns and Renshaw have both struggled to get into the team despite their form, not sure that CA necessarily rates either higher. If Bancroft makes runs and Burns fails once or twice, I wouldn't be surprised to see them make the switch.

I think he's got another 3-4 years left in him, at the very least until 2022. They should really be looking at the next captain now, and not consider Steve Smith, although I suspect they'll just hand it back to him anyway.

Smith should never be captain again. It's not like he excelled at it anyway, he was the best bat so they assumed he had to have it.

 

[Park cricketer]

For the majority of his time playing, the WI were a truly shocking test team.

West Indies tbh had the 4th best W/L ratio out of all test teams in the 90s and India, Sri Lanka, England, New Zealand and Zimbabwe all had worse win loss ratios when compared to the Windies.

 

[JackOutback]

West Indies tbh had the 4th best W/L ratio out of all test teams in the 90s and India, Sri Lanka, England, New Zealand and Zimbabwe all had worse win loss ratios when compared to the Windies.

It's interesting, I saw their decline as being pretty rapid in the '90s, but they held on to beat us 2-1 both in the Windies in 1991 and at home in 1993. It was clear what was coming but they weren't knocked off their perch until 1995. They probably didn't lose that many in the first half of the decade, fell away in the second, but hit rock bottom in the 2000s.

 

[Doss]

Lara's lack of centuries in wins is reflective of the lack of consistent batting performance around him after about 1996 (Chanderpaul, Gayle and Sarwan were world class but only Chanderpaul was a consistent performer), rather than a deficiency of Lara's himself. Some of his best efforts were in losing causes; Sri Lanka in 2001 for example, against us in the West Indies in 2003 or in Pakistan in 2006.

Anyway - for my unpopular opinion. I'd rate Michael Hussey's 122 at Melbourne in 2005 against the Saffers as in very top few match turning innings I've ever seen. It might not get much fanfare now, but he was off the charts that day. Remember the charging cover drives for six off Nel? Outrageous shots, the like you almost never see.

 

[Doss]

It's interesting, I saw their decline as being pretty rapid in the '90s, but they held on to beat us 2-1 both in the Windies in 1991 and at home in 1993. It was clear what was coming but they weren't knocked off their perch until 1995. They probably didn't lose that many in the first half of the decade, fell away in the second, but hit rock bottom in the 2000s.

West Indies did not lose a series at all between 1980 and 1995. Even after losing to us in 1995 and again in 1996-97, the margin between the sides wasn't so big as to suggest they'd fallen off the cliff completely. The real thuds were more the 0-3 and 0-5 shellackings in Pakistan and South Africa in 1997 and 1998-99.

Even then, they still had a lingering toughness at home for a while longer; aside from the 1995 loss to us, they'd only lost to South Africa at home in 2001 before their series against us in 2003; in that time they managed to beat India at home twice, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, England and drew with us.

 

[Gough]

Ambrose and Walsh hung on throughout the 90s, once they retired things really fell apart.

 

[Mighty Eagles]

Hey guys a mate of mine is behind a campaign to get the Perth Test next summer at the home of WA Cricket, the WACA.

Be great if you can get around it: https://www.facebook.com/WACAtohostTest

 

[JackOutback]

Hey guys a mate of mine is behind a campaign to get the Perth Test next summer at the home of WA Cricket, the WACA.

Be great if you can get around it: https://www.facebook.com/WACAtohostTest

I love a bit of tradition and hope to see the WACA renovated into a boutique stadium. But it's a bit of a shithole and I'd rather take my kid to an almost empty Perth Stadium than half full WACA.

 

[Phone]

lara and chanderpaul's career tend to be underappreciated for one simple reason: batters don't actually perform consistently well in losing causes, and those two did

Here's the table for runs scored in loses: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/en...vanced;result=2;template=results;type=batting

it's pretty obvious, but look at the names. Cook, Clarke, Williamson, Pietersen, Laxman and Dravid average under 30 in matches they lost. Border, Ponting, De Villiers, Kallis & Viv Richards average under 35. Graeme Smith averaged 25 and never scored a ton in a game South Africa lost. Even Bradman averaged 'only' 43 in losing causes.

Only 13 players in cricket history have scored over 500 runs and averaged over 40 in losing causes; they include three of the greatest openers in the game's history, Hobbs, Hutton and Sutcliffe, the best players in a country's early history of test cricket, Flower, Nurse, Trumper & Hazare, plus Clyde Walcott who was part of, I suppose, the second generation of West Indies test players, and then a couple of other people. and then you've got Lara and Chanderpaul who played in a lot more loses, who lead the aggregate runs scored charts, and scored more tons in loses than anyone else except Sachin who is in between lara (14) and Chanderpaul (9). (Chanderpaul's average is boosted by not outs, but he played in so many more innings and his percentage of not outs is similar to say Border's, but Lara somehow doesn't have a single not out.)

Average in loses, minimum runs scored 500: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/en...1=runs;result=2;template=results;type=batting

It raises an interesting "chicken or the egg" question. Do Bangladesh and the West Indies lose their matches because their batters average below 35, or do their batters average below 35 because they're stuck in a losing cause? It's probably a mixture of the both, but it's very hard to be good in a bad team. For players like Ponting, Richards, etc, scoring a century made their team odds on favorites most of the time, it set the match up for their bowlers, but for Lara and Chanderpaul it just meant that now a loss wasn't an absolutely certainly, but still the most likely result. I mean, I can think of at least three matches where Lara scored a double ton and his team still lost.

(I should break this down further to consider how they players performed in loses that occurred when their team has lost the test and batted second vs won the toss and batted first but it's too hot)

 

[DT_fanatic]

1. Virat Kohli has been a failure in the big matches of the world cup. Has repeatedly failed in almost all the knockout matches he has played till date and while he is undoubtedly one of the best ever players to have played the ODI game, his final standing will be a bit lower if he fails to influence atleast one knockout match in the world cup in his career (although I think he'll do it this year because of his driven nature to success).

.

I think he sufficiently influenced the 2011 WC final after those first couple of wickets. Other than that he’s played three other WC knockout games. Two of those in that 2011 cup which was still relatively early in his career.

Him and Ishant were probably the reasons we won the 2013 CT final. Good scores in both semis of the CTs he’s played in.

Has a very good record in T20 knockout games. The one against Aus in India was effectively a knockout, that innings was probably one of the most memorable t20 innings i’ve seen.

Couple of failures stand out - the 2015 semi and the CT 2017 final. He’ll get a couple more chances to right that I’m sure.




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[The Speaker]

batters

this triggers me

 

[Topkent]

Tim Paine is garbage and is purely a PR captain not a deserving Australian cricketer

 

[The Speaker]

Tim Paine is garbage and is purely a PR captain not a deserving Australian cricketer

Which keeper and captain would you have in his place?

 

[Topkent]

Which keeper and captain would you have in his place?

No no is really deserving of the captaincy at the moment so doesn't matter.

I'd have Carey as the keeper

 

[The Speaker]

No no is really deserving of the captaincy at the moment so doesn't matter.

I'd have Carey as the keeper

That's the thing, I'm not convinced about Carey yet, and there's no clear captaincy options (in all honesty I think Cummins is a real possibility of being the next Test captain after Paine), so even though I have never really been on the Paine train, I'm content with him given where the team is at.

It's also pretty odd that we're not sure whether there's any really worthy keeping options given a couple of years ago everyone was talking about how many good options there were.

If Chris Hartley was five years younger...

 

[Topkent]

That's the thing, I'm not convinced about Carey yet, and there's no clear captaincy options (in all honesty I think Cummins is a real possibility of being the next Test captain after Paine), so even though I have never really been on the Paine train, I'm content with him given where the team is at.

It's also pretty odd that we're not sure whether there's any really worthy keeping options given a couple of years ago everyone was talking about how many good options there were.

If Chris Hartley was five years younger...

Maybe ill re word it, Tim Paine is the luckiest guy ever to be playing international cricket again.

 

[JackOutback]

No no is really deserving of the captaincy at the moment so doesn't matter.

I'd have Carey as the keeper

Going out with no captain; it's just crazy enough to work

Paine is the guy we need as captain under the circumstances. Unassuming guy that no one dislikes. Hasn't done much wrong in the gig either. With no one demanding his spot, I think we can keep him for a while yet.

 

[SterlingArcher]

No no is really deserving of the captaincy at the moment so doesn't matter.

I'd have Carey as the keeper

Paine is garbage

Carey with his FC average of 29 isn't

OK

 

[Doss]

Maybe ill re word it, Tim Paine is the luckiest guy ever to be playing international cricket again.

You need to read up on Floyd Reifer.

 

[big_e]

You need to read up on Floyd Reifer.

I remember Reifer - madness!