Williamson: myth or not?

[Hellgood]

Williamson is awesome.

Smith is awesome.

Root is awesome.

Kohli is awesome.

These guys are genuine replacements for the Lara / Tendulkar / Ponting / Kallis era (with sincerest apologies to Kumar & Rahul). Stuff the petty bitching and lets enjoy the batting.

 

[sobrave]

Williamson is awesome.

Smith is awesome.

Root is awesome.

Kohli is awesome.

These guys are genuine replacements for the Lara / Tendulkar / Ponting / Kallis era (with sincerest apologies to Kumar & Rahul). Stuff the petty bitching and lets enjoy the batting.

Smith is horrible to watch, with his twitching and ugly technique.

 

[Freo Big Fella]

The bulk of the people who repeatedly utilise the phrase "flat track bully" on this board are barely-literate *******s.

 

[JackOutback]

Smith is horrible to watch, with his twitching and ugly technique.

I find it better to watch players with strange techniques make runs since it defies conventional wisdom. Love watching Smith and Bailey bat for exactly that reason.

 

[PhatBoy]

Impossible not to rate smith but I find nothing appealing about watching him bat. shiv and katich I was fascinated by but smith is hideous. tennis shots, stiff arms, the twitching, the borderline autistic appearance at the crease. just does nothing for me.

 

[iluvparis]

Failed to lead his team to victory

#delist

 

[the_interloper]

Impossible not to rate smith but I find nothing appealing about watching him bat. shiv and katich I was fascinated by but smith is hideous. tennis shots, stiff arms, the twitching, the borderline autistic appearance at the crease. just does nothing for me.

Ha ha, not a bad description. I remember watching him at the Gabba in the Ashes a few years ago and he batted like that. Was all over the joint, play and miss, smashed a pull shot 6 and then went out for 40 or so, was a strange knock.

 

[CD__]

Williamson has a funny voice, Smith has a funny head.

 

[MC Bad Genius]

There are honestly people out there who don't rate Williamson? Ridiculous! He's one of the very few NZ players who would be a walk up start in the Australian team of his era. The only others would be Shane Bond and Martin Crowe, although you could maybe throw in post-Warne Vettori as well.

Love watching the guy bat.

 

[PhatBoy]

There are honestly people out there who don't rate Williamson? Ridiculous! He's one of the very few NZ players who would be a walk up start in the Australian team of his era. The only others would be Shane Bond and Martin Crowe, although you could maybe throw in post-Warne Vettori as well.

Love watching the guy bat.

Cairns.

 

[Bad Horse]

I would annex New Zealand just to have him in our lineup. BJ Watling as steak knives.

That and the cheese.

 

[Bradesmaen]

What was most noticeable in going through all that was how regularly his team is in strife.
For a side that has been reasonably well performed over the last 3 years they are in trouble a lot.

Also, his numbers went up dramatically from his third year of test cricket onwards.
At a guess his average in those situations during his first 2 years would have been around 20.

Martin Guptill was their opener forever and averages less than 30..

 

[PhatBoy]

Martin Guptill was their opener forever and averages less than 30..

Indeed, and has been responsible for triggering a lot of top.order strife. others like brownlie and McIntosh had a similar impact at various stages.

 

[MC Bad Genius]

Cairns.

Absolutely loved watching him go about it, but who would he replace? Our bowling stocks during his career were pretty top notch.

 

[Doodlesweaver]

Impossible not to rate smith but I find nothing appealing about watching him bat. shiv and katich I was fascinated by but smith is hideous. tennis shots, stiff arms, the twitching, the borderline autistic appearance at the crease. just does nothing for me.

Same here! Loved watching Shiv Chanderpaul. His stance was very strange. Sometimes it was like he was playing french cricket.

I saw Smith bat at the Oval last Ashes and found him an unappealing player to watch. Damned effective though. I suspect his head is very still and in good position at point of impact and all the other stuff is just habits.

 

[PhatBoy]

Absolutely loved watching him go about it, but who would he replace? Our bowling stocks during his career were pretty top notch.

Assuming there was a spot for an all rounder, anyway. and if one as good as him was available maybe that side would have restructured. unlikely though.

Bizarrely, overall his numbers are below those of Shane Watson, but very few people, and I know I wouldn't, would rate Watson the better cricketer.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

Assuming there was a spot for an all rounder, anyway. and if one as good as him was available maybe that side would have restructured. unlikely though.

Bizarrely, overall his numbers are below those of Shane Watson, but very few people, and I know I wouldn't, would rate Watson the better cricketer.

Watson was a better cricketer than Chris Cairns in ODIs - pretty comfortably, really.

In Tests I'd have Cairns ahead due to his wicket tally compared to Watson. That's the big shame - I thought Watson was a really good and clever bowler, but his body didn't allow him to make the most of it for much of his career. Had he bowled more I have no doubt his bowling stats would have been very good.

 

[Kram]

Bizarrely, overall his numbers are below those of Shane Watson, but very few people, and I know I wouldn't, would rate Watson the better cricketer.

That's because very few people actually look at Watson's career objectively. For mine they were of a similar standard of cricketer.

 

[Blue1980]

Ah yes. The "my guy bats at three so he must be better" argument.

Why Rob Quineys 9 is still so highly regarded

 

[PhatBoy]

That's because very few people actually look at Watson's career objectively. For mine they were of a similar standard of cricketer.

Cairns was the superior bowler.

If you have a bit of talent - and I've got no qualms in saying watson was a very canny bowler, it isn't hard to average around 30 as a fifth bowler and just bowl your 8-12 overs an innings.

For most of his career, Cairns was at worst the 3rd best/most important bowler in his team. Under those circumstances his bowling record needs to be given a lot more creedo than Watson's.

Also had a lot less quality around him as a batsman too.

In ODIS I think Watto was a superb cricketer and in tests I think he WAS underrated. I'd pick cairns ahead of him in whites every day of the week though.

 

[DT_fanatic]

Ah yes. The "my guy bats at three so he must be better" argument.

It's the same reason many on here used for claiming Ponting was the best of his era. I agree though, it's a pretty non-sensical argument.

 

[Simon_Nesbit]

Williamson is awesome.

Smith is awesome.

Root is awesome.

Kohli is awesome.

These guys are genuine replacements for the Lara / Tendulkar / Ponting / Kallis era (with sincerest apologies to Kumar & Rahul). Stuff the petty bitching and lets enjoy the batting.

 

[Natho]

Rough call. Bloke is a star. The captain burden is hard for anyone to take on.

 

[Hellgood]

Indeed, and has been responsible for triggering a lot of top.order strife. others like brownlie and McIntosh had a similar impact at various stages.

Uh you're barking up completely the wrong tree with Brownlie. The highest he has ever batted in tests was at number four which was in two tests in South Africa where he actually made a ton and a 50.

Over his career he performed well against Australia and South Africa with his average being dragged down by failures against the West Indies.

In no way should his test career be derided.

 

[PhatBoy]

Uh you're barking up completely the wrong tree with Brownlie. The highest he has ever batted in tests was at number four which was in two tests in South Africa where he actually made a ton and a 50.

Over his career he performed well against Australia and South Africa with his average being dragged down by failures against the West Indies.

In no way should his test career be derided.

I'm certain - happy to be wrong, though, that very early on, Williamson batted a few times at 6 and Brownlie was among those above him.

He played well in the 1-all series over here but there's no defence for averaging 29 on your test career as a specialist batsman.