Re: How much longer do we let Kaneria "develop" into a world class bowler
Well, prejudice kee bhie kuch haad hotie hay :) Here are records of Pakistani spinners. Danish is already a world class test spin bowler. Choose your pick from test figures below.
From best to worse:
Strike rate (balls per test wicket):
Mushtaq Mohammad: 66.5
Saqlain Mushtaq: 67.6
Danish Kanaria: 67.7 (before current ongoing match, Danish was second after Mushtaq Mohd)
Mushtaq Ahmed: 67.7
Abdul Qadir: 72.5
Iqbal Qasim: 76.1
Arshad Khan: 79.3
Tauseef Ahmed: 83.6
Wicket per match (Number of wickets per test match played): **
**Danish Kanaria: 4.3
Saqlain Mushtaq: 4.25
Mushtaq Ahmed: 3.56
Abdul Qadir: 3.52
Arshad Khan: 3.55
Iqbal Qasim: 3.42
Tauseef Ahmed: 2.74
Mushtaq Mohammad: 1.386 (Mush Mohd was good spin bowler, but use to bat more than bowl)
Highest wicket takers (total overall test wickets):
*Abdul Qadir: 236 (67 tests) *
Danish Kanaria: 219 (51 tests including present test)
Saqlain Mushtaq: 208 (49 tests)
Mushtaq Ahmed: 185 (52 tests)
Iqbal Qasim: 171 (50 tests)
Tauseef Ahmed: 93 (34 tests)
Mushtaq Mohammad: 79 (57 tests)
Arshad Khan: 32 (9 tests)
[Let see that by the time Danish finishes this test and plays another 16 test (to equal abdul Qadir number of test), by how many wickets Danish would pass Abdul Qadir tally].
Averages (Runs per wicket in test):
*Iqbal Qasim: 28.11 *
Mushtaq Mohammad: 29.22
Saqlain Mushtaq: 29.83
Arshad Khan: 30.00
Arshad average is good because he played few matches and got lucky in one inning with 7/92.
Tauseef Ahmed: 31.72
Abdul Qadir: 32.8
Mushtaq Ahmed: 32.97
Danish Kanaria: 33.61
Economy rate (runs given per over in test matches):
Iqbal Qasim: 2.21
Arshad Khan: 2.26
Tauseef Ahmed: 2.27
Mushtaq Mohammad: 2.63
Saqlain Mushtaq: 2.63
Abdul Qadir: 2.71
Mushtaq Ahmed: 2.92
Danish Kanaria: 2.97
So, we can see that average run per wk for Abdul Qadir, Mushtaq Ahmed and Danish are similar. If we think of strike bowler, we can see that Danish and Saqlain has similar figures, and they are best spin strike bowlers Pakistan has produced (actually till now, it seems Danish takes more wickets per match than Saqlain)
Overall (from averages as well as strike rate), I would rate Saqlain Mushtaq (both for test and one-day) as best Pakistan spin bowler followed by Iqbal Qasim (test) followed by Danish (test).