What? You read the first two paragraphs and just stopped there? What about the rest of World XI players? Name one player except Murali who had a succesful tour.
Sincerely,
Captain Lota
PS: This article is already being discussed here. Mods kindly merge threads. Thanks.
Its true that none of the players had a successful series. What you must understand is that none of them need to prove anything against Australia, they have done it in the past i.e. Dravid, Lara, Kallis etc…
Inzmam - was the who needed to prove something [a] making fuss of not being selected in the first place ** Improve his record against Australia in Australia…
Inzi has socred 7621 runs in his test career at an average of 50.13. His overall test average against aussies is definitely below his standards i.e. 785 runs in 14 matches with an average of 31.40. He average with them in Australia is 30.87 in 8 matches and has scored 494 runs.
In ODI, he has scored 10971 runs at an average of 39.8. Against australia has scored 991 runs at an average of 31.96. In australia that average is 29.9 where he has scored 598 runs.
There is a point of telling all this to you. Compare his overll career average and then look at his average against Auusie. It is obvious they have always troubled him. But if you have followed cricket, you must be knowing that it happens to most of the greats. The list would be endless but since you gave examples of lara, dravid and kallis, so let me tell you something about them .Yes they have got impressive record against Australia. But if ROW has to play India, lara will not be an automatic selection choice. Same is the case with Kallis, If ROW have to play against Srilanka. Similarily Dravid doesn’t have an imoressive record against South Africa. All these players have averages in upper 50’s but against the sides mentioned, they have test averages in 30’s.
But I doubt, you have followed alot of cricket. Probabaly you started watching cricket late last year when Pakistan toured australia.
So why wouldn’t Lara and kallis be automatic choice against India or Sri Lanka??? Because they have a poor average against them??? If they are not automatic choice than this would NOT be ROW (leaving the best players out…)
Also in reality this wil never happen i.e. ROW V India - so you can forget about your theory… because India will never become the best in the world and importantly remain consistent like the Australia have been over the last decade or West indies of 70’s’ or 80’s.
And in answer to your question regarding me following cricket during Pakistans tour of Austrlia…For your information, I have been watching and following cricket a lot longer that.
Son, When I said that it happens to cricket greats, I thought you would pick what I meant. But I was wrong, you are a new bie. Let me explain you. There are always teams against which the great players for some reason are unable to perform upto their full potential. Lara, dravid, kallis have outstanding overall averages but their record against india, SA and Srilanka are average or below according to their own standards.
As far as your question regarding why lara or kallis will not be an automatic choice against india and srilanka, a very dumb question. When you are playing superseries, your record against the best i.e. your opponent should be outstanding. Thats why inzi was not an automatic choice for the seires and was selected later. ROW playing agianst India or Srilanka was an example just to make you understand. In such a case kallis or lara will eventually make it to the squad just like inzi, but will not be an automatic choice.
I don’t get it, on one hand you want “automatic selection” of top world players regardless of their performance against a specific opposition and you started off by saying Inzi was at for crying on no selection to ROW? Unless you want to suggest that players like G Smith, Boucher are better than Inzi.
Comparing G Smith and Boucher to Inzmam? There should not be comparsion with Inzmam [a] G Smith is a opener and should be compared to other openers ** Boucher as you may not know is a wicketkeeper.
Inzmam bats around 4 or 5 and therefore should be compared against players batting in this position.
You can’t compare Inzmam to G Smith can you - because Inzmam is not going to open the innings is he???
Are you putting Inzmam in the category of greats? Which category of greats are you putting him in i.e. Pakistan greats or among the greatest ever batsmen? This is another argument and issue but just wanted to know which category Inzmam would fall into in your opinion.
Yes - great Pakistani batsman Javed Minadad was another example who was often criticised for not having a good record against the great west indian side especially away from home. However he did get 2 centuries I think …against them away from home.
A lot of players have a poor or bad record against certain country. However - what you must try to understand is that records against or averages against the very best team of the era are often judged or taken into account by observers to see how a great a players someone was. Understand daughter???
The reason I am critical about Inzmam is that he was so upset at being left out that there were public demonstrations in Pakistan and he wanted to be in the side desperatly.
What he does NOT or MAY NOT realise is that there are better players than him (regardless of form) in the position he plays …and still wanted to be in the side and when he got selected - what did he do??? Nothing - since he was so desperate to be included in the ROW side he should have had the extra motivation to do better and prove his critics wrong which there plenty around the world for various reason i.e. captaincy, tactical awarness etc. Maybe he was motivated but proved once again his weakness against the Australians.
I know his second innings decision was harsh but the way he was batting he would not have laster much longer.
If he had kept quite and not made a such a huge issue initially at not being selected no one would have cared about his record against Australia.
With the series coming up against England - I am sure Flintoff and Harmisson must be licking their lips as they must have had an opprtunity to look at him closely. I will not be surprised if the English team has not already done their home work on him - after all remember what they did to likes of Gilchrist, Ponting, Martyn in the Ashes - they are not ordinary batsmen.
You still don’t get it, my point is: Are G Smith and M Boucher considered to be in same class of cricketer as Inzamam? Remember this was supposed to be collection of “best” players in the ROW team.
This Cricket_lover guy is so confused that i had to stop the argument about the same issue. I explained in detail that Inzi and most Pakistani fans were surprised of his inclusion in ODIs ( since he is a confused personality, i will say that again** ODI’s= One Day Internationals**, i mean the games that start and finish on the same day and each team gets to play 50 overs).
On current form Inzamam deserved a spot more than Kallis, Dravid, Gibbs, Sehwag, (injured, half fit, struggling for form)Tendulkar or even Lara, why??? Because last time he played an ODI series in Australia, he was the 2nd highest scorer (second only to Clarke), scored 364 runs at an average of 52 including 5 50’s and 3 of them against Australia at a SR of 91.
Prior to this series, he had also scored around 70 against Australia in Holland (or England , can’t remember) and after this he again scored few in India as well.
Now this confused soul was also pushing for Vaughan’s case ahead of Inzi who mind you has EXCELLENT record in Australia but Vaughan ahead of Inzi in ODI’s???
Now Inzi was dropped from Test and ODI squad and Tendulkar was still there who had no chance to recover in time and later Dravid was chosen ahead of Inzamam and to make up for their stuff ups, selectors included Inzi in TEST squad.
Your legendary Gangu was crying like babies when he wasn’t included in Asia XI when he was even struggling to retain a spot in Indian team and you have problems with Inzi feeling bad about his exclusion even though he should have been the first one to be chosen???
So u admit you were surprised at Inzam inclusion in the one day squad? He did not even get into the one day side. Can you clarify what you meant. Were you surprised that he was exluded in the one day side?
If yes thats fine - perhaps he should have been in the one day side.
To clarify something else - I am not discussing his one day inlusion / exclusion but him selected for the test squad and his performance/record against Australia.
Test match = 5 days, in the super series it was scheduled for 6 days.
Smarty, can you include G Smith and Boucher in “cricket greats”? Let me know if you can understand this question, otherwise I’ll have to spend more time to explain the question further.
