All-time Test XI of players who have under-achieved the most

[Harsh Thakor]

This is my all time XI of cricketers who were most underachieved.Selected amongst those who did least justice to ability.I have mentioned the figures I feel they should have attained had they done juristic to their talent.I have mainly chosen batsmen who averaged under 49.


1.Mohsin Khan
2.Majid Khan
3.Lawrence Rowe
4.Kim Hughes
5.Carl Hooper
6.Sandeep Patil
7.Mitchelle Johsnon
8.Wasim Bari
9.Abdul Qadir
10.Sarfraz Nawaz
11.Sylvester Clarke



Mohsins' double hundred at Lords in 1982 and centuries and back to back 149 at Adelaide and 152 at Melbourne in 1983-84 testify his great potential.On his day he was atleast in the Javed Miandad class.Instead of 39+ should have averaged above 45.At the Oval versus West Indies in 1983 semi-final on a very fast track scored a classic 70.Technically a master.



On his day Majid was the equal of a Viv Richards or Greg Chappell capable of destroying the best bowing attacks by the sword.The bets batsman of his day on bad wickets.There were few better exhibitions standing upto great pace in a crisis than Majid's match-saving 167 at Georgetown in 1977.In my view should have averaged close to 50 with atleast 15 centuries and 5000 runs.


Lawrence Rowe was technically arguably the best of all west Indies batsman who was the first ever to score a double century on test debut.His 302 v England is an all-time classic.Should have averaged over 50 with around 7000 runs.


Kim Hughes in 1981-82 at Melbourne played one of the greatest test innings ever against the best bowing attack ever when scoring an unbeaten century.At lords in 1977 Centenary test he took cricketing art to regions of the sublime when scoring 117 n.o and 84.Sadly declined after 1984/Also prolific on turning Indian pitches like in 1979 with record aggregate of 596 runs for an Australian there.Should have averaged around 47 with over 600 runs .





Carl Hooper at best gave blemishes of Lara and Viv and could master bad wickets.Played some classic knocks against England at Trinidad in 1998 and also mastered sub-continent tracks.Should have averaged close to 45 with atleast 20 centuries.Few negotiated Wasim Waqar duo better .


Sandeep Patil gave some of batting's most debonair exhibition sat Adelaide in 1980-81 and in England in 1982.Also in 2 innings tore Imran apart in 1982-83.Should have averaged around 45 and scored around 6000 runs.


Mitchelle Johsnon took pace bowling skill to a scale rarely exhibited when daunting the Englsih batsmen in the Ashes with his length and bounce.Should have averaged around 22023 with his extraordinary ability.At his best more lethal than even Dale Steyn.




Wasim Bari could bat out of his skin in a crisis and also take catches that turned games as few could.



Abdul Qadir was hared er to read than even Shane Warne with his great wizardry .Noone was a better exponent of the googly.Should have had close to 200 wicket and averaged around 26.Great batsmen found him harder to face than even Warne.


Sylvester Clarke displayed lightning speed and could be more hostile than even Marshall.A class act in Pakistan in 1980.Should have averaged around 25 with 200 scalps.I


Sarfraz Nawaz was the moral pioneer of reverse swing who taught Imran the art of moving a cricket ball.At his best the equal of Richard Hadlee like when taking 9-86 at Melbourne in 1978-79.Should have averaged around 25 with around 200 scalps.

 

[Harsh Thakor]

[MENTION=79064]MMHS[/MENTION]. [MENTION=7774]Robert[/MENTION] [MENTION=132916]Junaids[/MENTION] please come here

 

[RajBan]

Ganguly underachieved a lot in Test cricket as compared to his potential definitely as a batsman and to an extent as a bowler. He was close to 50 avg during initial years of his career but his loss of form post 2004 dropped it low 40s. A late rejuvenation did some damage control but should have been in high 40s ideally

 

[Harsh Thakor]

Ganguly underachieved a lot in Test cricket as compared to his potential definitely as a batsman and to an extent as a bowler. He was close to 50 avg during initial years of his career but his loss of form post 2004 dropped it low 40s. A late rejuvenation did some damage control but should have been in high 40s ideally

Did I miss out some like Mark Waugh or vvs Laxman ?Sehwag also considering talent?

 

[jiduguravindra]

Did I miss out some like Mark Waugh or vvs Laxman ?Sehwag also considering talent?

IMO vvs underachieved alot. Definitely 50 plus avg batsmen if he had played higher up the order.

 

[Gabbar Singh]

Graeme Hick, Mark Ramprakash, Vinod Kambli, Mark Waugh, Carl Hooper, VVS Laxman (had the talent to score 30 test 100s IMO) are some names which come to mind.

 

[Robert]

[MENTION=79064]MMHS[/MENTION]. [MENTION=7774]Robert[/MENTION] [MENTION=132916]Junaids[/MENTION] please come here

Interesting thread Mr [MENTION=132062]Harsh Thakor[/MENTION].

Top of the list I would say Botham. Was once world leading test wicket takes with 373 and hit fourteen test hundreds but it should have been more, particularly with the bat. He should have become a rock solid #5 batter with twenty centuries.

I think Wasim Akram underachieved considering his prodigious ability as a bowler.

Flintoff with bat and ball. Three test fivefers and average 31 with the ball is not enough.

I concur on Hooper.

 

[Harsh Thakor]

Interesting thread Mr [MENTION=132062]Harsh Thakor[/MENTION].

Top of the list I would say Botham. Was once world leading test wicket takes with 373 and hit fourteen test hundreds but it should have been more, particularly with the bat. He should have become a rock solid #5 batter with twenty centuries.

I think Wasim Akram underachieved considering his prodigious ability as a bowler.

Flintoff with bat and ball. Three test fivefers and average 31 with the ball is not enough.

I concur on Hooper.

Thanks.Great names you mentioned.What about David Gower , Alan Lamb,Pieterson or even Kapil Dev?I feel both Wasim and Botham anyway have great records.

 

[burger_uno]

it is understandable that there are some cricketers who do not fulfill their potential. for some some reason however, pak cricket has produced more than a fair share of unfulfilled potential. some failed due to their own temperament - others for reason only known to cricketing gods and to pcb. here is my list:

1. shoaib mohammed: fawad alam of his era. one of the highest batting averages for a pakistani opener. played around 45 test matches with b.a. of around 44 with 7 centuries. his main rival for the spot was ramiz - the asad shafiq of his time, maybe even worse. played 57 test matches with 2 centuries and batting avg of around 32 which is 5 runs lower than that of imran khan's b.a. more tragically ramiz also kept out saeed anwer out for a time

2. imran nazir: one of the purest ball strikers i have ever seen and top player of pace. his 130 @ strike rate of around 60 in w.i. against attack comprising of ambrose, walsh and a fantastic supporting cast is still one of the best innings by a pakistani opener. scored 2 centuries in 8 matches compared to 2 in 57 by aforementioned ramiz. like fawad alam, dropped from test team 2 matches after scoring a 100 - got a 40 in his penultimate test match. seemed to have some issues with his temperament and tried to become afridi clone in odis but pcb surely could have helped.

3. asim kamal: dropped one match after scoring 50. passed 50 in 8 of the 12 matches played. good player of pace with decent scores against s.a. and aus.

4. hafeez. mold of imran nazir in terms of ball striking. got more out of his talent compared to i.n. his career was all over the place. for me, did not fulfill his potential

5. mohd wasim. decent scores against some quality attack. lacked consistency but should have kept in the system.

6. wasim raja. saw him only in highlights. natural striker of the ball who could play pace better than most pakistani batsman of his era. for some reason was in and out of the team unlike his brother.

6. sarfaraz ahmed. had the highest first class b.a. of any w.k. in pak. kept out by mafia backing akmals. was sent down under after a horrendous performance by kamran but asked to go back after one match even adnan akmal, whose first class b.a. was in high 20s, was given preference until he got injured and sarfaraz could not be kept out any longer. dropped from test team after getting back-to-back 50s in s.a. played significant role with bat in helping pak achieve first series victory against aussies in over 20 years. pcb damaged his career by putting too much on his plate - a mistake they might be making with babar as well. he should not have been made test captain nor should he have been part of t-20 squad.


7. abdul razzak came to the scene as 140kph pace bowler who could move the ball both ways. i would rate him ahead of hassan ali in terms of ability. lost pace very quickly and could barely justify his place as a backup seamer. did not perform consistently enough with bat to justify a no 6 spot.

8. azhar mehmood. hit 3 centuries (2-away) against high quality s.a. attack. had some problems against high quality spinners like warne. injury impacted his undoubted bowling ability and he could not come back.

in the bowling dept, i would include players like aqib, kabir khan, mohd akram who according to slater was harder to face than wasim or waqar when m.a. made his debut.

worse failure for me was shoaib akhter who played to satisfy his ego rather than playing for the team. chose to go the drugs route rather than change his game which would have extended his career longevity by making him less injury prone. was needed for his leadership role post retirement of 2ws. instead set bad example by fighting with team mates and got asif involved with drugs. story of pak cricket would have been completely different had akhter listened to woolmer and evolved his game like most fast bowlers from the past.

 

[Robert]

Thanks.Great names you mentioned.What about David Gower , Alan Lamb,Pieterson or even Kapil Dev?I feel both Wasim and Botham anyway have great records.

One feels that if Gower had converted a few more beautiful seventies into centuries he would have averaged 50 in tests.

Lamb did very well against WI but wasn’t great against spin.

Pietersen maxed his ability IMO.

Kapil should have scored a lot more runs. He should have had twice as many test hundreds.

 

[SmashIt]

Given how precociously talented he was and the hype surrounding him (constantly being referred to as better than Bradman and as "God" by many), the most under-achieving player of all time has to be Tendulkar. Anyone new to cricket who reads all the noise on Tendulkar would think that he averaged 125, only to scratch their head when they discover that it was only 53.

/thread

 

[WhenSultansBowled]

Given how precociously talented he was and the hype surrounding him (constantly being referred to as better than Bradman and as "God" by many), the most under-achieving player of all time has to be Tendulkar. Anyone new to cricket who reads all the noise on Tendulkar would think that he averaged 125, only to scratch their head when they discover that it was only 53.

/thread

SRT should have retired before his average went down. IMO likes of Sanga and Steyn were smarter timing their respective retirements. Unfortunately, SC legends drag on and that only has a negative effect on their stats.

BTW, not surprised to see so many Pakistani test players who failed to fulfill their potential.

 

[SmashIt]

SRT should have retired before his average went down. IMO likes of Sanga and Steyn were smarter timing their respective retirements. Unfortunately, SC legends drag on and that only has a negative effect on their stats.

BTW, not surprised to see so many Pakistani test players who failed to fulfill their potential.

Agree, but even if he had retired with an average of 57/58, the achievement would fall waaaay short of the hype.

 

[hitthestump]

Babar Azam. He's been around plenty now to say that his test career has been immensely underwhelming, far more than any other player on that list unless he manages to turn it around.

 

[Harsh Thakor]

I would say Lara and Viv Richards under achieved more than Tendulkar when you assess natural ability.In my view both had marginally more natural ability than Sachin.

 

[Harsh Thakor]

Given how precociously talented he was and the hype surrounding him (constantly being referred to as better than Bradman and as "God" by many), the most under-achieving player of all time has to be Tendulkar. Anyone new to cricket who reads all the noise on Tendulkar would think that he averaged 125, only to scratch their head when they discover that it was only 53.

/thread

IMO Lara and Viv Richards were marginally more under achieved than Tendulkar.Both by a very slender margin were more talented.

 

[Harsh Thakor]

Agree, but even if he had retired with an average of 57/58, the achievement would fall waaaay short of the hype.

What about Viv and Lara?Could have broken all the batting records?Mark Waugh ,Laxman and Vishwanath?All could have averaged around 50 if they did full justice to their talent.

 

[Harsh Thakor]

SRT should have retired before his average went down. IMO likes of Sanga and Steyn were smarter timing their respective retirements. Unfortunately, SC legends drag on and that only has a negative effect on their stats.

BTW, not surprised to see so many Pakistani test players who failed to fulfill their potential.

Inspite of such a phenomenal run aggregate and number of centuries.?

 

[RajBan]

Did I miss out some like Mark Waugh or vvs Laxman ?Sehwag also considering talent?

Sehwag and Waugh did fine. Lakshman like Ganguly could have done better but Lakshman was much more consistent throughout his career compared to Ganguly. There was no reason why Ganguly should not have got to an average of 48+ given his overall game. He has only himself to blame for it.

 

[SmashIt]

IMO Lara and Viv Richards were marginally more under achieved than Tendulkar.Both by a very slender margin were more talented.

Depends on how you want to measure underachievement - is it relative to their talent or hype? Talent is subjective, and I'd say all there were probably similarly talented. But based on hype, Lara and Richards are not even in the same stratosphere as Tendulkar. So you could say that Tendulkar massively underachieved or was massively overhyped (or both).

 

[WhenSultansBowled]

Inspite of such a phenomenal run aggregate and number of centuries.?

I recall some Indian PPers asking for SRT's retirement from tests in his last 2 years. Especially after a series of disastrous tours in 2011-12. And the whole 100th 100 was another unnecessary meme generated by stupid media.

On the other hand, there were millions of people who wanted him to not retire.

It's a very hard decision for someone as famous as SRT to decide his retirement. In hindsight, he dragged it.

Still, SRT played like a champ from 1989 to his last day and will be pride of India for an eternity.