How do you rate Kapil Dev as a bowler alone?

[SLcric123]

One of the few bowlers in the world cricket to have got 400+ wickets to his name and he has done it at an average of 29.xx playing half of his games on SC pitches and being the sole great bowler of his team.

How good was he a bowler alone? India's greatest ever fast bowler? And who all were better bowlers than him from his era?

 

[Robert]

Very good. Better than Botham because Kapil did well in WI. Though curiously not that effective in England.

India’s best ever quicker bowler.

 

[Ab Fan]

Surely an Indian great with the bowl itself.

Superior to Zaheer and Srinath.

 

[TQ89]

Absolute workhorse & one of the fittest players ever from subcontinent. Dunno how to rank him but taking all things into consideration he easily belongs in the best five of his era.

 

[Bilal7]

A good bowler. Pretty similar to Broad in terms of stats and standing.

Surely an Indian great with the bowl itself.

Superior to Zaheer and Srinath.

Zaheer was better, in my opinion. Quicker as well and a better proponent of reverse-swing.

 

[gazza619]

I was unfortunate to have started following cricket when guys like Imran Khan, Kapil and Botham were towards the end of their careers. But to have watched videos of his bowling he looked like a high quality bowler. I think he may have averaged even better had he been playing in a team which had one more strike pace bowler.

 

[WhenSultansBowled]

India's best ever, easily.

One of the best of his era. His stats don't reflect his class.
(Can someone post his bowling stats every 20 tests please?)

 

[WhenSultansBowled]

I was unfortunate to have started following cricket when guys like Imran Khan, Kapil and Botham were towards the end of their careers. But to have watched videos of his bowling he looked like a high quality bowler. I think he may have averaged even better had he been playing in a team which had one more strike pace bowler.

Pressure from both ends is essential for a bowler. e.g.: 2Ws / Walsh-Ambrose / Broad-Anderson etc etc

 

[Hitman]

India's best fast bowler ever.

 

[Proactive_]

One of the greats. It's not just about the skill, it's also about your mental tenacity and physical fitness to spearhead an attack with virtually no support for 15 years, playing half of your games on unhelpful wickets to boot. One of the most lionhearted cricketers to ever play the game. His spell of 9/83 against the great WI in Ahmedabad 1983 bowling UNCHANGED for 30 overs will go down as one of the greatest bowling performances ever.

 

[Bewal Express]

Up to 83 really good, and after that he was pretty average. Overall good bowler but the weakest bowler out of the All rounders.

 

[Ab Fan]

A good bowler. Pretty similar to Broad in terms of stats and standing.



Zaheer was better, in my opinion. Quicker as well and a better proponent of reverse-swing.

Zaheer was very good but Kapil has got over 400 wickets at an average under 30. The amount of workload he carried up was phenomenal.

One of the fittest players of his era, a more than capable batsmen and given the bowling resource India had back then, he would be required to bowl, bowl and bowl.

 

[Slog]

Great workhorse

 

[topspin]

Just misses out on ATG status because at home he averaged 36-37 but it could have been another story if he was bowling his home matches somewhere else since his away average is a pretty good at 26. The reason I mention this is because we have Anderson who has been bestowed with perfect conditions at home for swing bowling but is somehow regarded as an ATG by the English despite averaging 32 away from home.

Anderson falls short of ATG like Kapil but I rate the latter as the greater of the two because he was far more destructive in his peak and was outstanding against the great Windies sides prior the 90s.

I hope this gives a more precise indication of where Kapil Dev lies in the history of pace bowling legends and greats.

 

[Ab Fan]

Just misses out on ATG status because at home he averaged 36-37 but it could have been another story if he was bowling his home matches somewhere else since his away average is a pretty good at 26. The reason I mention this is because we have Anderson who has been bestowed with perfect conditions at home for swing bowling but is somehow regarded as an ATG by the English despite averaging 32 away from home.

Anderson falls short of ATG like Kapil but I rate the latter as the greater of the two because he was far more destructive in his peak and was outstanding against the great Windies sides prior the 90s.

I hope this gives a more precise indication of where Kapil Dev lies in the history of pace bowling legends and greats.

Kapil averages 26 at home and 32 away with the bowl.

26 and 36 are his numbers with the bat.

 

[Bilal7]

Zaheer was very good but Kapil has got over 400 wickets at an average under 30. The amount of workload he carried up was phenomenal.

One of the fittest players of his era, a more than capable batsmen and given the bowling resource India had back then, he would be required to bowl, bowl and bowl.

For sure. Kapil was very fit for a player of that era and a true workhorse but Zaheer had more quality.

 

[Hasan123]

Very good bowler.

 

[RainMan_]

He was a decent bowler.

Nothing special though. He was quite average in tests and has a poor overall stats in this format even though he has played all of his career in a bowling friendly era.

He was a level below average atgs.

 

[Ab Fan]

For sure. Kapil was very fit for a player of that era and a true workhorse but Zaheer had more quality.

Zaheer was no doubt an expert at the art of reverse swing and could swing the ball both ways as well but outside his peak(2007-11), he wasnt all that good and his career also suffered a bit due to injuries. It was a pleasure watching him bowl though and I would prefer watching him bowl over any Indian fast bowler but clearly if we look at Kapil's team resource and the support he had, Kapil as a bowler was a level superior to Zaheer.

Stats are there to judge the two itself. Kapil with 434 wickets at 29 clearly over Zaheer with some 300 wickets at 32.

 

[Bilal7]

Zaheer was no doubt an expert at the art of reverse swing and could swing the ball both ways as well but outside his peak(2007-11), he wasnt all that good and his career also suffered a bit due to injuries. It was a pleasure watching him bowl though and I would prefer watching him bowl over any Indian fast bowler but clearly if we look at Kapil's team resource and the support he had, Kapil as a bowler was a level superior to Zaheer.

Stats are there to judge the two itself. Kapil with 434 wickets at 29 clearly over Zaheer with some 300 wickets at 32.

I judge players at differently and for me, quality is more important than quantity. However, you make good points for Kapil and I don't think there was much to separate the two anyway.

 

[PakLFC]

Very good swing bowler no doubt about it. Never a fast bowler though.

 

[Justcrazy]

Purely as a bowler I would rate him below Srinath and Zaheer

 

[wrongun]

Very good. Better than Botham because Kapil did well in WI. Though curiously not that effective in England.

India’s best ever quicker bowler.

I'd probably agree. Botham bottled vs the very best but Kapil turned up.

Botham also had some very, very good quicks to bowl in tandem with- Snow, Willis etc but every team knew Kapil was largely a one man seam attack for most of his career so only had to see him off.

The man owned the world record for Test wickets- all done as a swing bowler in India! Of all things! That deserves massive respect. Excellent bowler. Not as good as Imran or Hadlee but achieved an incredible amount, including a WC win. Tried his guts out, never hid from hard times. Clever operator with a great natural talent.

India's best quick ever, by a clear margin. (career concluded bowlers that is, who knows what current crop may do)

 

[Ab Fan]

Btw, who all were ahead of him from his era?

Marshall, Imran, Hadlee, Lillee, Garner, Holding, Robert, Willis.

 

[Romali_rotti]

Kapil imo is an atg purely based on his stats vs the best team of his era the WI, he even has a better bowling avg than Imran in the WI... However the knock on him was he never brought it to the table vs the lesser opponents, he should have owned teams like NZ & ENG but he never brought his WI game vs those teams.. Dev was a 1 man seam attack for India, things may have turned out to be different if he had a fast bowler named Yograj Singh aka Yuvraj's dad, be there to support him but it wasn't meant to be, Yograj was a head case despite immense talent and only played a hand full of matches for India. Had Yograj or any other fast bowler been there to support Dev, he would have retired with a bowling avg in the low 20s rather than the late 20s...

 

[the_outsider]

Better than Imran Khan.

 

[Robert]

I'd probably agree. Botham bottled vs the very best but Kapil turned up.

Botham also had some very, very good quicks to bowl in tandem with- Snow, Willis etc but every team knew Kapil was largely a one man seam attack for most of his career so only had to see him off.

The man owned the world record for Test wickets- all done as a swing bowler in India! Of all things! That deserves massive respect. Excellent bowler. Not as good as Imran or Hadlee but achieved an incredible amount, including a WC win. Tried his guts out, never hid from hard times. Clever operator with a great natural talent.

India's best quick ever, by a clear margin. (career concluded bowlers that is, who knows what current crop may do)

I don’t think Botham bottled against WI. TCCB made him skipper against them for ten tests in a row. He was unsuited to captaincy and his game fell apart.

He never bowled with Snow though he had Willis to help him.

 

[The_Odd_One]

A bowler in the league of Vaas, Broad, Ntini, etc

A bowling average of almost 30 in an era when there were several bowlers averaging in low 20s is very poor.

 

[Rightarmfast]

If he had a bowling partner like Zaheer Khan, Shami and Bumrah operating from the other end, he would have been absolutely destruction personified. Sadly, he bowled alone for majority of his career. A good analogy would be imagining what would a great bowler like Ambrose, Mcgrath or Donald achieve, if these guys were the only fast bowlers in their team and had to play the part of both, strike bowler as well as the stock bowler.