Sir Ian was never a deer in anyone's headlights. If anything he was too confident against WI, kept trying to smash them and got out. Sir Viv Richards said that Sir Ian was the man they prepared hardest against, because they saw what he did to everyone else. By and large they were able to keep him quiet, though I recall fondly watching him take an eightfer at Lords's, then come in and hit 80 later on.
A batting avg of 21, with 1 x 50 in 21 test matches tells a sorry tale, you are right that the WI were able to keep him quiet, it was because he just was not good enough to face them. Now you can make have weak arguments such as; he was too confident, cocky or whatever but when you do so poorly after so many games it shows you just weren't up-to task. Heck even Ponting has 1 x 100 and a few 50s in India after 14 test matches even though he avgs 20 odd..... Robert it does not look good for a level headed, knowledgeable poster like yourself to act like a fan boy and make excuses
He was made skipper, a role to which he was not suited, and immediately had to play WI for ten tests in a row. That messed his figures up against them.
Again another excuse,
Kapil's century against WI came against a drastically reduced pace attack, while Sir Ian copped the big four every time.
Scoring a 100 of 95 balls in WI against A bowling attack consisting of Holding, Marshall, Garner and Roberts is a drastically reduced pace attack ? I hope this was just your sense of humor.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63336.html
I will agree that Kapil was the better bowler because he had more success overseas,
Dev was the better bowler and batsmen vs the greatest side of their Era, that is all that matters.
but Botham was clearly the better batsman, scoring 14 test centuries to Kapil's 8 despite playing half his cricket in England, and he was also the best slip fielder of his day.
Botham was better vs inferior teams with the bat, I agree, if anything DEV played with a 6 and out attitude which I am sure you would agree having watched him, hence he scored less 100s than Botham.