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Kapil Dev vs Shahid Afridi - Who was the better all-rounder in ODIs?

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saadsahabjee

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Below are stats of both.

Kapil Dev

Batting Avg 23.7
Away Batting Avg 19.5
Strike Rate 95
Hundreds 1
Fifty 14
Bowling avg 27.4
253 wickets

Shahid Afridi

Batting Avg 23.5
Away Batting Avg 23.8
Strike Rate 117
Hundreds 6
Fifty 39
Bowling avg 34.6
395 wickets

Ur views ?
 
Afridi

Man of the Match 32 times
Man of series 4 times

Kapil
Man of the match 11 times
Man of series 1 times
 
Afridi is not fit enough to tie the shoelace of Kapil Dev.
 
Their rating trend for entire career.

allrounder_rating.jpg
 
It's an interesting comparison.

Place in history: Although Kapil is an Indian legend, he has mediocre stats for ODIs. The only reason Kapil would make an All Time Indian ODI XI is because India does not have many ATG bowlers. Afridi could never make it to a Pakistani All Time XI, so there's that.

Statistically: Kapil appears superior (qualifies as a "bowling all-rounder" more than Afridi - whose statistics scream "bits-and-pieces"). However, Afridi's bowling stats are misleading. He was a much better bowler than his stats suggest for the majority of his playing career.

Match-winner: This category belongs to Afridi and emphatically too at that. Whether with the bat or the ball, Afridi has been the catalyst for many Pakistani victories. His MoM/MoS achievements are outstanding and for a player with his stats, it's quite phenomenal!

Unless my team had absolute trash bowlers, I would select Afridi in this poor man's all-rounder contest for the hope of the match-winning performance. The only reason I would take Kapil over Afridi is if my main 4 bowlers were horrible (i.e. averaged above 25).
 
In matches won


Afridi
Batting Avg 30.5
Bowling avg 25

Kapil Dev
Batting avg 28.5
Bowling avg 23
 
People do compare Kapil with Imran. Now this!
cricket was not that simple in era of kapil/imran, unlike Afridi's era.
 
Afridi's AR record is boosted heavily by a lot of minnow bashing. Quality wise Kapil wipes the floor with Afridi and is well ahead of everyone else simply because he was a top frontline ODI bowler and by far the most explosive batsman of his era. Its not even close even Viv's SR is well below Kapil's.
 
To most top teams Afridi was a nobody as either a bowler or batsman and many times both.

For example as a bowler he was a nobody against India.
 
This is an odd comparison. Kapil was legendary player and had an average which was okay for his era. That was an era when 30 was considered good ODI batting average and an SR of 70 was considered as great. Vivian Richards, Dean Jones, Zaheer Abbas were all ahead of their times in terms of SR and average. Afridi should have averaged higher in the era he played, especially with the start he got to his international career. He regressed as a bowler as well except for few games against Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, West Indies.
 
Kapil any time, any day of the week. Afridi is one of the most overrated excuses for a 'cricketer' in history.
 
You must pick your battles wisely Pakistani fans. Putting Afridi over Kapil Dev only makes you look clueless ignorants withd no understanding of the game. You are better than that.
 
Joke of a comparison. Threads such as these prove that some humans were left behind in the evolutionary progression.
It's akin to comparing Rashid Latif with Adam Gilchrist.
 
In other news, who is better between Yuvraj Singh and Donald Bradman?
 
Kapil Dev. An absurd comparison really.

Though Afridi would probably be a superior player in T20s I think.
 
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Interesting thread - you have to remember Kapil was a test class all rounder and one of the all time great all rounders, so while his ODI stats might not look glamorous , his reputation on the field in ODI games was no less, he was still the same Kapil Dev who could win matches with bat or ball. The fact that India had a weak team and didn't win many games in those days is another story.

No disrespect to Afridi, as entertaining as he was, his reputation in ODI cricket for the most part was of a slogger or pinch hitter as they called him in early days, who can come in and will either get out or whack a few out of the park. And if it's his lucky day he could win the game with a 50 off 25 balls at the right time.
 
Majid Khan said:
Interesting thread - you have to remember Kapil was a test class all rounder and one of the all time great all rounders, so while his ODI stats might not look glamorous , his reputation on the field in ODI games was no less, he was still the same Kapil Dev who could win matches with bat or ball. The fact that India had a weak team and didn't win many games in those days is another story.

No disrespect to Afridi, as entertaining as he was, his reputation in ODI cricket for the most part was of a slogger or pinch hitter as they called him in early days, who can come in and will either get out or whack a few out of the park. And if it's his lucky day he could win the game with a 50 off 25 balls at the right time.
Click to expand...

And usually against Zimbabwe.
 
Seriously, I was a great fan of afridi for all his mavericks, but this comparison does not make any sense.
Kapil was far ahead in terms of skills and performance. If there is a comparison, it should be with his contemporary, IK.

Afridi can be compared with Ian Harvey, Darren Lehman kind of all rounders, not with one of the finest All rounders like Kapil, Botham, IK, Hadlee, Kallis. Even he can't be compared with Jayasurya, who was one of the finest spin bowling all rounder.
 
Wasnt Kapil ranked #1 all rounder for 10 odd years in ODIs above the great IK Also?

So basically pakistani fans here are saying Afridi is better than Imran Khan in ODIs? Fair enough then
 
TM Riddle said:
Joke of a comparison. Threads such as these prove that some humans were left behind in the evolutionary progression.
It's akin to comparing Rashid Latif with Adam Gilchrist.
Click to expand...

Batting of Gichrist was great , but only on WK skills latif is ahead
 
Justcrazy said:
Batting of Gichrist was great , but only on WK skills latif is ahead
Click to expand...
Latif? The guy who shelled almost every catch that was offered on independence cup final in Bangladesh? The record breaking chase of India was made possible only because of heroic keeping skills of Latif...never saw such performance from Gilly ever
 
Kapil was a good allrounder. Yes, he's obviously not as good of an allrounder as some of his delusional fans always try to make him out to be. Having said that, I don't think there should be any doubt about the fact that as an allrounder Kapil is in a different league compared to Afridi.
 
Overall kapil is the 3rd best odi all rounder from Asia just behind Imran Khan and Shakib Al Hasan.
 
RainMan_ said:
Overall kapil is the 3rd best odi all rounder from Asia just behind Imran Khan and Shakib Al Hasan.
Click to expand...

Imran I understand. But Shakib, really? He's a spinner playing in Bangladesh and still averages more than Kapil.

Shakib is the best all-arounder currently playing. But he is nowhere close to the league that Kapil is in.
 
Kapil Dev. Without a shadow of doubt.

A prime Afridi can be a destructive opener. But Kapil Dev's bowling > light years > Afridi's bowling.

And I don't know the stats.
 
the_outsider said:
Imran I understand. But Shakib, really? He's a spinner playing in Bangladesh and still averages more than Kapil.

Shakib is the best all-arounder currently playing. But he is nowhere close to the league that Kapil is in.
Click to expand...

Shakib isn't in the league of Kapil based on what exactly? Ur personal whim?

Shakib is one of the greatest allrounders of all time and his incredible stats across all formats speaks for his greatness. He is 3rd allrounder in the history of cricket to have a positive difference between his batting average and bowling average in test. Allrounders like kallis and sobers r ahead of him in this regard. Now go and see the stats of Kapil in tests and compare it with Shakib. Kapil is no match for shakib in tests.

In ODIs the gap between Shakib and Kapil isn't as much as it is in tests. Still, with a batting average of 36 and a bowling average of 29 shakib is easily better than someone like kapil who averages only 23 with the bat and 27 with the ball.
 
Afridi cant be compared with anyone. I'd go for Razzaq vs Kapil instead. Afridi was known for his one of brilliance performance, he wasnt a consistent performer like any other all rounder let alone Kapil.
 
the_outsider said:
Imran I understand. But Shakib, really? He's a spinner playing in Bangladesh and still averages more than Kapil.
Click to expand...

Do u even realise that he averages 12 runs more than Kapil with the bat? Kapil has a tail enders average with the bat compared to the avg of Shakib's.

Oh, also don't forget the fact that Shakib has two fifers in a place like southafrica something which many genuine Indian spinners haven't managed to achieve in their entire career.
 
As much as I don’t rate Afridi I have to say he was better then Kapil.

Now I know people will think i’m Just showing my patriotism but that is not the case.
I honestly thought that Kapil was an extremely average medium pacer and a glorified slogger with the bat.
Nothing special in either department...
Rank ordinary.
 
RainMan_ said:
Do u even realise that he averages 12 runs more than Kapil with the bat? Kapil has a tail enders average with the bat compared to the avg of Shakib's.
Click to expand...

Here is all rounder rating trend for both,

shaib.jpg
 
RainMan_ said:
Do u even realise that he averages 12 runs more than Kapil with the bat? Kapil has a tail enders average with the bat compared to the avg of Shakib's.

Oh, also don't forget the fact that Shakib has two fifers in a place like southafrica something which many genuine Indian spinners haven't managed to achieve in their entire career.
Click to expand...

12 runs more in average in the era of team scores of 481.

Compare that to Kapil having a lower bowling average despite being a swing bowler on the least helpful pitches in the world.

It is obvious to me who's the better all-arounder.

Also, rookies like Chahal and Kuldeep have 5fers in SA. On their first tour.

Do you want to find out how many 5fers Kapil has in India?
 
So everyone has readily agreed that Afridi >>>> Imran? Fair enough.
 
RainMan_ said:
Do u even realise that he averages 12 runs more than Kapil with the bat? Kapil has a tail enders average with the bat compared to the avg of Shakib's.

Oh, also don't forget the fact that Shakib has two fifers in a place like southafrica something which many genuine Indian spinners haven't managed to achieve in their entire career.
Click to expand...
Now u are going overboard.
Kapil was twice the bowler shakib is:
bowling avg vs non minnows in odis:
aus:kapil 27 sha 48
eng:kapil 28 sha 42
nz :kapil 27 sha 26
pak:kapil 26 shakib 31
SA:kapil 31 sha 47
sri:kapil 26 sha 53
WI: kapil 28 sha 34

Shakib has improved his bowling avg by taking bucketloads of wickets vs zim
He took 74 wk against zimb at avg of 21 which is twice the amount of wickets he has taken against any other country . Shakib is a mediocre odi bowler.If we remove his avg against zim his bowling avg will probably go upto 38 or 39
Kapil dev did'nt had the luxury of playing against sco.ire,bermuda,,canada,scotland otherwise his avg would've been even lesser.
 
the_outsider said:
12 runs more in average in the era of team scores of 481.

Compare that to Kapil having a lower bowling average despite being a swing bowler on the least helpful pitches in the world.

It is obvious to me who's the better all-arounder.

Also, rookies like Chahal and Kuldeep have 5fers in SA. On their first tour.

Do you want to find out how many 5fers Kapil has in India?
Click to expand...

Looks like u r now shooting at ur own foot by bringing out this ridiculous home and away criteria into the discussion my friend.

Let me tell u why. Kapil bowled in an era where 200 used to be considered as a winning score in ODIs. But despite having that advantage in his favor kapil averages only 27 with the ball when it should've been much lower whereas Sakib bowls in an era where scores above 300 has become a norm, but still he averages only 29 with the ball which is just 2 runs more than Kapil's bowling average.

Secondly, u r claiming that kapil was in an disadvantageous position due to playing on Indian pitches, when the truth is he was even more terrible with the ball when he bowled outside Asia. He averages 32 with the ball in countries like Australia, SA, NZ and ENGLAND. Even in countries like Pakistan and Srilanka he averages, 34 with the ball.


Thirdly, I don't even wanna talk about Kapil's tailendersish average of 19 with the bat in odis since he's so much behind a world class batsman like Shakib Al hasan that it's almost pointless to even talk about it.
 
Last edited:
RainMan_ said:
Looks like u r now shooting at ur own foot by bringing out this ridiculous home and away criteria into the discussion my friend.

Let me tell u why. Kapil bowled in an era where 200 used to be considered as a winning score in ODIs. But despite having that advantage in his favor kapil averages only 27 with the ball when it should've been much lower whereas Sakib bowls in an era where scores above 300 has become a norm, but still he averages only 29 with the ball which is just 2 runs more than Kapil's bowling average.

Secondly, u r claiming that kapil was in an disadvantageous position due to playing on Indian pitches, when the truth is he was even more terrible with the ball when he bowled outside Asia. He averages 32 with the ball in countries like Australia, SA, NZ and ENGLAND. Even in countries like Pakistan and Srilanka he averages, 34 with the ball.


Thirdly, I don't even wanna talk about Kapil's tailendersish average of 19 with the bat in odis since he's so much behind a world class batsman like Shakib Al hasan that it's almost pointless to even talk about it.
Click to expand...

Every single stat you quoted is wrong. Please refer to the above posts for the correct data.
 
IMMY69 said:
As much as I don’t rate Afridi I have to say he was better then Kapil.

Now I know people will think i’m Just showing my patriotism but that is not the case.
I honestly thought that Kapil was an extremely average medium pacer and a glorified slogger with the bat.
Nothing special in either department...
Rank ordinary.
Click to expand...

Maybe in his last years. If I'm not mistaken ( maybe someone who watched his career live can explain), India use to make him bowl and bowl and bowl. There was no other pacer to share the burden :yk
 
the_outsider said:
Every single stat you quoted is wrong. Please refer to the above posts for the correct data.
Click to expand...

I know its hard for Indians to believe that Kapil with a tailenders batting avg in ODIs is nowhere close to being an ATG allrounder. It's the biased Indian media that made kapil look better than he actually is but a simple analysis of his stats clearly suggests that he was just a good bowler who could bat a bit just like England's Stuart Broad or Africa's Shaun Pollock.
 
World cup quarter final 1983.India 17 for 5.Kapil dev walks in.Kapil Dev plays the greatest ODI knock in history - 175 not out when 10 wkts fell.India goes on to win world cup.

1985 world championship final in australia(champions trophy of the time).Kapil dev knocks over Pak top order with pakistan all out 176.India wins.

Afridi can only dream.
 
RainMan_ said:
I know its hard for Indians to believe that Kapil with a tailenders batting avg in ODIs is nowhere close to being an ATG allrounder. It's the biased Indian media that made kapil look better than he actually is but a simple analysis of his stats clearly suggests that he was just a good bowler who could bat a bit just like England's Stuart Broad or Africa's Shaun Pollock.
Click to expand...

Correct your stats and then we'll continue this. There's no point having a debate with wrong data.
 
the_outsider said:
Correct your stats and then we'll continue this. There's no point having a debate with wrong data.
Click to expand...

Instead of accusing others of lying and presenting wrong data, u should better point out that where wrong data was presented.

Question is,

# Does Overhyped kapil averages 19 with the bat or not in ODIs? Answer is, yes he does.

# Does he average more than 32 in SEWNA countries or not with the ball in ODIs in a bowling friendly era or not ? Answer is yes he does.

#Does he average over 34 with the ball in Pakistan and SL or not? Answer is yes he does.

Tell me where did I present wrong data? Due to money power of BCCI even mediocre Indian players r given ATG status these days and showered with praises. Yes, BCCI can buy the mouths of our so called experts with IPL contracts and what not. But sadly they don't have the power to buy a player's batting or bowling stats.
 
Came here to see Kapil vs Afridi but the last few posts have been about Kapil vs Shakib. This is the classic example of "digging up a mountain and finding a dead rat". Khoda pahad nikli chuhiya :inti
 
RainMan_ said:
Instead of accusing others of lying and presenting wrong data, u should better point out that where wrong data was presented.

Question is,

# Does Overhyped kapil averages 19 with the bat or not in ODIs? Answer is, yes he does.

# Does he average more than 32 in SEWNA countries or not with the ball in ODIs in a bowling friendly era or not ? Answer is yes he does.

#Does he average over 34 with the ball in Pakistan and SL or not? Answer is yes he does.

Tell me where did I present wrong data? Due to money power of BCCI even mediocre Indian players r given ATG status these days and showered with praises. Yes, BCCI can buy the mouths of our so called experts with IPL contracts and what not. But sadly they don't have the power to buy a player's batting or bowling stats.
Click to expand...

[MENTION=146232]jeeteshssaxena[/MENTION] has listed out the correct stats. Please recheck.
 
Compare kapil batting with afridi is same like comparing sachin batting with rohit & smith in odi.
 
RainMan_ said:
Instead of accusing others of lying and presenting wrong data, u should better point out that where wrong data was presented.

Question is,

# Does Overhyped kapil averages 19 with the bat or not in ODIs? Answer is, yes he does.

# Does he average more than 32 in SEWNA countries or not with the ball in ODIs in a bowling friendly era or not ? Answer is yes he does.

#Does he average over 34 with the ball in Pakistan and SL or not? Answer is yes he does.

Tell me where did I present wrong data? Due to money power of BCCI even mediocre Indian players r given ATG status these days and showered with praises. Yes, BCCI can buy the mouths of our so called experts with IPL contracts and what not. But sadly they don't have the power to buy a player's batting or bowling stats.
Click to expand...

firstly,kapil avg in odis in 23.76 not 19 so please don't post fake stats(with 95 str rate)
Secondly u have'nt replied to my post in which i revealed how great a bowler shakib is .
Thirdly kapil's bowling avg in aus is 21 not 32+.
Fourth -kapil's bowling avg in WI is 29.
Fifth-Check shakib's bowling avg vs non minnows in odis,for your convenience i have posted it above and u have nothing to say on that.Shakib is a mediocre odi bowler nowhere near kapil.
Majority of stats you posted are wrong so please correct them.
 
Shakib Al Hasan...really?? :))

Absolute garbage player and overhyped by his delusional fans. He wont play even 5 tests if he was an India...lol.
 
jeeteshssaxena said:
Even afridi (the bowler) was a minnowbasher but he was twice the bowler shakib is.
Click to expand...

Easily. Afridi was a much better all rounder than Shakib. I dont care about stats or rankings or what jingoistic fans say. As an opposition I would fear about Afridi more than Shakib anyday.
 
jeeteshssaxena said:
firstly,kapil avg in odis in 23.76 not 19 so please don't post fake stats(with 95 str rate)
Secondly u have'nt replied to my post in which i revealed how great a bowler shakib is .
Thirdly kapil's bowling avg in aus is 21 not 32+.
Fourth -kapil's bowling avg in WI is 29.
Fifth-Check shakib's bowling avg vs non minnows in odis,for your convenience i have posted it above and u have nothing to say on that.Shakib is a mediocre odi bowler nowhere near kapil.
Majority of stats you posted are wrong so please correct them.
Click to expand...

First of all don't jump into a debate without following the flow of argument my dear friend.

Someone claimed that Kapil was at a disadvantages position due to him playing on subcontinental wickets. I just showed him that he was even worse when he played in SWENI countries which contradicts with his claim.

And yes, his accumulated bowling average is indeed way over 32 in those countries with a tailenders batting average of 19.

Lastly, Kapil was a good loi fast bowler who could hold a bat. But as a batsman he was nothing more than overhyped, glorified slogger. There's a reason why there's a massive negative difference between his batting avg and bowling avg, right?

Therefore as an allrounder he is no match for a Player like shakib Al hasan.
 
Just a bit off topic but the reason why BD never produced a single great player and why likes of Shakib cant hold a torch to players like Kapil, Irman, Lala etc. is due to genetics. A reason you would see very less players in Indian team from Bengal or why Afg already surpassed BD
 
Canford Cliffs said:
Just a bit off topic but the reason why BD never produced a single great player and why likes of Shakib cant hold a torch to players like Kapil, Irman, Lala etc. is due to genetics. A reason you would see very less players in Indian team from Bengal or why Afg already surpassed BD
Click to expand...
Looks like my facts driven post about kapil touched someone's raw nerve here. :))
 
Just to remain true to the topic of this thread, I haven't even said anything about Shakib's legendary stats in tests.


If we make an overall comparison between Shakib and Kapil as an allrounder by considering their performances in both of the formats, we will see that as an allrounder Kapil isn't fit enough to hold a candle in front of Shakib Al hasan who has mind boggling stats across all formats.
 
No that is not true at all. No expert in any part of the world would rate Shakib ahead as an all rounder than Kapil. Delusional BD fans notwithstandings...the same fans who said Pinak Ghosh has more talent than Tendulkar :))

But my post was not related to Shakib or Kapil. It was more of a generally why BD never has or never will produce athletic cricketers. Or why Afg has surpassed them. I can write in details about it if you want...but you may not like it.
 
This isn't much of a comparison. Kapil is the best ODI all-rounder of all time.
 
lol who the heck is Sakib ul Hasan ? never heard of this guy, does he play for UAE or something ?
 
RainMan_ said:
First of all don't jump into a debate without following the flow of argument my dear friend.

Someone claimed that Kapil was at a disadvantages position due to him playing on subcontinental wickets. I just showed him that he was even worse when he played in SWENI countries which contradicts with his claim.

And yes, his accumulated bowling average is indeed way over 32 in those countries with a tailenders batting average of 19.

Lastly, Kapil was a good loi fast bowler who could hold a bat. But as a batsman he was nothing more than overhyped, glorified slogger. There's a reason why there's a massive negative difference between his batting avg and bowling avg, right?

Therefore as an allrounder he is no match for a Player like shakib Al hasan.
Click to expand...
Kindly recheck your stats.
Kapil has a bowling avg of 27 in SENAW.
While you are saying it is 32+.
Secondly what about shakib's bowling stats his stats show that he is nothing more than a parttimer in odis.
 
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