Mitchell Starc and Wahab Riaz posted identical figures - Explain!

[Fahdi]

The difference is that Starc has been below par this series whereas Wahab has been about normal.

 

[Stallion__]

There is lot of antipathy towards Wahab on this forum. However it has been a while since he is doing what is expected of him. He is not going to run through the sides or pick up quick wickets with the new ball. He is there to buy you a wicket we he does. And does that everywhere, not just in Australia. He shouldn't have been but unfortunately, he is the our best pacer at the moment.

 

[backfootpunch]

Looking back it now Starc wasn't at his best and I remember he had only just about recovered from an injury so was lacking match practice.

 

[Ab Fan]

Starc wasn't all that great in tests back. Now he is not only the most exciting bowler in the world but a legend of the game in making.

His only competitors are couple of his teammates- Hazlewood and Cummins, Rabada and Boult.

 

[TeymurBlake]

Starc was bowling to batsman that are very alien in those conditions where as aussie batters were facing up against fast pace bowling something they feast on.

 

[Hasan123]

Wahab bowled well in the series , but Starc is vastly superior bowler.

 

[Bilal7]

Riaz is a pretty good bowler in Asia. He's played important roles in winning us test matches in the UAE. A shame he could not utilize his pace in Australia.

 

[Ellipsism]

Wahab was the only bowler that looked like taking wickets in that series, hopefully the PCB have learnt you can’t take dibbly dobblers like Imran Khan and Sohail Khan to Aus, and expect to win.

 

[Savak]

Lol at people blaming Wahab and mocking him. He was the pick of the bowlers on that tour to Australia. If anything he would have really benefited if Amir had done his job and supported him. Amir was the biggest let down on that tour to Australia. Wahab is a bigger threat than Amir in Test Cricket.

 

[Junaids]

Australia v Pakistan Test series, 2016-17

Mitchell Starc
145.2 overs
31 maidens
477 runs
14 wickets
Average = 34.07
Strike Rate = 62.2
Economy = 3.28

Wahab Riaz
100 overs
14 maidens
400 runs
11 wickets
Average = 36.36
Strike Rate = 54.5
Economy = 4.00

I have read a lot on this forum about how terrible Wahab Riaz is. Does this mean that Mitchell Starc is just as bad?

They bowled on the same surfaces in the same matches with the same type of balls.

Obviously Josh Hazlewood outbowled both and further reinforced that in Australia you need tall, accurate right-arm fast-medium bowlers above all else.

Since Fanie De Villiers suspected the use of ball tampering at Durban and ordered SuperSport cameras to follow the ball like a hawk, this is Mitchell Starc’s Test record:

8 Test matches (of which 6 in Australia or South Africa)
20 wickets
Bowling average of 46.05.

I would like, therefore, to go on record extending a formal apology to Wahab Riaz for comparing Mitchell Starc to him.

Their series stats two years ago were identical, but I have no reason to suspect Wahab Riaz of bowling with a doctored ball.

So I’m sorry.

 

[BreadPakoda]

Obviously Josh Hazlewood outbowled both and further reinforced that in Australia you need tall, accurate right-arm fast-medium bowlers above all else.

Wondering how tall Jasprit Bumrah is.

 

[Junaids]

It has become obvious that apart from an unexplained purple patch from mid-2016 until the sandpaper incident in early 2018, with a red ball Mitchell Starc always was and still is Wahab Riaz.

He has finally been recalled for the Fourth Test of the Ashes.

Starc took 4 wickets for 126.

The rest of the attack took 16 wickets for 372.

He is literally half the bowler that Cummins and Hazlewood are.

 

[Savak]

Wahab was much better than Amir in that series. He literally had no support from the other bowlers especially Amir who went wicket less in the last 2 test matches

 

[ManFan]

Starc gets overrated on PP in Tests for his ODI exploits. (Some have even prematurely labeled him the ODI ATG.)

He has all the tools to succeed in Test cricket but uses the same strategy as in white-ball cricket.

Short, full, shorter, fuller, yorker.

He’s seen as a tail-ender specialist which is embarrassing really for someone as gifted as he is.

In Tests, Starc = Riaz.

 

[Junaids]

Starc gets overrated on PP in Tests for his ODI exploits. (Some have even prematurely labeled him the ODI ATG.)

He has all the tools to succeed in Test cricket but uses the same strategy as in white-ball cricket.

Short, full, shorter, fuller, yorker.

He’s seen as a tail-ender specialist which is embarrassing really for someone as gifted as he is.

In Tests, Starc = Riaz.

I totally agree. That's exactly right.

I was at the first Test in which Australia started to get suspicious amounts of reverse swing very very early - at Wellington in 2016. Starc didn't play, but his record for the next two years until they were caught at Cape Town was superb, only to instantly return to the mediocrity which had been his Test career prior to the suspicious reverse swing.

Some bowlers don't have the intelligence to work out what to bowl, even if they are quite gifted. Rahat Ali was horrible as soon as Waqar stopped being the coach, but while Waqar coached Pakistan he basically told Rahat at every interval which line and length he needed to bowl, and it worked.

Mitchell Starc is another of those who refuses to bowl a conventional left-armer's line and length because of the success that he had for those two years. The extra late swing convinced him that Yorker/Bouncer/Yorker can work in Tests like in white ball cricket.

He should be the best Test bowler in the world, but he is a nobody because he is incapable of bowling the right line and length to trouble top order batsmen who don't need to play attacking shots.

 

[Savak]

Wahabs best performances came under Waqar.

 

[Hasan123]

A great ODI bowler and world class test bowler. He dismissed Stokes in the first innings and also got Bairstow in the 2nd innings when he was looking set.

Fabulous bowler. Awful thread.