You do remember he was playing as middle order batsman in that tournament, right? So it wasn't exactly his job to negotiate the zipping new ball, that was Amla(who as usual went missing on big stage), QDK & FDP's job, which they did just about fine. But then again it was him who brought the momentum back after subpar <5 rpo was being maintained by those 2. It was him & an absolute blinder from Miller which enabled SA to that huge total. Just don't see how he was at fault or hiding or statpadding. I mean scoring a 65 at near 150 sr can't be dubbed as statpadding, right?
So tell me, if he is substantially not your GOAT or at least one of your best, then who is/was? Remember we are only talking about odi's, because in tests obviously Kallis & Smith blow him out. I am very eager to know who was the best SA odi batsmen of last 3 decades according to you? Only one I would agree is Gibbs, but even if he is not qualified enough as per you, then it gets really interesting. So, please do tell.
I don't know how to answer properly to that strange yet completely left handed analogy with Bell. Sure, he was talented & an educated fan will acknowledge with you that he underachieved massively. But he was a very different player from AB, had a very different role. He was a touch player, not a power hitter. He was an accumulator not an enforcer. If I had to choose an English counterpart of AB then it would obviously be KP, but then again you most probably would disagree since you don't rate AB that high. If you wanted to crucify AB by comparing him with an English counterpart then the most credible name that comes to mind is Marcus Trescothick. As in, he was extremely talented, explosive, a genuine match winner on his day, but didn't really fulfill his potential & kind of ended up as one of those "what if" stories of modern cricket.
