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The most boring/flairless batsman you have seen?

Hitman

Hitman

Senior T20I Player
Joined
Feb 25, 2013
Runs
17,284
I'll name a class player who I believe was the single most boring, dull and flairless batsman I have ever seen. It's Rahul Dravid.

It's funny that I respect the man so much for his contribution towards Indian cricket. The man was the epitome of consistency during his prime from 2003 till mid 2006 (the tour to South Africa).

But Man O' Man, the guy could bore Geoffrey Boycott's mum to death. I often felt for the bowlers who had to bowl to him. As a spectator, it's difficult for me to figure out how anyone could be a fan of his batting. The only other batsman who could match up to him as equally boring and flairless is Jacques Kallis.

I always respected him a hell lot, but I could never be a fan of his batting, and for me he remains the single more boring/dull batsman I have ever seen in my life.

What would be your pick for the title?
 
Rahul Dravid was boring but he had style and flair to his game. He was far from being called as dull/flairless batsmen.

Pujara is more of a dull/flairless batsmen.

The greatest (flairless) dull batsmen has to be Jacques Kallis though.
 
Misbah,his eyes, the way he speaks his aura just bore the hell out of me and some veteran morning show TV host also said interviewing him was the hardest ever because he wouldn't talk and add to conversation and she had to do it for 2 3 hours

His batting is also on another level of boring
 
Ab Fan said:
Rahul Dravid was boring but he had style and flair to his game. He was far from being called as dull/flairless batsmen.
Click to expand...

He had style, but definitely no flair to his game. Natural flair is what guys like Tendulkar, Lara, Ponting, Pietersen, etc brings to the game.

Ab Fan said:
Pujara is more of a dull/flairless batsmen.

The greatest (flairless) dull batsmen has to be Jacques Kallis though.
Click to expand...

Yes, Pujara comes in the same bracket as Dravid and Kallis.
 
Bigboii said:
Misbah,his eyes, the way he speaks his aura just bore the hell out of me and some veteran morning show TV host also said interviewing him was the hardest ever because he wouldn't talk and add to conversation and she had to do it for 2 3 hours

His batting is also on another level of boring
Click to expand...

Got to agree with you here. I respect Misbah, but his batting was really dull and devoid of natural flair.
 
Chris Tavaré of England.

To be fair, we was a shot player for Kent who was brought into the England side to do a blocking job. Without his seventy-over fifty, Botham would not have been able to smash Lillee, Alderman and Lawson in that run-a-ball century.
 
Robert said:
Chris Tavaré of England.

To be fair, we was a shot player for Kent who was brought into the England side to do a blocking job. Without his seventy-over fifty, Botham would not have been able to smash Lillee, Alderman and Lawson in that run-a-ball century.
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70 over 50? Are you kidding?
 
Dravid/Attapattu/Laxman had too much class to bore a genuine fan of the game. I could see them defend whole day.

Misbah and Dhoni have to be the two ugliest batsmen I have ever seen.

Dhoni was tolerable as he played fast but Misbah was an utter pain. I feel for the Pakistani fans who tolerated him, I would have **** myself in the head in frustration.
 
I cannot imagine anyone being worse to watch than Azhar Ali at his worst
 
Pujara
Rahane
Azhar Ali
Misbah
Chanderpaul
Amla
Samaraweera
Cook
Trott
Kallis
Graeme Smith
Kirsten
Steve Waugh
Karunaratne
Elgar
Angelo

All good to great, some even ATG batsmen but never enjoyed how they went about their business.
 
I disagree with those saying Azhar Ali, his straight drive is classy ad I would say that's his trademark. Not much else though.
 
MS Dhoni.

A man who achieved so much without really having a technique worth writing about at all.
 
Swashbuckler said:
Pujara
Rahane
Azhar Ali
Misbah
Chanderpaul
Amla
Samaraweera
Cook
Trott
Kallis
Graeme Smith
Kirsten
Steve Waugh
Karunaratne
Elgar
Angelo

All good to great, some even ATG batsmen but never enjoyed how they went about their business.
Click to expand...

God some awful batting styles there.i loved when Steve Waugh put his slogging mode on though :yk
 
Rana said:
MS Dhoni.

A man who achieved so much without really having a technique worth writing about at all.
Click to expand...

I think it's not about technique bro.

Some of these batsmen were great at surviving and even thriving but their technique you could say was not textbook. They made their own technique which is cool as long as runs are coming.

Don't want guys like Murali Vijay and Ramesh looking all class but no runs :yk
 
Swashbuckler said:
Pujara
Rahane
Azhar Ali
Misbah
Chanderpaul
Amla
Samaraweera
Cook
Trott
Kallis
Graeme Smith
Kirsten
Steve Waugh
Karunaratne
Elgar
Angelo

All good to great, some even ATG batsmen but never enjoyed how they went about their business.
Click to expand...

Rahane, Amla, Kallis?
 
Misbah and Chanderpaul.

Misbah's substandard batting technique against pace made the spectacle of watching him bat a real eyesore to say the least.
 
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Swashbuckler said:
Pujara
Rahane
Azhar Ali
Misbah
Chanderpaul
Amla
Samaraweera
Cook
Trott
Kallis
Graeme Smith
Kirsten
Steve Waugh
Karunaratne
Elgar
Angelo

All good to great, some even ATG batsmen but never enjoyed how they went about their business.
Click to expand...
Rahane? Really
When he gets going its like poetry in motion.

Will never forget how he brutally manhandled johnson in australia.
 
Kallis, the others like Dravid, Pujara had some dstinction to them that made them different but still boring. E.g: Pujara plays the cover drive with a unique punchy movement.
All of Kallis shots were regular and texbook and ontop of that he batted slowly.
 
Would such batsmen be low scorers or ones that could not contribute to their side's wins?

if not the case then who cares?
 
jeeteshssaxena said:
Rahane? Really
When he gets going its like poetry in motion.

Will never forget how he brutally manhandled johnson in australia.
Click to expand...

He's a gr at timer of the ball, and is one of our best against short pitch bowling but come on man? He's not very attractive as a batsman
 
Misbah will win all the way 1000/1000 points
Wajatullah Wasti will be 2nd 850/1000
Azhar Ali will be 3rd 800/1000

Others are far behind than (at least 200 points) top 3.
 
Azhar Ali- very boring, gets the job done and occasionally hits a beauty of a square drive, but is a pain to watch especially when he's batting at 3
 
jeeteshssaxena said:
Rahane? Really
When he gets going its like poetry in motion.

Will never forget how he brutally manhandled johnson in australia.
Click to expand...

Was true maybe 5 or 6 years back, now his batting looks too laboured, flow is missing, timing is gone, suddenly goes passive for no reason and don't get me started about his approach against spinners especially in the SC. His batting against short pitched bowling too has gone to dogs as we saw in NZ. Attitude of a loser, I don't understand why we persist with him.

Bewal Express said:
Rahane, Amla, Kallis?
Click to expand...

Just a personal dislike, this kind of topic is very subjective. Admire Kallis and Amla as cricketers but would never tune in to watch them bat.

Bewal Express said:
Mudassar, Jimmy Adams, Chris Tavare, Shoaib Muhammad, Cooke, Richardson, John Wright and Gary Kirsten
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Jimmy Adams is a great pick, forgot about him.
 
In previous generation Tavare and Mudasar Nazar were the "gold standard" of boring batsmanship.

Later, Misbah, Chanderpaul, Attapatu , Kallis, Jonathan Trott mastered this " art".

Recently I hate to watch guys like Azhar Ali, Pujara, Smith,

Dravid was not exciting to watch but for a guy like me who still loves watching classic cricket, Dravid was the most stylish defensive batman.
 
Ashwell prince could be a pretty boring batsman imo. Chanders in the latter half of his career, Azhar Ali and misbah are a couple of others.
 
Rahul Dravid.

No batsman has put me to sleep as many times as he has.
 
Jacques Kallis
Ashwell Prince
Jonathan Trott
Alaistair Cook

Shivnarine Chanderpaul to his credit could change gears at times & score some dazzling hundreds like the one in Guyana against Australia
 
Slog said:
Rahul Dravid.

No batsman has put me to sleep as many times as he has.
Click to expand...

Dravid was ultra defensive i agree. But he had range of shots. And he had never hesitated to put the bad balls away unlike Pujara. Even on flat surfaces where ball does nothing, Puji bats like a snail.
 
I am afraid few recent PAK name will come at top - led by Azhar Ali. Misbah, Fawad, Imam, Sarfraz are not far behind. That’s quite a swing to be honest from the days of Zaheer, Mazid, Mushtaq, Asif, Salim Malik, Mohsin, Qasim, Saeed, Inzi, Sohail, MoYo ..... even Haroon Rashid; though still Babar, Asad & Haris still carrying the legacy of flair, which indicates the problem is somewhere else.

I think, the main reason for this is the UAE (& PAK domestic) wickets - those are really the ultimate killer of any flair game, be with bat or ball, even fielders!!!!! Ball doesn’t come on to bat, neither bounces, swings, seems or even spin sharply - and hardly any edge, whatever finds the edge half of those don’t reach cordon. Only way to success for pace bowlers is negative line, length (& wait for the ball to get older), accurate dart by spinners and lots of bowled/LBW - counter measures for batsmen is front-foot dead bat and patience until bowlers are drained in desert climate. And, Test cricket becomes a cheap horror film.....
 
Personally, I enjoyed RD batting for long - he had style, every shot of the game and he could attack as well when required. He batted at No. 3 with a particular target & he was brilliant in that; but once set, I have seen him playing attractive shots with Text book perfect technique. Between 2001 to 2004, he was arguably world’s top batsman and piled up tons, tons of runs at quite decent pace, and attractively. I think, his reputation (& SR) is a bit low because he was extremely slow starter - his first quarter (scores between 0-25) SR must be close to 25, but in terms of style or stroke making ability, he was definitely not the worst.
 
MMHS said:
I am afraid few recent PAK name will come at top - led by Azhar Ali. Misbah, Fawad, Imam, Sarfraz are not far behind. That’s quite a swing to be honest from the days of Zaheer, Mazid, Mushtaq, Asif, Salim Malik, Mohsin, Qasim, Saeed, Inzi, Sohail, MoYo ..... even Haroon Rashid; though still Babar, Asad & Haris still carrying the legacy of flair, which indicates the problem is somewhere else.

I think, the main reason for this is the UAE (& PAK domestic) wickets - those are really the ultimate killer of any flair game, be with bat or ball, even fielders!!!!! Ball doesn’t come on to bat, neither bounces, swings, seems or even spin sharply - and hardly any edge, whatever finds the edge half of those don’t reach cordon. Only way to success for pace bowlers is negative line, length (& wait for the ball to get older), accurate dart by spinners and lots of bowled/LBW - counter measures for batsmen is front-foot dead bat and patience until bowlers are drained in desert climate. And, Test cricket becomes a cheap horror film.....
Click to expand...

Imam is not flairless dude. His off-side play is great.
 
Misbah is, was, and will remain the most boring batsman I have ever seen. He had no flair, no charisma, no drive, no style.

His favourite shot: a front foot block.

He was boring to watch, boring to hear, boring to even look at as a captain, player and coach. I don't think there would be a more boring person in the history of mankind.
 
Swashbuckler said:
Pujara
Rahane
Azhar Ali
Misbah
Chanderpaul
Amla
Samaraweera
Cook
Trott
Kallis
Graeme Smith
Kirsten
Steve Waugh
Karunaratne
Elgar
Angelo

All good to great, some even ATG batsmen but never enjoyed how they went about their business.
Click to expand...

Graeme Smith?he has a strike rate of 60 he may not be pleasant to watch but not boring.
 
ahmedzee said:
Misbah is, was, and will remain the most boring batsman I have ever seen. He had no flair, no charisma, no drive, no style.

His favourite shot: a front foot block.

He was boring to watch, boring to hear, boring to even look at as a captain, player and coach. I don't think there would be a more boring person in the history of mankind.
Click to expand...

:)) That's going a little to far.
 
Thunderbolt14 said:
Misbah getting a lot of hate but he had a great flick shot tbh
Click to expand...

An unintentional flick (while trying to do a leg side block) that slips through short leg's finger tips rolling away to the boundary for a well run 3. :D
 
Pujara (this dude will even struggle to clear a boundary against 5 year old kids)
Misbah-ul-Haq
Chanderpaul
Amla( was sitting duck under pressure and could never accelerate)
Azhar Ali
Aakash Chopra
M Vijay (Test)
Sadagoppan Ramesh( something about his batting that made it quite boring but was mighty effective)
Fawad Alam
Imam Ul-Haq
 
Babu Bhaiya said:
Dravid was ultra defensive i agree. But he had range of shots. And he had never hesitated to put the bad balls away unlike Pujara. Even on flat surfaces where ball does nothing, Puji bats like a snail.
Click to expand...

I think issue is Dravid always had one mode.

For eg I’d say he was more boring than Misbah.

Technically and aesthetically there is no comparison between the two but in some situation Misbah could go bang-bang and make it exciting. You didn’t see with Dravid ever.

It’s not just or because he was a slow batsman. There have been many slow batsman who I’ve seen play and am ok with.

Dravid just wouldn’t budge.
 
Misbah's constant blocking in ODI use to drive me nuts. :yk

Yes his batting was boring. :salute
 
Azhar Ali, Alastair Cook, Jacques Kallis, Jonathan Trott, Chris Tavare, Mark Richardson and Asif Mujtaba spring to mind.
 
Australia - Katich
England - Trott
India - Pujara
NZ - Richardson
Pakistan - Azhar
South Africa - Kallis
Sri Lanka - Samaraweera
West Indies - Chanderpaul

Out of all those, the one I hate(d) to watch most is probably Pujara.
 
Azhar Ali is easily the most boring Pakistani batsman of all time. Misbah is a close second.

From international players, Kallis runs away with it for me. :kallis
 
Rayudu and Jadhav are so ignored people did not even bother to mention them. :))
 
I am grateful everything he has done for his country, and understand that there is some truth to him running out of partners or resolving a batting collapse, but it has to be Misbah as a Pakistani fan.

You’d pray that the opener opposite Shehzad would fire for some entertainment, Afridi would have his day, Hafeez would have his day or whoever else could play at a decent pace, if they all failed you would watch the most boring LOI game of your life.

That is the memory I would like to forget, Pakistan cricket 2012-2015. Nasir Jamshed bhi chor nikla otherwise he could’ve been a saving grace if he kept working on himself.
 
kingusama92 said:
Azhar Ali is easily the most boring Pakistani batsman of all time. Misbah is a close second.

From international players, Kallis runs away with it for me. :kallis
Click to expand...

Only reason Azhar would be second in my eyes was because he played a once in a lifetime innings in CT17 (man it’s been 3 years already???) and won us a trophy. Can’t put a price on that. But yes very similar otherwise.
 
Adding to my list: Katich, Rayudu, Richardson (NZ), Fawad Alam, Collingwood, Atapattu, Prince, Ahmed Shehzad, Renshaw, Burns, Voges.

Conflicted about Gambhir, admire his batsmanship, clutchness, he could play at a high SR but found his batting short on the flair department, very monotonous and there wasn't any particular shot which made you stand up and notice, just the same old mechanical stuff. And his personality as well was quite boring, even his century celebrations and the way he communicated, ran between the wickets (like a robot). Might be an unpopular opinion, especially with Indian fans.
 
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Very few NZ players are mentioned here, although I find most of their batsmen boring :(. Crazy how much under the radar those guys are, probably the most neglected cricket country for an average desi fan.
 
Misbah should not be classified as a batsman. Should be called blocker cum slogger instead.

Jack Kallis was too robotic and boring bat...

Courtney Walsh was the most entertaining batsman ever...
 
From an Australian perspective, Taylor was a bit dull. Also call me crazy, Hayden was hard to watch due to the complete lack of finess
 
Wajahatullah Wasti.
Javed Omar.
Azhar Ali.

I actually think Misbah wasn't too bad. He could hit big sixes when he wanted to.
 
The Azhar and Misbah combo could be a challenging one to watch
 
Hitman said:
70 over 50? Are you kidding?
Click to expand...

I think 50 off 170 balls first dig and 70 off 250 in the second.

England won though. Tav shored the top order up which was continually disintegrating to Lillee etc. Then Botham counterpunched with a rapid century when the bowlers were tired.
 
Chanderpaul was as boring as it gets for me.

Contrary to the opinion here, I actually liked Dravids batting. His technique was pleasing to the eyes.
 
One of the first names that came to my mind was Wajahatullah Wasti. Oh man, that was painful stuff to watch, especially in an ODI.
 
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