The worst specialist batsman and bowler you have seen?

[Hitman]

Worst specialist batsman has got to be Ramiz Raza. True, even worse talented batsmen have played international cricket. But most of them were discarded after a few failures. Rameez however managed to play bloody 57 Tests, in addition to 198 ODI's, which is unbelievable keeping in mind how much talent he had. A grand total of 2 centuries in 57 Tests, that too against minnows of that time Sri Lanka. Not to mention a third class average of 36 in 183 First Class matches. Enough said!

As for the worst specialist bowler I've seen, I don't even have to think twice. It's the great Venkatesh Prasad. Players like Jayasuriya used to make a fool out of him so very often, it's not even funny. The guy used to have a bowling speed in the 120's KMPH, and yes, I remember it. Alright, there are bowlers with worse stats than him, but no specialist bowlers looked worse to me than him.

Your turn. Who are the worst specialist batsman and bowler you guys have seen in your life?

 

[Liverpool_Faizan]

Ashraful
Sunil Joshi

 

[Hitman]

Ashraful
Sunil Joshi

Ashraful still has an ODI century against the ATG Aussie team. He was definitely not worse than Ramiz.

 

[Ab Fan]

Dinesh Mongia

 

[Hitman]

Dinesh Mongia

Was a horrendous batsman. But still Ramiz tops him keeping in mind the number of matches he played.

 

[cricfan967]

Batsman: Imran Farhat / Faisal Iqbal
Bowler: Pankaj Singh of India

 

[hoshiarpurexpress]

Batsman :
Sanjay Manjrekar : one of the worst test match batsman to play for India. No impact. Mentally weak
Asad Shafique : I have never ever seen a match winning performance from this guy.. In tests and Odis.

Bowlers :
MOHAMMAD SAMI : Wasted talent with all skills and no mind.
and Shahadat Hossain from BD.. Had the height, but again no skills.

 

[ammar_merry]

Ashraful still has an ODI century against the ATG Aussie team. He was definitely not worse than Ramiz.

Ramiz has 9 centuries in ODI including worldcup 100s and better avg than ashraful.

 

[Varun]

Ramiz Raja played 57 tests?

That is more than his underrated contemporary - Saeed Anwar - who only played 55. Why is that?

Even a guy like Hafeez has played 55 tests.

 

[andy0204]

Batsman :
Sanjay Manjrekar : one of the worst test match batsman to play for India. No impact. Mentally weak
Asad Shafique : I have never ever seen a match winning performance from this guy.. In tests and Odis.

Bowlers :
MOHAMMAD SAMI : Wasted talent with all skills and no mind.
and Shahadat Hossain from BD.. Had the height, but again no skills.

Manjrekar has scored hundreds against Wasim,Imran,Waqar, Marshall,Walsh and Ambrose.

 

[gazza619]

Rameez played his best cricket under Imran and his batting average was fine up until 1992. Remember he faced some proper bowlers of the 80’s. He was a fighter and not a coward, and hence Imran always had him in his team.

 

[Ab Fan]

Was a horrendous batsman. But still Ramiz tops him keeping in mind the number of matches he played.

I don't think Rameez was that trash. There are worse batters than him in most of the countries. He played 57 tests, that means, he was certainly not as trash.

 

[Shafi]

Misbah ul Haq in ODI. Played selfish innings to make his average healthy.
Mohammad Irfan. Hyped with his height but no fitness along with any significant performance.

 

[angrypathan]

Rubel Hossain

 

[Thunderbolt14]

Ramiz Raja played 57 tests?

That is more than his underrated contemporary - Saeed Anwar - who only played 55. Why is that?

Even a guy like Hafeez has played 55 tests.

Though he debuted in 1990, Saeed Anwar was kept out of the Test side until 1994 due to Ramiz Raja and Aamer Sohail. Later, in late August of 2001, Anwar suffered a tragic personal loss. That day in August, when his daughter passed away, was also the day of his last Test (where he scored 101 against Bangladesh). Anwar was never the same after that. Aged only 32, Anwar was lost forever.

There are not many happy endings in Pakistan cricket.

 

[BalluBalleBaaz]

Dinesh Mongia. Both as a batsmen and a bowler.

 

[MMHS]

Though he debuted in 1990, Saeed Anwar was kept out of the Test side until 1994 due to Ramiz Raja and Aamer Sohail. Later, in late August of 2001, Anwar suffered a tragic personal loss. That day in August, when his daughter passed away, was also the day of his last Test (where he scored 101 against Bangladesh). Anwar was never the same after that. Aged only 32, Anwar was lost forever.

There are not many happy endings in Pakistan cricket.

I am sure Anwar was debuted in 1990, against WIN probably.... and he returned the compliment of his Captain by scoring a pair on debut - so Imran made sure that Anwar plays his second Test after he has learned about how to do it.

Rambo was the beneficiary of his ODI performance, counted for Test. Also, guy lived his last few years as the specialist Captain - the only decent guy in PAK squad of 90s who won’t be waiting for doing the naughty thing to his team mate (s) from back side at first opportunity ........

 

[therealAB]

Rameez played his best cricket under Imran and his batting average was fine up until 1992. Remember he faced some proper bowlers of the 80’s. He was a fighter and not a coward, and hence Imran always had him in his team.

an average of 33 up until the end of 1992 would say otherwise

 

[Executioner]

Ashraful still has an ODI century against the ATG Aussie team. He was definitely not worse than Ramiz.

Ashraful for his incredible talent was absolutely ridiculous performance wise. He lacked IQ

 

[Shafi]

Ashraful for his incredible talent was absolutely ridiculous performance wise. He lacked IQ

He is similar to Imran Nazir. Both were highly talented with less than 40 IQ.

 

[jeetu]

Tests
[table=width: 500, class: grid, align: center]
[tr][td]Player [/td][td]Span [/td][td]Mat [/td][td]Runs [/td][td]Avg [/td][td]100 [/td][td]50 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Mohammad Ashraful (BDESH) [/td][td]2001-2013 [/td][td]61 [/td][td]2711 [/td][td]23.99 [/td][td]6 [/td][td]8 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]KR Rutherford (NZ) [/td][td]1985-1995 [/td][td]55 [/td][td]2445 [/td][td]27.16 [/td][td]3 [/td][td]18 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]SE Gregory (AUS) [/td][td]1890-1912 [/td][td]52 [/td][td]2175 [/td][td]27.18 [/td][td]4 [/td][td]8 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]ADR Campbell (ZIM) [/td][td]1992-2002 [/td][td]60 [/td][td]2759 [/td][td]27.31 [/td][td]2 [/td][td]17 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]MR Ramprakash (ENG) [/td][td]1991-2002 [/td][td]50 [/td][td]2210 [/td][td]27.97 [/td][td]2 [/td][td]11 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]RS Mahanama (SL) [/td][td]1986-1998 [/td][td]51 [/td][td]2576 [/td][td]29.27 [/td][td]4 [/td][td]11 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]GW Flower (ZIM) [/td][td]1992-2004 [/td][td]67 [/td][td]3367 [/td][td]29.79 [/td][td]6 [/td][td]14 [/td][/tr]
[/table]
[table=width: 500, class: grid, align: center]
[tr][td]Player [/td][td]Span [/td][td]Mat [/td][td]Wkts [/td][td]Avg [/td][td]5W [/td][td]10W [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AF Giles (ENG) [/td][td]1998-2006 [/td][td]54 [/td][td]143 [/td][td]40.6 [/td][td]5 [/td][td]0 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]JE Emburey (ENG) [/td][td]1978-1995 [/td][td]64 [/td][td]147 [/td][td]38.4 [/td][td]6 [/td][td]0 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]FH Edwards (WI) [/td][td]2003-2012 [/td][td]55 [/td][td]165 [/td][td]37.87 [/td][td]12 [/td][td]0 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]RAS Lakmal (SL) [/td][td]2010-2020 [/td][td]61 [/td][td]151 [/td][td]37.42 [/td][td]3 [/td][td]0 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]S Venkataraghavan (INDIA) [/td][td]1965-1983 [/td][td]57 [/td][td]156 [/td][td]36.11 [/td][td]3 [/td][td]1 [/td][/tr]
[/table]



Note - Batsman's stats are for Top 6 batting position.

 

[Forum363]

The funniest thing is, I would include Kamran Akmal here for his batting. He played hundreds of games for Pakistan and averaged in the 20s, that’s by far the worst batsman we’ve ever had. He’s considerably worse than the likes of Farhat and Faisal Iqbal.

Now the obvious argument is that he’s an all rounder and was in the team for his keeping. But even his strongest defenders know he was the worst Keeper ever. No one in history dropped as many catches or missed as many chances. He had a rubbish technique, terrible fitness and then it was obvious he cheated in that Sydney test. But his keeping was ignored because people always referred to him being in the team for his batting.

Heck he even played some games as a specialist batsman!!!! With a 20 run average. Ridiculous.

Would love for someone to explain how there’s anyone worse than him. And without using the fact that he played a couple of good innings or that he started off as a good player before 2004 etc etc. Look at his career holistically.

 

[Sami92]

Worst Specialist Batsman:

Stuart Matsikenyeri (ZIM)
Averaged 22 with the bat in 113 ODIs with no century & 13 half centuries

 

[MMHS]

Considering respective teams that they represented, I don’t think Ashraful or Matsikenyeri are the worst player - they are among the best players among available players and were selected in merit. In that regard the worst batsman to be picked - I’ll go for Dinesh Mongia. How could this guy made Indian WC squad in 2003 is still a big surprise for me. I think, India didn’t take VVS & Kaif (?) over this guy and also didn’t pick a specialist WK to accommodate him.

 

[Sami92]

Worst Specialist Batsman:

Stuart Matsikenyeri (ZIM)
Averaged 22 with the bat in 113 ODIs with no century & 13 half centuries

I actually have more issues with him representing so many ODIs, 113 to be precise with very little to no improvement. I would have rather had 3 batsmen playing 40 ODIs and averaging 22. Definitely, say 40 ODIs have to be enough to find out whether a batsman is cut out for international cricket or not. But giving 113 ODIs to a player who averages 22 with the bat can't be a merit selection I reckon. I would rather give another batsman a chance if I see a batsman not improving enough and averaging 20 odd after playing say 30-40 ODIs even for a lower ranked team.