Was Javagal Srinath the better bowler based on averages compared to Zaheer Khan?

[Dr_Bassim]

So I was having a look at two Indian pacers and I found they almost had the same statistics.

Javagal Srinath Test average of 30.49 and ODI average of 28.08

Zaheer Khan Test Average of 32.94 and ODI average of 29.43

Now on paper, Srinath is the bigger bowler, but sometimes you have to consider the fact that Srinath retired when the wickets were probably more juicy and at least had something for the bowlers.

Zak bowled at the time when there was nothing in it for the bowlers mostly and that's why averages a shade higher 1-2 points in both formats of the game.

But what do Indians think about this comparison?

Who pips who ?

 

[street cricketer]

I know Sreenath has slightly better stats. But for me, it's Zak. Just for the memories.

 

[carrom_ball]

Srinath by a mile, Srinath was a world class fast bowler who would have averaged 25 if he had some support, I still Remember the visual of Sri Lankan batsman blooded with broken nose due srinath's delivery which smashed through his helmet and broke his nose and also the wiser


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[SULTAN]

Classic case of "Andhon mein kana Raja"

 

[EliteCynical]

Zak in my book. I've watched both of them closely. Srinath was an honest trier. Always gave 100% but he was never aggressive. I can never forgive or forget him for going and asking Ponting if he is OK, after he hit him with a bouncer. Ponting game him a verbal rocket.

Plus Zaheer is a world cup winner and that tilts the scales heavily in his favor. He bowled very well in 2011 WC. He also won India a test match abroad. Srinath unfortunately didn't have such a record.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

Potential wise Srinath definitely. Zak had a batting lineup that would score runs and give the bowlers something to defend. Sri never had that. Zak however did bowl full 2007 onwards and was very good 2007-2011 . Srinath was always a touch too short in length and suffered because of it.

 

[SunTzu]

Srinath for me. He had a very nice bowling action as well. He spearheaded the bowling after Kapil and was forced to play alongside some real mediocre bowlers.

I never really rated Zaheer despite what his stats say.

 

[sensible-indian-fan]

Zaheer had a peak that was superior to Vaas and Srinath but across an entire career, I think they were better bowlers than Zak.

But the things Zak did when he was on his peak...WOW.

Helped us get to No 1.

Mastery over conventional and reverse swing.

Leading our brainless attack who ACTUALLY looked better when he was in charge of guiding them (which he was).

Helped us get the WC (let's be absolutely clear - his contribution to WC 2011 is no less than a Yuvi or Sachin who performed throughout the tournament).

One of the coolest Zak moments - The wicket of Mike Hussey in QF with the knuckle ball. A game changing moment. He was only given a couple of overs and he had to get through and he did. If Hussey had stayed, the total would have been taken out of India's reach.

With all being said, I THINK Srinath was the better bowler across the whole career.

 

[Dr_Bassim]

Street cricketer + Elite cynical 2 votes
Carrom Ball 1 vote
Nikhil is neutral

 

[Ab Fan]

Surprisingly, our experienced critics won't rate Zaheer high.The claims like this guy won a WC or a test series overseas somehow are ignored when you compares players of current era with older eras.

 

[EliteCynical]

Surprisingly, our experienced critics won't rate Zaheer high.The claims like this guy won a WC or a test series overseas somehow are ignored when you compares players of current era with older eras.

But I did rate him high for exactly those reasons or am I missing your point. Sorry if I am.

 

[Ab Fan]

But I did rate him high for exactly those reasons or am I missing your point. Sorry if I am.

Yes..Exactly I was saying this only.But then what is Srinath fault here? His team was weaker.Sachin was the only lone warrior. That's it.No great players in that team.

 

[Zak_Fan]

Zaheer for Tests.

Srinath in ODIs.

 

[EliteCynical]

Yes..Exactly I was saying this only.But then what is Srinath fault here? His team was weaker.Sachin was the only lone warrior. That's it.No great players in that team.

I think I explicitly told why I didn't prefer Srinath. He was not an aggressive fast bowler. He was a nice south Indian bloke who bowled quick. During overseas tours in the 90's, Prasad consistently out bowled him.

FYI - From 96 onwards we had Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly, Azhar and Laxman. It's another matter the bowling was rubbish.

Zak winning a game single handedly is something you cannot take away from him. He was fired up after the jelly bean incident.

 

[Romali_rotti]

Zaheer literally owned almost all left handers, while Srinath only performed against SA. Zak for me

 

[UpInTheAir]

Agarkar was better then both, also good with the bat.

Sent from pone

 

[bashar345]

It's like asking if Bermuda or Papua New Guinea (no offence to either countries) are the better cricket team.

For fans of Associate member nations or Affiliate member nations, that may be an interesting question. For most cricket observers, commentators, authors or supporters, the questions bear little to no relevance to cricket itself.

Both of them were worse than average bowlers and got carted around for plenty by a top Australian side with no resistance put up by these two trundlers in South African conditions.

Almost any decent (top 8) team can beat an average Aussie side or perform great against them. The true test lies in their performance in crucial situations against top teams. Meaningless stats like 5-fers against Zimbabwe, India (for most of its history before 1983), Canada, Hong Kong, Bermuda, United States of America and other ordinary sides mean nothing.

 

[New Yorker]

Zaheer had a peak that was superior to Vaas and Srinath but across an entire career, I think they were better bowlers than Zak.

But the things Zak did when he was on his peak...WOW.

Helped us get to No 1.

Mastery over conventional and reverse swing.

Leading our brainless attack who ACTUALLY looked better when he was in charge of guiding them (which he was).

Helped us get the WC (let's be absolutely clear - his contribution to WC 2011 is no less than a Yuvi or Sachin who performed throughout the tournament).

One of the coolest Zak moments - The wicket of Mike Hussey in QF with the knuckle ball. A game changing moment. He was only given a couple of overs and he had to get through and he did. If Hussey had stayed, the total would have been taken out of India's reach.

With all being said, I THINK Srinath was the better bowler across the whole career.

This.

For a few years Zaheer had international recognition of a kind that Srinath never enjoyed. But there were a few years I believe, the twilight of Akram and Waqar, when Srinath's was arguably Asia's best fast bowler. For much of his career he was certainly the most underrated. Complaints about his supposed lack of aggression reflects little more than the worst kind of provincial insecurity, masquerading as competitive fire or some such half baked managerial tripe. Why be a boorish Aussie? I remember Brett Lee in Columbo bloodying Faisal Iqbal and then making it a point to run down the pitch and gloat. Just a kid in the sandbox.

 

[Bilal7]

Zaheer Khan is India's best pacer ever. Kapil and Srinath were inferior bowlers, despite slightly better numbers on paper.

 

[Bhaijaan]

Zaheer ability wise is the best India's produced. Problem is he wasn't very skillful when we had pace and when he did develop literally every skill a pacer needs he lost his pace altogether and yet managed to put India on #1 rank thanks to his bowling everywhere.

Srinath was faster than him and a much much much much better athlete. The best pure fast bowling athlete India's had. I respect him so much. Like Kapil, he was a total war horse.

 

[Bhaijaan]

Srinath is also India's most respected fast bowler among peers. Those who played with him in 90s rate him highly. Much better than what the average suggests. Better support bowlers would have him an average of 26 something.

 

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Happy birthday to India’s joint highest wicket-taker in <a href="https://twitter.com/cricketworldcup?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@cricketworldcup</a> history, Javagal Srinath &#55356;&#57200; <a href="https://t.co/va1EGrG8ZK">pic.twitter.com/va1EGrG8ZK</a></p>— ICC (@ICC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ICC/status/1432523844330348549?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 31, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Robert]

Srinath was the first Indian fast bowler. I respected him for that.

 

[OMB]

Happy bday to the Srinath.
Thanks for doing the hard yards on the unforgiving flat wickets of India.

 

[Ab Fan]

Happy Birthday to Javagal Srinath. One of the best and highly respected fast bowlers we have produced.

 

[Ab Fan]

On topic, I will pick Zaheer Khan because if Srinath had better average, Zaheer also got more wickets.

The lower average is because Indian wickets were turners in 90s and flatties in 2000s.

 

[Saurav]

On topic, I will pick Zaheer Khan because if Srinath had better average, Zaheer also got more wickets.

The lower average is because Indian wickets were turners in 90s and flatties in 2000s.

how would a turner help Srinath?

 

[Ab Fan]

how would a turner help Srinath?

No long spells.

 

[MP2011]

Zaheer was great but Srinath was better in my books, much more hostile fast bowling, even though his approach was nothing like a lanky fast bowler. Was too timid for that unlike Zaheer.

Still remember how Srinath asked for Ponting's well being after his well directed bouncer hit Ponting's face in our 1999-2000 test series down under. Ponting though as expected abused him like there is no tomorrow.

 

[Ab Fan]

Zaheer was great but Srinath was better in my books, much more hostile fast bowling, even though his approach was nothing like a lanky fast bowler. Was too timid for that unlike Zaheer.

<B>Still remember how Srinath asked for Ponting's well being after his well directed bouncer hit Ponting's face in our 1999-2000 test series down under. Ponting though as expected abused him like there is no tomorrow.</B>

Then how exactly is it more hostile when batsman end up abusing you?

 

[MP2011]

Then how exactly is it more hostile when batsman end up abusing you?

Hostile as in more lethal as a bowler, not necessarily in demeanour which Zaheer certainly was.

 

[Bewal Express]

Srinath was a very talented guy, but he bowled the comfortable length which meant he frequently beat the bat , which looked good but didn't take the edge. Flintoff was very similar.

 

[OMB]

Hostile as in more lethal as a bowler, not necessarily in demeanour which Zaheer certainly was.

Right, you can be hostile but needn't be nasty

However Srinadh had this special look if hit for a boundary. Drooping shoulder and exasperated look. Looked defeatist to me.

 

[MP2011]

Right, you can be hostile but needn't be nasty

True.

WI fast bowlers of yesteryears (Like Ambrose, Walsh) were very hostile with their bowling, not with their tongues.

 

[Lego20]

Easy answer - Zaheer Khan the better bowler. Sreenath could never do the following:
- Away Swing/Seam
- Deceptive slower delivery
- Effective Yorker
- Bowl forward lengths with new bowl to extract swing.
Was a bowler with so many handicaps. Would argue V Prasad was a more complete bowler than him.

In the current Indian lot, both Bumrah and Ishaant still cant move the ball away - thats a very severe limitation, enough to not be able to make it into most good sides.. Only Siraj and Shami are able to do that for now.

 

[sweep_shot]

I believe Srinath was kind of underrated.

He was the only proper fast Bowler India had in the 90's.

I think Zaheer Khan is better though.

 

[Savak]

Srinath in his peak was a 145-150 km/hr bowler and apparently has bowled a delivery at 156 km/hr. Srinath would have wrecked havoc had he played in the Indian team from 2007 to now. He had very little support and had to carry the bowling line up on his shoulders and didn't have consistent scores to work with from his batsmen when Tendulkar went missing.

Srinath for me.