Random Cricket Thread (International Cricket)

[Aidan11]

No light problems for Pakistan this time.

Won with relative ease to take the series 2-1.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Zaheer Khan has retired from international cricket.

With Kapil Dev, I expect he's viewed as India's best ever pace bowler. Key figure in their WC win and star of India's win in England in 07, he'll carry on in the IPL. Fine bowler. India's fourth highest wicket taker, with 311 Test wickets at 33. Of bowlers to take 100 wicket for india, he has the third highest SR, behind Ashwin and Pathan. Always seemed a good guy.

[Dr Cricket]

Quite sad he didn't have a proper send off, if there was one guy that deserved a send off he was the man, plus Zaheer khan could have been the bowler that inspired a nation to be a fast bowler/seam bowler, But sadly most people forgot about this man after the 2011 world cup.

Think Zaheer Khan career would have been even better if he didn't suffer injuries at the wrong time.
Got injured during the Australia tour in 07/08.
Also remember him getting injured couple of times in South Africa as well.

[Dr Cricket]

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/conte ... 29277.html
good article on Zaheer Khan india clearly missed him when he was gone.

[dan08]

One of the most stupid suggestions i've ever heard: http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/o ... are_btn_tw

[Arthur Crabtree]

Better suggestion in the article about cricket at the Olympics. Graves had better expect some sneering derision next time he's in a room with Emperor Clarke.

[Arthur Crabtree]

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/story/929277.html
good article on Zaheer Khan india clearly missed him when he was gone.

Zaheer the cleverest fast bowler. England say Anderson is the most skillful fast bowler. Maybe they should start copywriting these titles.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Not criticising the admirable Zaheer, or Dhoni. Just being whimsical. I'll try to think of some other titles. Boxing is good at this sort of thing.

[greyblazer]

Zaheer was a clever bowler. However, I believe some tend to overrate him. If anything, he was better at bowling on bowler friendly tracks of England, New Zealand (in 02-03, they were greentops in NZ), IN Durban and other places. Unless you bring in Bangladesh, his records in Asia is nothing to write home about. In that respect, Srinath scores over him as he did well in Asia.

[sussexpob]

Zaheer was a clever bowler. However, I believe some tend to overrate him. If anything, he was better at bowling on bowler friendly tracks of England, New Zealand (in 02-03, they were greentops in NZ), IN Durban and other places. Unless you bring in Bangladesh, his records in Asia is nothing to write home about. In that respect, Srinath scores over him as he did well in Asia.

He would have barely justified selection in most pace attacks for large parts of his career, and will be remember more fondly for the mid to later years of his career when he peaked as India became a good side.

But apart from the lead up to the 2011 World Cup for about 12-18 months, and a good tour of England in 2007, he was nothing special. After the 2011 World cup he was rubbish by memory.

[greyblazer]

Zaheer had about 4 good years between 2007 to 2011 when he took 140 odd wickets at 28s in Tests. However, averaging 28 over 4 years is something that many have done. Monga himself in that piece in cricinfo said on the lines of that Zaheer "mastered SG ball in India" and all that. Is it? He averaged 36s in India and some 40 in SL.

And it was not like his average came down. For instance, he averaged some 36 on his first tour in SL and 44 on his second tour. In India, seamers like Srinath and Kapil had far better records. Yes, Zaheer was a clever bowler, but when I see on Twitter people saying that he was an excellent flat-wicket bowler, I tend to smile. His records in India, SL and Pakistan tell something else. He only succeeded in Bangladesh. I think he was better at using bowler friendly conditions than say Srinath. Srinath tended to get excited and used to bowl short when it was doing a bit for the seamers.

[sussexpob]

Put it this way, he was never a bowler you came against and thought "on no, Zaheer is playing". Not for me anyway.

By the time you thought he could become that and started to worry, his star had already burnt out.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Sehwag retires. Is there a lucrative seniors competition starting up?

[Gingerfinch]

Sehwag retires. Is there a lucrative seniors competition starting up?

A great batsman and an entertainer. Don't get many of them to the pound.

[backfootpunch]

along with lara, sehwag is probably the only player who i enjoyed watching score runs against england

in asia he was a truly spectacular batsmen