I presume your are refering to Australia & WI here & in the 90s from my memory i don;t see how he failed againts them TBH even if he wasn't exactly prolific.
With his record vs AUS in the 90s he faced solid all-round attack on in boths tours to AUS in 99/00 & 91/92 (although Warne was either a novice or not at his best) but he didn't fail.
Vs the WI he did well againts a weakened attack in 94 & did ok in 97. So failure is a harsh term IMO.
Sorry mate, I worded it wrong, I was talking about the best pace attacks. At the time, S.Africa and Pakistan were a step above.
Against Australia/Windies, as you mentioned, he's often had weakened attacks to face, but when they were strong in the few tests in the 90s, he did very well so I give him credit.
The real issue is that today, if a batsman is poor against 2/4 bowling powers of his day, he is not in the same league as these guys...who were also poor againast 2/4 bowling powers of the day. Seems hypocritical to me.
As i just said the 99 vs AUS he faced pretty much a full-strenght Australian bowling attack and batted pretty well from my memory even without an injured Gillespie since Fleming & Kasper were very capable back-ups.
Yes, full except Gillespie and that's only 2 tests. But still, let's give that to him as I have no problem with saying he did well against Australia in the 90s as he's always done well.
But thats a useless argument given the Ponting in the 90s was not even half the batsman he was from
leeds 2001 to now regardless of the quality of bowling or pitches blah blah blah..
I am not arguing that mate, I am clarifying my post to some people who think it's a matter of bias that I argue for Ponting and against Tendulkar. Ponting just happens to be the best example of a player who hit his stride post 2000 and no matter what he does is somehow not in the same category as Lara and Sachin, and sometimes Waugh.
You just had to see Tendulkar & Lara bat in the 90s to know that they were better than him & this is coming from one of biggest Ponting fans on this site.
I agree, they were great, and I watched more tests in the 90s than any other era. But what Ponting has done in the 2000s is nothing short of what the others did in the 90s, absolutely nothing. Argue Tendulkar has better technique, Lara more flair, and that's fine. But that's not my point.
Ponting may have been superb ever since Steve Waugh sent him up to bat @ number 3 in the Leeds test of 2001. But the fact the he has cashed in tremendously on some poor attacks & averaged so high can'tbe taken lightly dawg. The only real challenging attacks all-round attacks (pace/spin) Ponting has faced since 2001 has been in the 2005 Ashes & vs SA in 05/06 & SRI 04 vs Vaas/Murali so that is very significant.
But here's the funny thing, he actually did very well in the 90s against the very 2 attacks that the others failed against
. So that's no excuse, even if it were true! And if it is, it makes Tendulkar/Lara look very bad. Take out minnows and post 2000 Ponting scores almost 20 runs more on average. This is simply not a number you can ignore.
You may say that Lara & Tendy has faced the same bowlers this era & have averaged less but thats just statiscal evidence which doesn't tell you that Tendulkar had his tennis elbow woes for a good few years & people were saying he was past it & Lara had period out of the game because of stress. I really shudder to think what Tendy & Lara could have done if they had such an ease during the 90s.
That's a mitigating factor, certainly, but the difference between Tendulkar and a Ponting is absolutely huge.
Sachin has averaged
54 in the 2000s era but as i just said stats would not tell you everything about.
From that SCG test vs AUS to the Trinidad test vs WI Tendulkar of the 90s was still in full flow but then he suddenly had a problem againts Pedro Collins, then came his tennis elbow woes which led to his form did although he still managed to cash in on the average attacks on show and for me the recent series vs AUS was probably the best Tendulkar has looked since 2001 when IND played both AUS & ENG.
8 points of his average come from Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. Without them, Tendulkar averages
46 in the 2000s.
Lara since 2000 statiscally averages
54 but that wouldn't tell you that the 6 months he took away from the game given the stress of WI cricket when he came back vs ENG in 2000 it took up until the 2001 tour to SRI to really rekindle himself to inconsistent but magnificent Lara of the 90s & averaged
60 & being a big Ponting fan & all still rathered watching Lara bat this era.
Lara averages 54 post 2000 and without Bang/Zim he averages about 53.5. Lara has done very well for someone aging and having to shoulder a continually weak team.
