Bowlers who became batsmen

[BoyBrumby]

Athers was top of Lanky's bowling averages in 1990 with 45 wickets at 26 apiece - and we ended up 6th in the table

Had to pretty much give it away because of his AS, I believe. A shame because I've read a few reasonable judges suggesting his leggies had definite potential.

Sadly of late there's been a trend of England selecting specialist batsmen who bowl a bit & playing them as bowlers in our ODI team: Samit Patel, Mike Yardy &, the man who gives his name to the role, Luke Wright.

 

[Richard]

Wasn't Steve Waugh picked as a bowler, or at least an all-rounder?

Debuted at no. 9 for NSW IIRC.

He did indeed, though TBF they had a quite remarkable number of all-rounders in said game: O'Neill, Trevor Chappell, Matthews and Imran Khan. As well as a powerful batting unit featuring Smith, Wellham, Clifford.

 

[Jamee999]

Stuart Broad opened the batting at Oakham School, I think.

 

[Richard]

Ind33d - so he was the other way around.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Could yet end up opening the batting for England in ODI's.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Ind33d - so he was the other way around.

Not neccesarily. Could've taken the new pill as well.

 

[Prince EWS]

Ind33d - so he was the other way around.

Should've stayed a batsman IMO.

 

[Richard]

I've given that thought consideration more than once, and in the last year I've often wondered whether it was only because of his bowling that he did.

If so, I think it's a shame. If, on the other hand, his batting started going wrong at the same sort of time his bowling developed, then fine.

 

[pup11]

Shoaib Malik started his international cricket pretty much as a specialist off-spinner, but later developed into a batsman, if i am not wrong, Sachin Tendulkar wanted to be a fast bowler at an young age, but his coach told him he is too small for it, and he should rather work on his batting , and good thing that he did that, otherwise would have a huge loss for international cricket.

 

[Richard]

Yeah Malik batted way down at eight and nine (might possibly even have had an innings or two at ten). Not sure if he always had the batting ability and was just being wasted, or whether his one-day batting (never rated him that much in the longer game TBH) just developed really fast.

And TBF, he was very young when he debuted, even if he probably was a little older than 17.

 

[gwo]

I think the winner here is Glenn McGrath. Was a batsman back when he was a country boy iirc.

 

[ozone]

I think the winner here is Glenn McGrath. Was a batsman back when he was a country boy iirc.

Well, as the thread title is 'Bowler who became a batsman', McGrath possibly isn't the best example.

 

[Richard]

Second example of the wrong way around, and we've only had 30-odd posts.

 

[fredfertang]

If memory serves Mr Z didn't John Snow end up opening the batting for Sussex in the old Sunday League?

 

[Richard]

Micky Stewart certainly seems to think so. Apparently Surrey promoting Arthur McIntyre and Sussex Snow was very common.

He mentioned this to illustrate that the idea of the "pinch-hitter" certainly wasn't invented by Mark Greatbatch or Sanath Jayasyuriya \ Romesh Kaluwitharana.

 

[Xuhaib]

Yeah Malik batted way down at eight and nine (might possibly even have had an innings or two at ten). Not sure if he always had the batting ability and was just being wasted, or whether his one-day batting (never rated him that much in the longer game TBH) just developed really fast.

And TBF, he was very young when he debuted, even if he probably was a little older than 17.

He was a genuine 10/11 for his FC side and was being developed as Saqlain's prodigy. You watch his first 5-10 games he does look like a genuine tail ender. It was in 2001 when he had a collision with Afridi in an odi at Lords that hurt his shoulder badly and his bowling suffered , to compensate for that he started working more on his batting and slowly but surely there you have him batting at 4 for Pakistan in a test match.

 

[Richard]

WoW. I have that fateful match (in which Shoaib bowled 4 overs for 39, being repeatedly smashed over mid-wicket by Trescothick to bring England back into a game they appeared completely out of), including that wholly nasty collision, on tape and still watch it from time to time (it was a thriller, went down to the last ball). But I never knew that said collision was the spur for Shoaib developing his batting, which in OD cricket rapidly became excellent.

 

[Evermind]

Nasser was definately looked upon as a very good bowler as a youngster, before getting the yips (I think). Shows the strength of mind of the man to be able to convert himself into a test class batsman.

Arguable IMO.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Micky Stewart certainly seems to think so. Apparently Surrey promoting Arthur McIntyre and Sussex Snow was very common.

He mentioned this to illustrate that the idea of the "pinch-hitter" certainly wasn't invented by Mark Greatbatch or Sanath Jayasyuriya \ Romesh Kaluwitharana.

Jack Birkenshaw did it first for Leicestershire in the John Player League. It was actually completely pointless as neither he nor Snow were good enough batsman and there were no fielding restrictions to take advantage of. I remember Snow hitting the occasional 30 odd but just by playing as an orthodox opener did at the time.

 

[zaremba]

If memory serves Mr Z didn't John Snow end up opening the batting for Sussex in the old Sunday League?

I don't know about that. But my Dad played against him when they were in their youth, and at that stage Snow was basically a batsman. And when I say a batsman, he was a hitter who used to try to smack the thing as hard as he possibly could. I don't think he bowled at all at that stage.

Fred, can you remind me what JS's autobiography is called?