One man, one team

[Arjun]

We've seen a few of them. Not just star players. Not just all-rounders or seriously good players in one aspect. They virtually carry the whole team. Whom can you consider as one-man teams?

One example, for India, would be Kapil Dev in the 1980s. When the Indians lost a lot of their top batsmen, before Azhar and Tendulkar, he was virtually their top batsman. Ian Botham was not too far from this role, though he had a stronger team. At times, Imran Khan would do it for Pakistan, notably in the 1992 World Cup, before Inzamam and Wasim Akram came to the fore. Then there was Chris Cairns- first the strike bowler, then the superbat for NZ. England's most recent example would be Flintoff, when fully fit. A longer-serving example for New Zelanad these days would be Vettori. Among specialists, I can think of Brian Lara and Muralitharan, at present.

 

[vcs]

Bangladesh and Shakib. Netherlands and RtD.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Hadlee for NZ

 

[Spark]

AB

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[Flem274*]

Wouldn't consider Hadlee a team carrier at all, though I might be working with a different definition.

Vettori springs to mind, and Shakib even more so. Hussey during the Ashes just gone as well.

 

[Jamee999]

Gareth Bardle.

 

[Agent Nationaux]

Misbah in the test series recently

 

[Smudge]

John R Reid for NZ in the late 1950s-early 1960s when Sutcliffe hac retired.

 

[Arjun]

RtD is a good example. With a fantastic record, it's no surprise that he carries the entire team. Holland is RtD is Holland is RtD is Holland.

Shakib is a slightly doubtful case, as he's had batsmen of comparable quality often, and even now, there's Tamim Iqbal. He's also been in the same team as Mashrafe Mortaza a few times.

In some time, Kevin O'Brien may be more or less the best of, or even all of, the Ireland side.

 

[Howe_zat]

RtD is a good call, he's pretty clearly a big fish in a small pond when it comes to associate matches.

It's hard to think of Kevin O' Brien as a better batsman than long-term county performers like Porterfield and Joyce. I wish all the best for him but I get the impression that his knock against England is likely to be a once-in-a-lifetime event for him.

 

[Neil Pickup]

RtD is a good call, he's pretty clearly a big fish in a small pond when it comes to associate matches.

It's hard to think of Kevin O' Brien as a better batsman than long-term county performers like Porterfield and Joyce. I wish all the best for him but I get the impression that his knock against England is likely to be a once-in-a-lifetime event for him.

Kevin's got previous for coming in down the order and giving it some humpty - but he's technically not going to be sound enough to come in 3/4 and bat long and be built around: particularly with Joyce/Porterfield/Marshall/whoever Ireland discover next to do that job.

 

[MrIncredible]

george headley. early west indies

 

[Maximus0723]

Andy Flower
and, Don Bradman

 

[Arjun]

Andy Flower is a difficult example to think up. He never won too many matches for Zimbabwe, but was often the one reason why they saved at least one Test in that odd series, and was often supported either by his brother or Alistair Campbell.

 

[Howe_zat]

Looking at matches like this, it's pretty convincing to cast Andy Flower in this role. His peak years as a batsman coincide nicely with Zimbabwe's years as a competitive Test team, though a lot of credit would also go to Heath Streak.

Edit: Done some research on this - Zimbabwe won 6 and drew 9 of their 28 Tests from October 1998 to November 2001. During this period Flower scored 2530 runs at 76.66 with 7 of his 12 centuries, top score 232*. No other Zimbabwe batsman scored more than Whittall's 1126 runs at 34.12.

 

[KoosOos]

Jaque Kallis

In the late 1990 and early 2000 he carried the South- African team

 

[Howe_zat]

In the late 1990 and early 2000 he carried the South- African team

I'd say that was closer to Shaun Pollock than anyone else.

 

[KoosOos]

Nope Shaun pallock was a great bouler but an ave bat. Jaque Kalls was the only desent batsman in South-Afrika for a long time that could scour on a regular bassis, and a good bouler as weel

 

[Jigga988]

Shiv for the couple years he was averaging 100, seem to remember when he was in England, the tour before last, he was the only batsmen making runs with Sarwan injured and Gayle in shocking form... I'm not sure carrying a team counts if you didn't really win in the time period though :s

 

[Sanz]

One example, for India, would be Kapil Dev in the 1980s. When the Indians lost a lot of their top batsmen, before Azhar and Tendulkar, he was virtually their top batsman.

No Kapil was never the top batsman. Throughout his career he had Batsmen like Gavaskar, Vengsarkar, Vishwanath, Amarnath, Azhar and Tendulkar.