Average players suddenly becoming very good

[weldone]

Ganguly during his comeback. Was an average test player averaging in the early forties for a while and came back as a very gritty batsman and was a world class test player for a couple of years before his retirement.

Diagree entirely. Ganguly had already established himself as a good test player long ago - of course he was never a Tendulkar or a Dravid.

Ganguly during the '96 tour of England might be a good shout. Many had written him off completely before that.

 

[wellAlbidarned]

Misbah Ul-Haq is a sure one.

What do people think about Trott? Pretty sure no-one expected him to gun it quite as much as he has.

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

Yeah, Dilshan is a good shout.

Graeme Swann

 

[Shri]

Diagree entirely. Ganguly had already established himself as a good test player long ago - of course he was never a Tendulkar or a Dravid.

Ganguly during the '96 tour of England might be a good shout. Many had written him off completely before that.

Ganguly was always an inconsistent test batsman who put in some good test innings out of the blue. His ODI performances(and captaincy I guess) made people think he was a good test bat when he was just above average for quite some time. Came back as a completely different bat in temperament and consistency after he was dropped.

 

[weldone]

Ganguly was always an inconsistent test batsman who put in some good test innings out of the blue. His ODI performances(and captaincy I guess) made people think he was a good test bat when he was just above average for quite some time. Came back as a completely different bat in temperament and consistency after he was dropped.

He was an automatic choice in the Indian test middle order for a long time, and rightfully so. Being an automatic choice in that middle order for quite a few years (almost a decade, in fact) in itself means that he was not 'average' IMO. Yes, he came back as a better batsman, but that doesn't mean that he was a Devang Gandhi before that.

In this thread I wanted to discuss abut players who you thought were quite ordinary (Suresh Raina as a test match batsman today, for example) improved themselves to become good.

 

[Bonnie Prince C]

Swann and Bresnan in the current England set-up. Trott to a degree too, while he always looked good I didn't expect him to go onto the International stage and be one of the best bats in the world.

Majid Haq also qualifies for this too.

 

[Kippax]

The NZ player that fits this for me (apart from Richardson who's too obvious and well-documented to dwell on) is Styris. He was never "very good", but rose off a incredibly low base as far as initial expectations went to become an occasionally match-winning batsman and Test No. 4.

No surprise he's a big fan of the golfer Ian Poulter, another ugly duckling who really rated himself for no apparent reason, turning pro on a 4 handicap and using the "you?! you're s**te!" jibes as late-burning fuel rather than settling into a quiet life of selling golf tees and chocolate bars.

 

[Debris]

David Boon was very average for a long time before all of a sudden becoming world class number 3.

 

[weldone]

David Boon was very average for a long time before all of a sudden becoming world class number 3.

If my memory serves me right (I only watched him from 91/92 India's tour down under onwards), wasn't he an opener?

 

[Spikey]

didn't we name merv hughes in another thread as being one of these guys

 

[thierry henry]

The NZ player that fits this for me (apart from Richardson who's too obvious and well-documented to dwell on) is Styris. He was never "very good", but rose off a incredibly low base as far as initial expectations went to become an occasionally match-winning batsman and Test No. 4.

No surprise he's a big fan of the golfer Ian Poulter, another ugly duckling who really rated himself for no apparent reason, turning pro on a 4 handicap and using the "you?! you're s**te!" jibes as late-burning fuel rather than settling into a quiet life of selling golf tees and chocolate bars.

tbf Styris legitimately earned his spot in the ODI side in the late 1990s as a classic NZ selection of the time, i.e. an accurate medium-pacer and a lower order hitter. What's truly remarkable is that several years AFTER his international debut he apparently just decided "I'm gonna be a proper batsman now" and was almost immediately successful at it, despite making this decision while he was an active member of the national side. He never went back to domestic cricket and worked on it or anything, he just decided to do it on the fly with the blessing of management, I assume, and it worked out amazingly well.

 

[morgieb]

Brownlie worth a mention IMO.

 

[Debris]

If my memory serves me right (I only watched him from 91/92 India's tour down under onwards), wasn't he an opener?

Your memory serves you half right. He started as an opener and was moved to number 3 to make way for Mark Taylor. All his really good innings were at first drop.

 

[uvelocity]

actually just thinking about it England is definitely the right answer. Even since I watched cricket they appeared to be absolutely rat****, recently they have done their best to rid the team of Englishmen which no doubt was the source of their improvement. Was very sudden tbf. For me the jury is still out whether in fact they have now become very good, or if rather it is just a false dawn for the England team.

 

[Furball]

actually just thinking about it England is definitely the right answer. Even since I watched cricket they appeared to be absolutely rat****, recently they have done their best to rid the team of Englishmen which no doubt was the source of their improvement. Was very sudden tbf. For me the jury is still out whether in fact they have now become very good, or if rather it is just a false dawn for the England team.

 

[nexxus]

I seem to remember Jonty Rhodes not being a terribly good batsman luckily for him, in a team full of not terribly good batsmen (but we had 10 of them, so we actually did ok)

Then he went through a poor patch & was eventually dropped, before coming back and averaging mid 40's till he retired.

Hashim Amla anyone? He was written off after England found him out. Went back, put in the hard yards & has come back unbelievably well.

 

[Shri]

(Suresh Raina as a test match batsman today, for example)

Lets keep it realistic.

 

[Jacknife]

 

[weldone]

Hashim Amla anyone? He was written off after England found him out. Went back, put in the hard yards & has come back unbelievably well.

Yeah, mentioned him in my opening post..

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Daniel Vettori the batsman. To the end of 2002, in his first 44 tests (a pretty decent sample size), he only scored 878 runs at an average of 16.25. Since then he has played another 63 (or 64 tests if you include Aus-World XI game) and scored just over 3500 runs at almost 40.