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Comparing Kapil dev and Imran Khan

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Viscount Tom

International Debutant
To be quite frank as all round packages I think the majority of people would pick Imran such a difference in terms of bowling that its not even funny.

Imran could walk into some seriously amazing teams on his bowling alone Dev not so much.
 

Agent Nationaux

International Coach
I don't think people consider Viv great because of his ODI record. It's because of having watched him play that also forms their opinions and stats shouldn't be used alone to judge someone.

You mention Wasim, but I have never seen someone here use his ODI record to support him as an ATG. In fact a lot of people here don't even think of Wasim being at the same level as McGrath, Marshall, Hadlee, etc (ask Kyar2 he will be happy to let you know).
 
To be quite frank as all round packages I think the majority of people would pick Imran such a difference in terms of bowling that its not even funny.

Imran could walk into some seriously amazing teams on his bowling alone Dev not so much.
i know when looking into bowl avg:, econ and str: rate alone , i too agree with you.there is a considerable gap between the 2. but i thru my earlier posts have clearly explained as to how this gap would narrow considerably.yet i repeat some of them here.do you frankly believe had Imran played 131 tests as Kapil did, would he have maintained the same no:s.?even more so if Imran played these 131 tests in just 16 years as Kapil did?(keep in mind that Kapil played 225 one days too in this time span of 16 years) .another thing is had Imran immeditely played. after his shin injury just as Kapil did with his injury in 1984, don't you feel that would have affected his numbers?another practical situation that happend with Imran was in his last few years he could afford not to bowl at all because of Wasim-Waqar rise.don't you feel lack of such support for Kapil thru out his career affected his bowling figures? Take all this collectively and suppse what actually had happend in the practical sense.I am not denying the fact that Imran was the better test bowler.i am only saying that Kapil was much better test bowler than his figures actually revealed.
 
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Red

The normal awards that everyone else has
I agree that Kapil was better than his figures reveal. But he still doesn't belong in the very top tier of fast bowlers. Imran does.
 
I agree that Kapil was better than his figures reveal. But he still doesn't belong in the very top tier of fast bowlers. Imran does.
ok.that i too agree.but as i elaborated in the thread,this difference between them as all rounders is only negligible if all these factors are taken into account.for me it is slightly in Kapil's favour.
 

Red

The normal awards that everyone else has
ok.that i too agree.but as i elaborated in the thread,this difference between them as all rounders is only negligible if all these factors are taken into account.for me it is slightly in Kapil's favour.
It would depend on the role you're selecting them for. And I'd imagine it's as a bowling all rounder.

Let's say this is the team you have so far...

Hutton
Hobbs
Bradman
Tendulkar
Richards
Sobers
Gilchrist
-
Warne
Marshall
Lillee

The spot needing to be filled is the number 8 spot, which is also the third pace bowler's spot. Imran every time for me.

I'm a big fan of Kapil. But I can't think of any scenario where I would choose him over Imran Khan as a test cricketer. ODIs are a different story.

I compare Kapil to Miller and Botham in regards to their batting. I think that trio had far more ability with the bat than Imran and Hadlee. And I think that if Kapil, Miller and Botham had not been bowlers, and if they'd focussed on their batting, they would have all averaged around 45 with the bat. However, if we're choosing based on what they actually did in test cricket, and not on opinion/speculation, it's Imran every time.
 

Dan

Hall of Fame Member
So if we take ODIs into account when ranking all-rounders, how does this affect Sobers? Is he still no.1?
 
So if we take ODIs into account when ranking all-rounders, how does this affect Sobers? Is he still no.1?
i feel it shoud be done on the basis of what actually had happend. i mean for players like Kapil and Imran we should consider both because both of them played consderable number of one days.Sobers didn't play that much, but him being such a great test players he should be ranked on this performance alone.
 

Migara

Cricketer Of The Year
I won't select Kapil Dev as the first all rounder even for ODIs.

I'd select,

First XI: Watson, Gilchrist, Viv, Tendulkar, Bevan, Hussey, Dhoni, Wasim, Garner, McGrath, Muralidaran

Second XI: Jayasuriya, Hayden, Abbas, Kallis, de Villiers, Ponting, Klusener, Pollock, Saqlain, Ambrose, Donald

So not even for the third XI.
 
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I won't select Kapil Dev as the first all rounder even for ODIs.

I'd select,

First XI: Watson, Gilchrist, Viv, Tendulkar, Bevan, Hussey, Dhoni, Wasim, Garner, McGrath, Muralidaran

Second XI: Jayasuriya, Hayden, Abbas, Kallis, de Villiers, Inzamam, Klusener, Pollock, Saqlain, Ambrose, Donald

So not even for the third XI.
whether you not pick Kapil for 3rd or 4rth or even 5th eleven is your personel choice. but it cannot be denied that when a str: rate of 60s was the norm in the 80s, Kapil 's str: rate was 95.add to that he was an out standing one day bowler and fielder.
 
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Migara

Cricketer Of The Year
whether you not pick Kapil for 3rd or 4rth or even 5th eleven is your personel choice. but it cannot be denied that when a str: rate of 60s was the norm in the 80s, Kapil 's str: rate was 95.add to that he was an out standing one day bowler and fielder.
Who denies Kapil had a big SR. But what was his average? And what was Zaheer Abbas' average and SR, and what was Viv's? Kapil Never was a complete ODI batsman. Having said that neither Imran, Botham or Hadlee were. This shows why ODI and test all rounders should be dealt separately.
 

smash84

The Tiger King
i know when looking into bowl avg:, econ and str: rate alone , i too agree with you.there is a considerable gap between the 2. but i thru my earlier posts have clearly explained as to how this gap would narrow considerably.yet i repeat some of them here.do you frankly believe had Imran played 131 tests as Kapil did, would he have maintained the same no:s.?even more so if Imran played these 131 tests in just 16 years as Kapil did?(keep in mind that Kapil played 225 one days too in this time span of 16 years) .another thing is had Imran immeditely played. after his shin injury just as Kapil did with his injury in 1984, don't you feel that would have affected his numbers?another practical situation that happend with Imran was in his last few years he could afford not to bowl at all because of Wasim-Waqar rise.don't you feel lack of such support for Kapil thru out his career affected his bowling figures? Take all this collectively and suppse what actually had happend in the practical sense.I am not denying the fact that Imran was the better test bowler.i am only saying that Kapil was much better test bowler than his figures actually revealed.
Dude I am not sure how to address your posts. And you keep on talking about Kapil's injury but do you have any idea how serious was Imran's injury and that too at his peak? It was career threatening because it wasn't being treated properly. IIRC Imran stopped bowling for a period of 2-3.5 years at his peak as a bowler. Just before the injury had hit the highest peak for any bowler post world war II and had taken a 100 wickets in 13 or 14 tests at a sub 15 average or something ridiculous like that. And with the way he was going at that time (82-83) he probably would have ended up with more wickets than Kapil despite playing significantly fewer number of test matches. But Imran didn't bowl for those 2 odd years and we will never know for sure what he could have done had he gotten the opportunity.

In ODIs Kapil the better all rounder but Imran brings so much to the table with his leadership.
 
Dude I am not sure how to address your posts. And you keep on talking about Kapil's injury but do you have any idea how serious was Imran's injury and that too at his peak? It was career threatening because it wasn't being treated properly. IIRC Imran stopped bowling for a period of 2-3.5 years at his peak as a bowler. Just before the injury had hit the highest peak for any bowler post world war II and had taken a 100 wickets in 13 or 14 tests at a sub 15 average or something ridiculous like that. And with the way he was going at that time (82-83) he probably would have ended up with more wickets than Kapil despite playing significantly fewer number of test matches. But Imran didn't bowl for those 2 odd years and we will never know for sure what he could have done had he gotten the opportunity.

In ODIs Kapil the better all rounder but Imran brings so much to the table with his leadership.
Hi, i gave a thorough check of what you told.yes Imran had a peak year in 1982 with 62 wkts in 9 tests.but this has been the case with all great bowlers .surely one bowlers peak might have bettered some others peak by a little margin or vice versa.that doesn't mean they could have gone on repeating this peak performance year after year. Now only in 1984 it is seen that he didn't bowl at all.quite naturally it can be assumed that he was taking full rest after his injury.Now you are claiming that his injury affected his performance .isn't it ?in 50 tests before his injury he took 232 wkts. that is 4.64 wkts/test. in his next 22 tests immediately following his injury he took 102 wkts, ie 4.63 wkts/test.
you pls tell me how this injury affected his career? . if any thing it only reveals that complete rest fully enabled him to recover from injury.But this is not the case with Kapil dev. After his injury he didn't take any rest at all.here no body can prove other wise because Kapil only missed a single test in his entire career.now you just look into Kapil's figures in immediate years after injury and those before injury.now you can understand what i really mean.my only point is that Kapil played despite doctors's advice neglecting the pain of the injury thus distorting his bowling figures.and we need to take that into account too while evaluating him

another thing...what do you feel about Kapil's huge str: rate which betters even Viv(the next best of those times) by a fair 11.63 margin?i know even a lot of people who have been some what familiar with Kapil's style of play did not know that his str: rate is 80.91.even i only came to know about it off late.but it prompted me to place him above even Imran(the no: 1 for many among the fab 4) who has only a mediocre str: rate of 47.52. not only that, Kapil's str: rate reaches 96.45 once he crosses 75(and he has 15 such scores). all sort of cricket experts has no objection in placing Viv as the premier 2 or 3 batsmen of all time because of his str: rate of 69.28. but almost all of these experts hesitate to put Kapil even close to Imran despite his str: rate of 80.91.i can't really get this logic.
 
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Who denies Kapil had a big SR. But what was his average? And what was Zaheer Abbas' average and SR, and what was Viv's? Kapil Never was a complete ODI batsman. Having said that neither Imran, Botham or Hadlee were. This shows why ODI and test all rounders should be dealt separately.
you are speaking as if all the 4 were specialist one day batsmen
 

Red

The normal awards that everyone else has
I won't select Kapil Dev as the first all rounder even for ODIs.

I'd select,

First XI: Watson, Gilchrist, Viv, Tendulkar, Bevan, Hussey, Dhoni, Wasim, Garner, McGrath, Muralidaran

Second XI: Jayasuriya, Hayden, Abbas, Kallis, de Villiers, Ponting, Klusener, Pollock, Saqlain, Ambrose, Donald

So not even for the third XI.
It obviously just comes down to personal choice. But I'd take Kapil every time in an ODI XI. He was a very crafty ODI bowler who went for under 4 an over, and his batting SR of 95 is outstanding (considering the era he played in). To have that batting fire power at 7/8 in an ODI is perfect.

For mine-

Gilchrist - Tendulkar - Ponting - D. Jones - V.Richards - Lara - Kapil - Hadlee - Garner - Donald - Murali
 
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