Rangana Herath...could he have been up there with Warne and Murali?

[WindieWeathers]

In the last few years the way he's been performing has been simply stunning. He appears to have all the tricks and always stays calm in the heat of the battle...sadly his age is probably against him but i wonder if he was a little younger and had another four or so years left with the form he's showing would he have been able to put himself alongside Murali and Warne? It's interesting how both he and Ajmal seemed to catch fire well into their 30s really although i guess Ajmal has been tarnished a little now having been banned...but i really wonder if spinners will be able to dominate in their mid 20s in the current climate or will it become a trend where they flourish more towards their 30s?

Another thing is the opportunities both Warne and Murali had in county cricket...not many foreign tweakers are getting that anymore.

 

[vic_orthdox]

To be fair, Warne and Murali both had their county stints quite well into their careers, didn't they?

 

[Esperance]

As a life-long member of the Rangana Herath Appreciation Society and owner of RanganaHerathOwns .com, .org and .gov I approve of this thread.

 

[WindieWeathers]

To be fair, Warne and Murali both had their county stints quite well into their careers, didn't they?

I know Warne developed his game in English league cricket though right? so he had a good foundation that he built upon. Herath has had his stints in county in the past aswell but at the moment i can't think of many foreign spinners getting a chance in county cricket...in recent times only Ajmal and Mendis comes to mind.

 

[hendrix]

I'm one of his biggest fans but while he's had 3-4 years of domination, Warne and Murali did it across their whole careers. We've seen plenty of spinners come into their own in their late 30s, which is what makes Warne and Murali so special - they already had that maturity that it seems to take everyone else years to achieve.

 

[zaremba]

no

 

[WindieWeathers]

I'm one of his biggest fans but while he's had 3-4 years of domination, Warne and Murali did it across their whole careers. We've seen plenty of spinners come into their own in their late 30s, which is what makes Warne and Murali so special - they already had that maturity that it seems to take everyone else years to achieve.

Another one who matured late is Swann!!...starting like a house on fire for a spinner seems to be quite rare these days..Mendis had it i guess until that fizzled out. These two series coming up for Narine against India and SA should really say a lot!!..he's already got a Murali/Warne type of "aura" in the limited overs formats and he's only 26. So if he can transfer that to the tests things could get interesting as realistically he should still have a good seven to eight years left.

 

[Maximas]

Spinners peak in their thirties, the thing that set both Warne and Murali apart was their ability to spin the ball big, land it consistently and play mind games with the batsman, they dominated and won matches for their teams for their whole careers, that's what ATG spinners do. Herath is world class and will go down as one of Sri Lanka's greats but there is no comparison

 

[Jono]

definitely not

 

[Howsie]

Nope. He's a chucker for starters and he's already shown he doesn't give a toss about test cricket.

 

[Maximas]

Herath has played county cricket too btw if I'm not mistaken

 

[Furball]

IIRC it was League cricket he was playing (and not terribly well either.)

 

[bagapath]

No. They were very very special. I will be pleasantly surprised if I do indeed get to see any spinner of their caliber play test cricket in my lifetime.

 

[Jono]

Nope. He's a chucker for starters and he's already shown he doesn't give a toss about test cricket.

Who is this referring to?

 

[Flem274*]

howsie sparked. thats his opinion of narine.

 

[Prince EWS]

He didn't Spark. WindieWeathers quite surprisingly made reference to Narine in this thread a few posts in. Howsie just didn't quote the post.

 

[WindieWeathers]

Nope. He's a chucker for starters and he's already shown he doesn't give a toss about test cricket.

LOL the jealousy is delicious .

 

[WindieWeathers]

He didn't Spark. WindieWeathers quite surprisingly made reference to Narine in this thread a few posts in. Howsie just didn't quote the post.

Was just saying that Narine has that "Warne/Murali" aura about him in the t20 and one day format Prince...i don't think that can be denied as right now he could go on to be the greatest t20 bowler of all time the way he's going. So if he suddenly transfers that level of performance to the test side then it could be interesting seeing as he's still only 26 and others have said spinners tend to peak in their 30s.

 

[Daemon]

He's my first pick in an ATG T20 side for sure

 

[Maximas]

IIRC it was League cricket he was playing (and not terribly well either.)

Has played like half a season of County Cricket in 2010 for Hampshire, but I think in 2009 when he got the random call up he was playing league cricket, hardly think it's a factor anyway