Who was the greater batsman ? Zaheer Abbas or Mohammed Azharuddin

[OverratedSanity]

Shame Azhar turned out to be such a ****, he was probably my favourite Indian batsman as a kid. His wrists were utterly outrageous... he'd flick balls from outside off to wide mickwicket of the quicks when he was feeling it. Wasn't great against pace but has 2-3 of the craziest quick tons against good pace attacks I've ever seen (the hundred at Capetown in 97, the ton Burgey mentioned, the 70 ball ton at Kolkata against SA, etc).

As I said, it's a massive shame he did what he did, but luckily for me, another wristy Hyderabadi replaced him as my favourite very quickly.

 

[Engle]

It’s always good to reflect on blokes who were stylish players. Both these guys were so good to watch.

Recall watching some old grainy footage of Kanhai playing for a World XI against Australia. Then noticed that his batting partner was actually demonstrating greater flamboyance and style. Who is this guy ? After close scrutiny and comments by others, it turned out to be none other than Zaheer Abbas.

 

[trundler]

Recall watching some old grainy footage of Kanhai playing for a World XI against Australia. Then noticed that his batting partner was actually demonstrating greater flamboyance and style. Who is this guy ? After close scrutiny and comments by others, it turned out to be none other than Zaheer Abbas.

Kanhai has lived up to his reputation in the footage that I've seen of him. Shame it's very limited.

Martyn was pretty good to watch though, wasn't he? Flows under the radar. I wonder how people rate him here. Looked so effortless.

 

[Burgey]

Forever tainted by the scg cover drive in 93/94 vs SA.

 

[smash84]

Kanhai has lived up to his reputation in the footage that I've seen of him. Shame it's very limited.

Martyn was pretty good to watch though, wasn't he? Flows under the radar. I wonder how people rate him here. Looked so effortless.

Completely second this. Was so elegant, so sublime, was Damien Martyn. Him and Mark Waugh are among the most stylish right hand batsmen that I can think off the top of my head.

 

[Bolo]

Martyn was practically the worst bat in his team. You are going to fly under the radar if this is the case even if you are an excellent batsman.

 

[stephen]

Martyn was practically the worst bat in his team. You are going to fly under the radar if this is the case even if you are an excellent batsman.

And that spoke to the strength of the team, not the quality of Martyn.

Langer
Hayden
Ponting
Martyn
Clarke / Waugh
Katich / Lehmann
Gilchrist

Martyn was probably the 4th/5th best bat in that side. Better than the number 6 and probably Langer. But that's esteemed company. 4 or 5 ATG bats in there (Hayden, Ponting, Waugh, Clarke and Gilchrist).

 

[Bolo]

And that spoke to the strength of the team, not the quality of Martyn.

Langer
Hayden
Ponting
Martyn
Clarke / Waugh
Katich / Lehmann
Gilchrist

Martyn was probably the 4th/5th best bat in that side. Better than the number 6 and probably Langer. But that's esteemed company. 4 or 5 ATG bats in there (Hayden, Ponting, Waugh, Clarke and Gilchrist).

Ya. He was at least comparable to Azhar in quality, but Azhar used to get a ton of praise before the fixing due to batting in a pretty weak lineup.

 

[stephen]

Not that he saw and ignored it. He initiated it.

Not according to the results of the investigation.

Smith was largely punished for the post- match press conference where he implicated the leadership group by trying to take the heat off of Bancroft. He was obviously trying to protect Bancroft but underestimated the reaction by the public.

The investigation showed that he knew they were up to something and failed to stop it but not that he necessarily knew what they were up to.

Smith's crime was being loyal to people who didn't deserve it and not being in control of his team.

 

[stephen]

Ya. He was at least comparable to Azhar in quality, but Azhar used to get a ton of praise before the fixing due to batting in a pretty weak lineup.

Martyn's nickname on the UK channel 4 forum was "scapegoat" which was great.

 

[Prince EWS]

Azhar gets under-rated a bit on account of being evil IMO. I'm kind of okay with that, but that aside I'm surprised the poll isn't much closer.

I suppose given the OP listed stats from a bunch of formats we're not only considering Tests, and if we're to give one day cricket equal weighting then I definitely would've voted for Zaheer as well.. but still.

 

[Engle]

When I asked Azhar about his best innings, he mentioned his lightning century against the Australians in Adelaide in 1991. His account of it is interesting. It had been a bad series for him till then. He had got into a front-foot habit during the English season, and his first move was forward. As a consequence, in Australia he kept getting out in the slips. He got out early in the first innings at Adelaide. But the second innings was different. He hit just everything. There were twenty boundaries in his century. Typically, Azhar offered no explanation of what he did right the second time round; he just hit everything. I asked him about his big century against Gooch’s men in England, hoping he would explain just why he played so well. “I was in very good nick,” he said simply. “I scored runs that entire tour.” Only once did he offer a comment on technique. Zaheer Abbas, he said, helped him with his batting at a low point in his career and helped turn him into an attacking player from the steady batsman he had been till then. His grip was wrong: his hand didn’t go far enough around the handle with the result that his right hand was coming off when he played onside shots. That adjustment, together with the hectic pace of one-day cricket, made him a dasher.

 

[CricAddict]

Not according to the results of the investigation.

Smith was largely punished for the post- match press conference where he implicated the leadership group by trying to take the heat off of Bancroft. He was obviously trying to protect Bancroft but underestimated the reaction by the public.

The investigation showed that he knew they were up to something and failed to stop it but not that he necessarily knew what they were up to.

Smith's crime was being loyal to people who didn't deserve it and not being in control of his team.

Darren Lehmann and the bowlers were proved innocent in the same investigation. So, who do you think Bancroft acted upon? All the blame is on Warner alone? I don't think so.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Darren Lehmann and the bowlers were proved innocent in the same investigation. So, who do you think Bancroft acted upon? All the blame is on Warner alone? I don't think so.

If you say so. Smith is still less of a ball tamperer than the man in your avi though.

 

[Starfighter]

Darren Lehmann and the bowlers were proved innocent in the same investigation. So, who do you think Bancroft acted upon? All the blame is on Warner alone? I don't think so.

No, you want to make the conspiracy seem bigger than it probably was so you can tar more players. That's all. No need to make out things there is little to no evidence for.

 

[Prince EWS]

Please stop talking about the Steve Smith ball tampering thing in this thread.

There are other threads here if you want to drag that debate up again; most people are probably sick to death of it though so it's unfair to subject them to it in random unrelated threads.

 

[Xuhaib]

another guy that could feature in this discussion is Salim Malik was smooth as silk but he is probably as big a **** as Azhar.

 

[Migara]

Salim Malik vs Azhar would be a perfect comparison