Prodigies who came good and the waste men

[Malcolm]

Mohammad Ashraful.

 

[Shri]

Sami was really talented and his test average is an insult

Sending down gun barrel straight balls at a length too full at 150 kmph is definitely a skill, not just a very good one at the top level.

Or bowling really fast bouncers at pace but losing your line going for the third one on the trot then being square cut for 4. Remember him staring Sehwag down after one good delivery in the midst of a load of crap and then promptly being hit for 4. Lot of huffs and puffs but the only thing he had was pace at least in the international level.

 

[Bahnz]

kane has been the second most hyped as a kid nz player of my life time to....tim southee

bowlers have it tough in these imo. if you're remarkably tall and quick for your age you risk being thrown in early. definitely the case with southee who, a few performances aside, was no where near ready for test cricket at 19. his opening partner in under 19s showed promise but clearly wasn't that quick yet and was left to do his own thing for a few years, and then that guy called trent boult surpassed him.

other mass hypes include adam milne, richard sherlock, hamish bennett, ross taylor, jesse ryder, brendon mccullum, craig mcmillan and lou vincent.

strangely shane bond came in with little fanfare. nz just heard he'd put on pace since being with the nz police and picked him during a time of 'well ****, nash is injured, cairns will probably be injured next week and we're currently looking at very green chris martin and daryl tuffey. why not add another?'

haha, I remember rolling my eyes so hard at everyone telling me that KW was going to be teh greatest. After Andre Adams made him look like a number 11 on first class debut, I was quite sure we were looking at another Marshall-class international dunce. Had to re-evaluate when he started averaging 50+ as an 18 year old a year later.

Corey Anderson also had quite a bit of hype about him, both for his power and for making his FC debut as a bowler at 16.

 

[GoodAreasShane]

04/05 was his out of the box year. Though the "most Shield wickets in decades" is wrong as Colin Miller topped it less than 10 years prior.

But yeah, definite wasteman. Just couldn't stay fit with that action.

Absolutely. 04/05 was the peak for Sloon with the red ball. Thereafter he occasionally had a great spell for the Redbacks but usually he could only really bowl about 5 overs at full speed before he was gassed

 

[Kirkut]

Was that bowler Shaun Tait? Because it would be understandable.

Edit. Btw for the purposes of this thread: Shaun Tait. Next Thommo that failed to take off.

No it was the 90s, when our side toured in 1999. The bowler was chubbyish like Mike Procter but could get Laxman beaten for pace!

 

[TheJediBrah]

No it was the 90s, when our side toured in 1999. The bowler was chubbyish like Mike Procter but could get Laxman beaten for pace!

Checked the scorecard, it was Paul Wilson. Brett Lee was the other opening bowler (this was before his debut for Aus).

 

[Kirkut]

Bumrah came out of nowhere. Took everyone by surprise in the IPL and a couple of years later was one of the best quicks in the world

Meanwhile Ishant, despite all his progress, has failed to live up to all the hype and fanfair built around a couple of good spells as a 19YO

Irfan Pathan was a sad case. IIRC he lost his swing after the coaching staff meddled with his action to make him lest injury prone. Around the Greg Chappel days I think.

Piyush Chawla another prodigy that never really materialised. Does have a WC medal tho, so he did alright.

Bumrah could be our first legit ATG pace bowler. Kapil Dev is rated great but never had the pace.

I think Pathan should be satisfied with his career. A hat trick in first over of test at Karachi, and he's achieved inner peace.

 

[MrPrez]

JP Duminy.

Debuted at around 17 or 18, averaged 72-ish in FC games in the season he turned 20.

Had a good ODI career but never came close to fulfilling his potential in the longer format.

 

[nightprowler10]

Shabbir Ahmed looked like Asif before Asif. Then his action was reported and I guess he was never able to fix it and still be good.

 

[trundler]

JP Duminy.

Debuted at around 17 or 18, averaged 72-ish in FC games in the season he turned 20.

Had a good ODI career but never came close to fulfilling his potential in the longer format.

SA have one of the toughest FC comps too. True waste. Good spot.

 

[trundler]

Shabbir Ahmed looked like Asif before Asif. Then his action was reported and I guess he was never able to fix it and still be good.

There's a whole bunch of fast bowlers that had one or 2 good series for us then fell away. Umar Gul was very good for a while too.

 

[cnerd123]

Umar Gul had a good solid career. Was the world's best T20 bowler for a few years. 130 ODI with an average of 29.34 and econ 5.19 pretty good too for a bowler whose main role was to bowl at the end of the innings.

 

[Jezroy]

I’m surprised there isn’t more Jesse Ryder mentions in here. What a waste of talent sadly.

 

[nightprowler10]

There's a whole bunch of fast bowlers that had one or 2 good series for us then fell away. Umar Gul was very good for a while too.

Now there's a guy who came back from injury mediocre but still had to carry the bowling load because our two best bowlers were incredibly injury prone and/or drama queens. What a force we would've been in the mid-2000s if Shoaib and Asif were healthier and not pricks (ignoring our fragile opening randoms).

EDIT: Speaking of Tests here. As ***** mentioned Umar Gul did good in LO.

 

[nightprowler10]

Umar Gul had a good solid career. Was the world's best T20 bowler for a few years. 130 ODI with an average of 29.34 and econ 5.19 pretty good too for a bowler whose main role was to bowl at the end of the innings.

Yes, he was incredible in T20s when they first became mainstream. Deadly yorkers galore.

 

[trundler]

Yeah, that is my lasting impression of him. Was the first to master T20 bowling, before Malinga and the West Indian franchise whores.

NP10 mentioned the flaky openers we had back then. Nasir Jamshed could've been a lot more than what he became. True waste man.

 

[vcs]

That other aggressive fat opener who had contact with bookies was also good. Forget his name.

EDIT : Sharjeel Khan

I can't remember Jamshed doing much apart from his scores against India and then becoming a meme in the 2015 World Cup for dropping catches and being ****. And oh, his parody Twitter account used to be hilarious.

 

[sledger]

Hasan Raza. So much hype. But so weak.

 

[StephenZA]

Biggest prodigy I know that was picked early was Kallis... think he was spotted at 13 or something. I think it was similar for ABdV, maybe not quite so young.

As has already mentioned Duminy is probably the biggest waste-man in SA history. Followed by Parnell.

 

[trundler]

That other aggressive fat opener who had contact with bookies was also good. Forget his name.

EDIT : Sharjeel Khan

I can't remember Jamshed doing much apart from his scores against India and then becoming a meme in the 2015 World Cup for dropping catches and being ****. And oh, his parody Twitter account used to be hilarious.

That's all he did but boy, he looked so good when he bashed India. Sharjeel was also solid. Every other opener Pakistan has had in the last 10 years has been a hack, except for Imam and Azhar Ali. Dunno why they specifically picked him for that parody account but it was great.