David Gower vs Graham Thorpe

[Johan]

Two English bats who pre dominantly played in the middle order, often played with weak batting and on spicy pitches at home and generally performed against good bowling. Gower being the stylist, one of the best timers of the ball ever and was considered one of the best in the world by Allan Border, Dennis Lillee, Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose and Joel Garner. While Thorpe was the fireman, most of the times he came to bat, the English was on flames and he often dug England out, played some genuinely outstanding knocks. The 123 at WACA, debut hundred against Warne, the 113* and 32* at Colombo, a 119* on a genuinely underprepared and dangerous Kensington oval pitch and so forth. Both average about 44. Both very much all condition players.

 

[Johan]

 

[subshakerz]

Close. I go with Thorpe. Didn't Gower have a rep for going soft a key moments?

Thorpe is really underrated.

Great against Warne and a key reason England won series in Pak and SL.

 

[Line and Length]

Close. I go with Thorpe. Didn't Gower have a rep for going soft a key moments?

Thorpe is really underrated.

Great against Warne and a key reason England won series in Pak and SL.

Not as I recall. He did, however, have a reputation of being too casual. This was probably based on his seemingly effortless stroke play.

 

[Johan]

Reckon it was his habit of going to fish off stump, a bit similar to Virat though not quite as severe. Certainly not a mentally brittle player or anything of that sort, but an underachiever compared to Gooch and Boycott, especially since I believe he was more talented than those two.

 

[capt_Luffy]

Reckon it was his habit of going to fish off stump, a bit similar to Virat though not quite as severe. Certainly not a mentally brittle player or anything of that sort, but an underachiever compared to Gooch and Boycott, especially since I believe he was more talented than those two.

Gower does seems to have a reputation of looking a million bucks and then throwing his wicket away.

 

[Johan]

Gower does seems to have a reputation of looking a million bucks and then throwing his wicket away.

Yeah, something Boycott would never do, and Gooch stopped doing.

 

[sayon basak]

Gower easily for me.

 

[sayon basak]

Close. I go with Thorpe. Didn't Gower have a rep for going soft a key moments?

Thorpe is really underrated.

Great against Warne and a key reason England won series in Pak and SL.

You can't be rating certain players for their peer rating and then rate Thorpe ahead of Gower.

 

[subshakerz]

You can't be rating certain players for their peer rating and then rate Thorpe ahead of Gower.

They aren't direct peers and neither has a clear peer consensus.

 

[capt_Luffy]

They aren't direct peers and neither has a clear peer consensus.

Gower definitely has. Lillee rated him 3rd Best he bowled to after Viv and Sobers (yeah, him not Barry).

 

[sayon basak]

They aren't direct peers and neither has a clear peer consensus.

This is just false.

 

[subshakerz]

This is just false.

Does Gower have a peer consensus as a top 5 bats of his era?

 

[subshakerz]

Gower definitely has. Lillee rated him 3rd Best he bowled to after Viv and Sobers (yeah, him not Barry).

Ok but Lillee is one guy.

 

[capt_Luffy]

Ok but Lillee is one guy.

Not only Lillee, his overall rating back then was really high.

 

[Coronis]

If we’re talking 80’s bats, and just from “opinion” like, if I’d never seen any stats for any player ever I’d think Gower was up there fighting for 5th with Greenidge and Crowe.

 

[Johan]

If we’re talking 80’s bats, and just from “opinion” like, if I’d never seen any stats for any player ever I’d think Gower was up there fighting for 5th with Greenidge.

why not competitive with Gordon

 

[Coronis]

why not competitive with Gordon

huh?

 

[sayon basak]

Gower is closer to Greenidge than to Thorpe.

 

[Johan]

huh?

shouldn't Gower and Greenidge be comparable on the account of both averaging 44 while Greenidge opening but Gower having to face the ATG WI often.