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Hashim Amla- the most misleading odi stats ever

trundler

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An XI solely made of WKs and all rounders:

Jayasuriya
Gilchrist
Watson
Richards - you'll be surprised at how many overs he bowled. A perfectly decent 6th bowling option.
Symonds
Dhoni
Klusener
Dev
Pollock
Hadlee
Hogg
 

Bolo

State Captain
Klusenar is the only guy who challenge watson in quality in both departments at the same time. Both impacted by injuries and responded in such different ways that bowling is tricky to compare. Klusenar probably Goat lower order bat, and Watto clearly not goat opener. An opener is a whole lot more valuable than a lower order though, and i dont see room for both.
 

Burgey

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Yeah Ponting's fielding, specifically his ability to create run out opportunities at a ridiculously consistent rate, should be a real factor in his favour
I’d commend the highlights of the 1975 WC final to you.
 

stephen

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Watson's role is different though. He's a batting all rounder, and only Kallis and Symonds from your list perform a similar role to Watson's. Watson is significantly better than both of them, atleast imo.
Watson is nowhere near as good as Symonds with the bat. Symonds was nowhere near as good as Watson with the ball.

Symonds is one of the few batsmen who have made their name batting 5 or below in ODI cricket. Nearly ever other batsman who averages around 40 does so batting 1-4. Notable exceptions basically include Hussey and Bevan. Even Dhoni scored most of his runs batting 4.

Watson's biggest challenge in cracking an all time side is the role he excelled at - opening. There are so many other players who were as good or better openers. The second string to Watson's bow helps him a lot there, especially for a side that needs a 5th bowler. Especially in seam friendly conditions.

I easily rate Mark Waugh, Hayden and Gilchrist ahead of him as Australian openers, purely on batting skills alone.
 

TheJediBrah

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List of right arm seam allrounders off the top of my head I'd consider comparable to or greater than Watto:

Imran, kapil, kallis, klusener, pollock, flintoff, symonds(kinda).

I might fit one of these guys into my team.
The only one of those that has a similar role to Watson is Kallis and Watson is much better

Watson is nowhere near as good as Symonds with the bat. Symonds was nowhere near as good as Watson with the ball.
I don't think that's accurate
 

smash84

The Tiger King
True. Let me rephrase as there are way more than 10 players in history I regard as clearly greater than him
haha, i understand where you're coming from. I have thought of the same.

There are some reasons though. Watson spent a fair bit of time in a very good AUS side. Then he also flew under the radar because he was unfit a lot of times. Third, while there are probably better all rounders than him going around but it is extremely rare to find a good quality fast bowling all rounder who would open the batting. As it is, it is hard to find good openers let alone those who can bowl quick at a good average. Hence he is a very good choice because of his role as an opener.
 

stephen

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
haha, i understand where you're coming from. I have thought of the same.

There are some reasons though. Watson spent a fair bit of time in a very good AUS side. Then he also flew under the radar because he was unfit a lot of times. Third, while there are probably better all rounders than him going around but it is extremely rare to find a good quality fast bowling all rounder who would open the batting. As it is, it is hard to find good openers let alone those who can bowl quick at a good average. Hence he is a very good choice because of his role as an opener.
Also he only opened in 96 ODIs and peaked in the world cup that Australia didn't win. He played a lot of his innings overseas so he didn't quite capture the public's imagination the same way other players like Waugh or Hayden did.
 

Bolo

State Captain
haha, i understand where you're coming from. I have thought of the same.

There are some reasons though. Watson spent a fair bit of time in a very good AUS side. Then he also flew under the radar because he was unfit a lot of times. Third, while there are probably better all rounders than him going around but it is extremely rare to find a good quality fast bowling all rounder who would open the batting. As it is, it is hard to find good openers let alone those who can bowl quick at a good average. Hence he is a very good choice because of his role as an opener.
I reckon injuries stood in the way of watson having a great career more than distracted from him having one. Arguably a less great careeer than kallis on the basis of output alone despite watson being an order of magnitude better.

Dont really mind that hes a fast bowler. Just that he was a good one. Part timers (even solid ones like symonds) would get some serious stick from a comparable team.

But ya, im picking him mostly because hes an opener. Hes not nearly as good a bat as a number of middle order guys, but you could make a case for him being at least close to the 2nd best opener. He would be a murder beast if he was playing today
 

Burner

International Regular
Gilchrisr has to be the mist over rated ODI bat ever imo. Goat WK bat in tests but in ODIs plenty of opening batsmen are better than him. Dhoni vs Gilchrist is an apple vs oranges comparison but even still I fail to see how anyone could argue Gilchrist > Dhoni when Dhoni is perhaps the greatest at his position and Gilchrist top 5 at best in his position.
 

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