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Kapil, Vaas, or Streak? (Best bowler)

Best bowler: Kapil, Chaminda, or Heath?


  • Total voters
    50

Migara

Cricketer Of The Year
Kapil was way better than the other two IMO, he could win games with the ball. If we are just digging up numbers, keep in mind that Kapil played at least 20-30 tests longer than he should have due to India's lack of bowling options(and also because Kapil wanted to play forever?‍♂). His numbers got really affected for carrying on for too long.
Debatable. I would say he was hell bent on chasing Hadlee's record. Srinath was in fringes since 1991, who was rapid and could have formed an attack with Manoj Prabhakar.
 

h_hurricane

International Vice-Captain
Prabhakar averaged a poor 37 in tests. No way he was a better bowler than even a declining Kapil. Though, I remember Prabhakar bowling reasonably well in 1991-92 in Australia, being the second best Indian bowler behind Kapil.

He also opened for a good period of time in the home season from 1993 onwards. May be, it was Kapil who should have opened the batting with Sidhu in those conditions, dropping Manoj and including Srinath.

India did not use Kapil Dev to the best possible extent in his twilight years. He was languishing in the bottom order, rarely getting a hit, and only bowling like 8-12 overs in an innings on most occasions.
 

Migara

Cricketer Of The Year
Prabhakar averaged a poor 37 in tests. No way he was a better bowler than even a declining Kapil. Though, I remember Prabhakar bowling reasonably well in 1991-92 in Australia, being the second best Indian bowler behind Kapil.

He also opened for a good period of time in the home season from 1993 onwards. May be, it was Kapil who should have opened the batting with Sidhu in those conditions, dropping Manoj and including Srinath.

India did not use Kapil Dev to the best possible extent in his twilight years. He was languishing in the bottom order, rarely getting a hit, and only bowling like 8-12 overs in an innings on most occasions.
Exactly this was the problem. Kapil was aging by 92-94 period, and was just brisk medium at this stage. He averaged 28ish, but those wickets came at a SR of 81 a piece (49 wickets). He could not bowl ultra long spells too. He bowled 19 test matches for only 49 wickets, less than three wickets a match.

In the same period Prabhakar averages 31 at 71 (53 wickets), Srinath averaged 37 @82, but he took three wickets per match even during his formative years.

So, no. Kapil should have never been used as a front line bowler in above years. Top order batter, definitely yes. Third seamer, on SC, definietly.
 

Johan

U19 12th Man
Kapil's overall record in England and SA hardly gives any context.
He went in Eng first time in 1979 as a greenhorn, barely 20. He lead a non existent attack, did fairly well(19 wickets @ 30).
He had a fantastic trip in 1982,was the best batsman in the team and averaged 74 with the bat(though we are talking about his bowling here). Also took a 8-wicket haul in Lords.
He lead the team to a series victory in 1986 and was the man of the match in 1st test.
In 1990, he was poor with the ball, but shone with the bat again, averaging 55 with the bat.

In SA, he only toured in 1992 at the end of his career. Was largely meh with the ball, but was the highest run scorer from the visiting team.

Pakistan and NZ are the 2 countries which were holes in his record and it is fair to hold it against him.
even in Pakistan , you can say the pitches that were prepared were literal bowling hell.

in 78 series where he is pretty much a debutant , a grand total of 80 wickets fell for 3892 runs , a 48 wicket gap between each , which is bonkers, combining with him being a literal debutant , the series is just a horrible thrashing for India and Dev , chandrasekhar averaged 48 and Bedi 74 , Imran was at 31 , funnily Chandra was the fourth best bowler and his average is 48 , third best is at 39.

in 82 series , there were 6 matches and
collective 133 wickets fell for 5775 runs , a 43.4 runs gap each , still high as hell but Kapil did well here , he bowled 40 over in one match and took 7/220 carrying the entire bowling lineup , and a 8/85 where he bamboozled Pakistan , He was the second best bowler after imran here , no one here except immy averaged below 32 btw so another display of these wickets.

84 series is just...bad? 2 matches played , both draws because of how ridiculous the wickets were , 2000+ runs in two games and only 41 wickets fell , 52 runs between each wicket and Kapil for some reason only bowled 35 overs

89 series is also pretty bat dominate Ball as a series but in same vein as 82 series , Kapil was the four highest wicket taker here next , here Wasim bowled 204.4 overs , took 18 wickets at 30.61 , Manoj Prabhakar bowled 181.2 overs and took 16 wickets at 33.88 , Imran bowled 185.3 overs and took 13 wickets at 38.77 and Kapil bowled 168.4 overs , took 12 wickets at 31.50 , Abdul Qadir bowled 109 overs , took 6 wickets at 57.6.

Kapil and wasim were top 2 in average ( 31.5 and 30.6 lol ) followed by Prabhakar and Imran ( 33.88 and 38.77 lol ) , waqar was there but bowled too less ( averaged 38.5 if wondering).

all in all , perfectly explain Lillee's stats there , PCB probably pulled the same bull**** with Liller , literally no stand out bowler only performance except 82 Imran
 

shortpitched713

International Captain
Great comparison here. All 3 are guns, doing similar things for their sides. I think of the 3 Streak has to be eliminated. His lack of Tests were due to both career being curtailed, and Zimbawe not being able to schedule as many as other countries, both out of his control but for mine having half the tests of Dev and a little over half of Vaas puts him out.

Between Vaas and Dev, I have to say their careers are remarkably similar. Of the two I only saw Vaas, and he only had a good new ball partner in Malinga at the very end of his career. I will say that he seemed very consistent to me, in a variety of conditions where the other seamers would fail, which it seems like Dev didn't have.

However, I think Dev is slightly underrated as a bowler ( compared to his merits as an all-rounder ) at his peak. In the early 80s, he was having some truly destructive performances against anyone (especially Pakistan), and I think his ability to "go off" on a side at this time was better than anything Vaas ever showed.

I couldn't possibly split hairs between them, but as Vaas is being massively beaten in this poll by Dev ( see my country tier list for reasoning therein ) I of course will choose him.
 
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shortpitched713

International Captain
65 tests is now a cut off point for small sample size… good to know.
It's not. As I said we're splitting hairs between 3 great players. However, longevity matters, and especially for a seam bowler the fact that you did it for 10 or 12 years over 8 years or in the case of Jimmy Anderson 20 years instead of 8 only helps. For all we know, if Streak bowled a few more years he might have struggled and seen his average rise (it could have decreased as well, but less likely), and his lower aggregate average is probably one of the bigger arguments for him, over Vaas and Dev.

The way I see it, it's not really a cut-off, it's more of a spectrum, and the longer you play at a high level, the better it makes your case as an all-time great player.
 

Coronis

Cricketer Of The Year
It's not. As I said we're splitting hairs between 3 great players. However, longevity matters, and especially for a seam bowler the fact that you did it for 10 or 12 years over 8 years or in the case of Jimmy Anderson 20 years instead of 8 only helps. For all we know, if Streak bowled a few more years he might have struggled and seen his average rise (it could have decreased as well, but less likely), and his lower aggregate average is probably one of the bigger arguments for him, over Vaas and Dev.

The way I see it, it's not really a cut-off, it's more of a spectrum, and the longer you play at a high level, the better it makes your case as an all-time great player.
And Streak played 12 years compared to Vaas with 15 and Kapil with 16, discounting him out of hand like that is ridiculous.
 

Coronis

Cricketer Of The Year
Eh I have no problem with anyone ranking these three in any order (honestly I haven’t even thought about it), but completely excluding a world class pace bowler for longevity reasons who played 12 years and 65 tests for a nation which played much fewer tests than the others over his career just seems stupid to me. A difference of 3-4 years in career length btw seems pretty meaningless to me unless we’re actually discussing players who only played for a few years. But eh whatever.

This **** about to get spicy, (me thinks) ?
Meh probably not, I’ve said what I wanted on the subject, unless there’s another opinion I really disagree with I cbf to post anymore on it. (You never know though)
 

Flem274*

123/5
Great comparison here. All 3 are guns, doing similar things for their sides. I think of the 3 Streak has to be eliminated. His lack of Tests were due to both career being curtailed, and Zimbawe not being able to schedule as many as other countries, both out of his control but for mine having half the tests of Dev and a little over half of Vaas puts him out.

Between Vaas and Dev, I have to say their careers are remarkably similar. Of the two I only saw Vaas, and he only had a good new ball partner in Malinga at the very end of his career. I will say that he seemed very consistent to me, in a variety of conditions where the other seamers would fail, which it seems like Dev didn't have.

However, I think Dev is slightly underrated as a bowler ( compared to his merits as an all-rounder ) at his peak. In the early 80s, he was having some truly destructive performances against anyone (especially Pakistan), and I think his ability to "go off" on a side at this time was better than anything Vaas ever showed.

I couldn't possibly split hairs between them, but as Vaas is being massively beaten in this poll by Dev ( see my country tier list for reasoning therein ) I of course will choose him.
can't agree with your rationale for eliminating streak. if we do things this way then we might as well lock in england as the cricketing goat with aus and india fighting for second.

longevity in years i have a lot of time for, but in this case holding streak's basket case country against him seems very on the nose.

i think streak did start falling off in the 00s, so you could knock him there for sure.

i think im leaning towards kapil these days because of his having no support. i saw chaminda vaas play and loved his work as well. to succeed as a fast bowler as a sri lankan is a rare achievement. the odds are against you.
 

TheJediBrah

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Streak could have been anything playing for someone like England with regular cricket and a more supportive environment. Could have pushed for ATG status
 

subshakerz

International Coach
Kapil easily over the others.

Kapil is his peak phase was taking 4 wickets a test easily.

Kapil has a 9-fer, 2 8-fers and 2 7-fers in his career, meaning he was more capable of destruction.

Kapil was very good in WI and Australia and has multiple great series against an all-time great WI.
 

Migara

Cricketer Of The Year
I think Vaas is well rated as a fast bowler in tests. Obviously there is about 8 - 10 blokes ahead of him in Asian block as test seamers (Imran, Wasim, Waqar, Asif, Shoaib, Safraz, Kapil and Bumrah on top of my head). But where Vaas' greatness is in ODI cricket. He is only second to Wasim in ODIs. Bumrah may go pass him in the future, but meh, a medium fast seamer getting amongst top 10 ODI bowlers is crazy.
 

Fuller Pilch

Hall of Fame Member
a medium fast seamer getting amongst top 10 ODI bowlers is crazy.
Not really. Did you see McGrath in the 2007 World Cup? Don't worry if you didn't because many of the world's top batters didn't either.
Also Shaun Pollock was also a pretty handy ODI medium fast seamer.
 

Migara

Cricketer Of The Year
Not really. Did you see McGrath in the 2007 World Cup? Don't worry if you didn't because many of the world's top batters didn't either.
Also Shaun Pollock was also a pretty handy ODI medium fast seamer.
McGrath and Pollock had a phase they were fast / brisk fast medium. Vaas all his career was just faster than Gavin Larseb.
 

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