Why is bowling ranking relevant for Imran but not relevant for Wasim who you actually select but rate even lower than Imran?
If you think it's because Wasim is best with the old ball, then surely Imran is very close to him in that (I would argue more effective) and a better overall bowler, enough that Imrans much superior batting can overcome him.
So whichever way you look at it you are contradicting yourself.
Hey.
1. This isn't about selection for anything, this is about how I rank them overall.
2. I have Imran and Wasim in the same tier and I'm in the process of reevaluating Wasim again, because not only is his general peer rating high, everyone I ask rates him higher as well. Kimber the other day also said as much.
I've explained to you why Wasim is my selection. Yes he's higher rated with the old ball, but it goes beyond that.
1. Not only was Wasim better with the old ball utilizing reverse swing, he well above when it didn't.
2. Regardless of how you want to spin it, Imran wasn't as good away from home. He also heavily relied on reverse swing to be effective, and in an era where it's infinitely harder to prepare the ball, is he as effective.
3. He relied heavily on reverse swing to be effective, in an era where it is infinitely hard to prepare the ball, he's not quite as effective.
4. But the main reason as to why Wasim is my choice over Imran is (and it's similar to why Sachin is still my choice over Hammond, in that Hammond had his challenges with short pitches stuff), is that Wasim could move the ball both ways, old and new, reverse or conventional swing, he was immensely skilled.
Now with regards to the batting. For the millionth time, yes it is very important. No, it's not going to over ride my selection of the bowler who I believe to be more effective.
And I'll get into this a bit more later, the issue with lower order batting is that it's not reliable, and primarily based on taking advantage of favorable conditions, but in scenarios like this morning, it's very rare that your no. 8 shows in in tricky conditions and crucial situations.
And a tail of Wasim, Marshall and Warne behind Gilchrist is really damn good.
Now if Bumrah gets there, it's a bit more tricky, but let's see if he does first.