Mahela Jayawardene vs Kevin Pietersen

[PlayerComparisons]

Both averaged close to 50 and around 40 away. Mahela did play 50 more tests and score 4000 more runs though.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Also one is a top bloke, while the other...

 

[Adorable Asshole]

Mahela is a kind of guy you could be friends with, meanwhile KP...

 

[Athlai]

Feels like a close one here. Mahela a tad underrated because he's seen as a home track bully, while Pietersen always felt just a step behind the true greats in terms of output.

Weirdly when I hear the two together I kinda wish we got some innings of them batting together.

 

[ashley bach]

Tough matchup

 

[BazBall21]

Pietersen. Considerably less condition-dependent. Pietersen v Clarke/Amla is closer.

 

[PlayerComparisons]

Mahela is a kind of guy you could be friends with, meanwhile KP...

Good point

 

[TheJediBrah]

KP. Would have a beer with

 

[Coronis]

KP is more of an overrated ****, so Jayawardene.

 

[honestbharani]

MJ had the better career. But i enjoyed watching KP bat more. So voting KP.

 

[BazBall21]

Might be biased but think Gooch, Gower, Thorpe and Pietersen were all better than Mahela. Jayawardene was effectively a condition specialist. And across conditions, pace plays a bigger role in Tests than spin, so it’s worse (more limiting) to be a spin specialist than vice versa.

Having said that, I can see the argument that Mahela has a much better volume of work than KP and also agree with the sentiment that Mahela is certainly a better bloke.

 

[Migara]

MJ vs KP

Those two graphs looks like mirror images too.

 

[The Sean]

KP there also one of only two batsmen in Test history to achieve a rating of over 900 points without ever being ranked number 1.

 

[Everton Seymour]

Some people just look at the career average and say X is better , you can't do that ...For me KP was better , when Mahela encountered tracks with a bit of bounce ..All at sea ... And Sri Lanka was an absolute joy to bat if the opposition did not have a genius spinner to face in Mahela's era ..

 

[PlayerComparisons]

Might be biased but think Gooch, Gower, Thorpe and Pietersen were all better than Mahela.

do you think mark waugh was better as well?

 

[BazBall21]

do you think mark waugh was better as well?

No.

 

[Migara]

Gooch - No



Gower - Similar



KP - Similar

 

[Migara]

And finally, Shewag

 

[BazBall21]

Average against better than median attacks overseas:
Thorpe 44.5
Gower 39.9
Mahela 26.8

 

[BazBall21]

Gooch and KP, pretty bad but still have the dignity of averaging above 30 (33.6 and 31.8 respectively)