Making like Lazarus

[BoyBrumby]

Apropos of Mitchell Johnson's transformation from *****-whipped, bi-hemispheric joke to steely eyed, cannon-armed destroyer of all hopes English.

Have their ever been any other startling comebacks from similar troughs of form or depths of injury despair? Such were Johnson's woes that, it's not too fanciful to suggest that were Messrs Starc, Cummins or Pattinson fit he'd have been nowhere near the XI. Missed out on the squad altogether for the summer tour, after all.

 

[Hurricane]

I think Johnson's been the goods as far as this thread goes.

People who don't quite qualify as lazarus since they weren't lampooned but who have still made a comeback include Michael Clarke after being dropped. Crowe was dropped early doors. Fulton has not been stunning on recall but he was written off when last dropped. Sehwag was a bit in and out at times.

 

[uvelocity]

hilf during spikeys golden summer of taste 2012

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Gooch would be a reasonable example. Had a chance in the 70s, didn't go particularly well. Banned for taking the Rand in the 80s and then became one of the best batsmen in the world in the late 80s.

 

[morgieb]

Perhaps the premier example of this would be uvo's avatar.

 

[fredfertang]

After his "achievements" in 1930 I don't suppose yer crims were expecting much trouble from Harold Larwood in 32/33

 

[uvelocity]

Perhaps the premier example of this would be uvo's avatar.

which is nearly safe for a while.

 

[Spikey]

hilf during spikeys golden summer of taste 2012

was just an indian summer. didn't sustain it.

 

[benchmark00]

Johnson the biggest one I can remember, but in terms of sustained form peak coming out of the blue, Brett Lee had a year or two where he went from pretty decent to ATG level for that period of time. Then injury killed him again. But Lee never got to the depths that Johnson got to.

 

[Spikey]

I think Katich is a good shout. sustained his comeback for a large enough period imo

 

[Pothas]

Mark Butcher came back pretty well, far more like him and Katich than Johnson though.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Marlon Samuels has done brilliantly in his 2nd go in comparison to before.

 

[Daemon]

Tendulkar

 

[OverratedSanity]

Dravid in England 2011. Had been pretty poor for a solid 2-3 years bashing only the weakest attacks but then got into form scoring a great hundred in West Indies in 2011. Still didn't expect him to do as well as he did, though.... All 3 hundreds were sensational and came with virtually zero support against Anderson, Broad, Bresnan all at their peaks. Best series performance by an Indian ever, and came at a time when I'd written him off almost completely

 

[Daemon]

Yeah great shout.

He wasn't poor for the three years before that imo, though I agree he was scoring all his runs against poor attacks.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Yeah great shout.

He wasn't poor for the three years before that imo, though I agree he was scoring all his runs against poor attacks.

His trough began all the way back in India's tour of south Africa in 2006 I think and lasted upto the next tour in 2010... For a good 4 years he generally got big hundreds against teams like New Zealand to prop up his average. Made it all the more amazing that he suddenly came up with that performance.

It's imo the prime example of that old cliché "Form is temporary, Class is permanent" . Whether those years of mediocrity were worth it is another debate but few except the ATGs can produce performances like those. WAG!

 

[BoyBrumby]

Gooch would be a reasonable example. Had a chance in the 70s, didn't go particularly well. Banned for taking the Rand in the 80s and then became one of the best batsmen in the world in the late 80s.

Goochie's own bete noir, TM Alderman, might be another worthy of mentioning. Burst onto the scene in 1981, then spent a long time out firstly because of his inability to tackle pitch invaders properly then for taking part in a rebel tour to SA, only to return to do all kinds of horrible things to the England's opener's mind on the 1989 tour.

 

[wpdavid]

Australians might have viewed Anderson in 2010-11 in a similar light given what they'd seen of him previously.

Another one might be Vaughan's golden year in 2002-03 after pottering around relatively ineffectually before then.

 

[Prince EWS]

Dale Steyn wasn't great in his fit iteration and spent a bit of time out of the side, but to be fair I think most good judges expected him to come back later a better bowler when he was dropped. James Anderson was in and out of the side for years before coming good, although I don't think many ever completely gave up on the guy. EDIT: Ahh, beaten on that one.

Ryan Sidebottom is perhaps a better example. Played a Test in 2001, went wicketless and then became stereotyped as a county trundler for the next 6 years before getitng a shock recall in 2007 and building himself a pretty decent Test record over the next three years.

 

[nightprowler10]

Asif is a good shout I reckon. Came on to the scene against Australia in 2005, did **** all so was dropped. Did well against England in a tour match (10-fer IIRC) and still wasn't favored over the likes of Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Sami. Was eventually given a shot in the 2nd Test against India in Faisalabad in 2006 where the pitch was only slightly better than the road we saw in Lahore for the 1st Test, and did **** all again while bowling well. It wasn't until the 3rd Test in Karachi where he shone and took 7 wickets in a rout. He was a mainstay in the team since then and only missed Tests through injuries or bans.