Mark Butcher vs Johnny Bairstow

[Flem274*]

England would love an adequate #3 right now, and Butcher obv had some ability to score some of the runs he did. He'd make the current side for sure.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Handy little outswing bowler too

remember him taking 4/40 against a very strong Aus lineup (edit: mostly cleaned up a slogging tail but still)

 

[mr_mister]

English mediocrity spam XI

Mark Butcher
Trevor Bailey
Nasser Hussein
Mike Gatting
Paul Collingwood
Johnny Bairstow
Moeen Ali
Ashley Giles
Phil DeFreitas
Matthew Hoggard
Devon Malcolm

They'll have you believe all of these blokes were just unlucky to play a million tests while never making an impression but don't fall for the English media spam.

Shout-out to a million bits and pieces straight breakers like Emburey, Panesar and Tufnell who just missed out. Oh and Michael Atherton is not undersold by his stats, he was mediocrity personified too.

Atherton averaged 42 after 70 tests, he was always one of England's top 2/3 bats 'til the '97 ashes. Not really mediocre IMO

Three shocking ashes series against McWarne + Dizzy/Pistol/Fleming (97, 98/99 and 01) really dented his stats

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Correct me if I'm wrong, was Mark Butcher the one with the Hooper-Aravinda-Tillekaratne helmet?

 

[mr_mister]

think you're thinking of Robin Smith

 

[_00_deathscar]

Harsh to have some of players @trundler has in there - they were decent to good test bats playing regularly vs top level bowlers.

Hicks and the like should be in the team.

 

[Burgey]

They were the standard helmets for so damn long. When the visors were perspex they used to distort your vision pretty badly if they moved around on your melon. Lot of people just wore the ear pieces. TOTAB was one of them.

And yeah, I think that was Robin Smith. Butcher certainly wore a face grill on his helmet when he made that big ton to win England the fourth Ashes test in 2001.

 

[Starfighter]

Correct me if I'm wrong, was Mark Butcher the one with the Hooper-Aravinda-Tillekaratne helmet?

Jimmy Adams helmet you mean? Yes others wore them, but he kept wearing them when everyone else had gone for a grill.

 

[honestbharani]

Correct me if I'm wrong, was Mark Butcher the one with the Hooper-Aravinda-Tillekaratne helmet?

I remember 8 year old me was adamant that the visor less helmet should NOT be worn by anyone who does not have a moustache. Hated the SL players who did that..

 

[Flem274*]

I was watching some 80s stuff and Aus had a left arm spinner whose name temporarily escapes me who batted with no grill and sunglasses on. I thought it was ballsy from a #7 to the West Indies. I respect it.

 

[Starfighter]

I was watching some 80s stuff and Aus had a left arm spinner whose name temporarily escapes me who batted with no grill and sunglasses on. I thought it was ballsy from a #7 to the West Indies. I respect it.

Murray Bennett. Bowled a decent arm ball he did.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Maybe this is me armchair judging and I don't know what his stock ball looks like but that's got to be one of the easiest to pick arm-balls I've ever seen. Reckon Viv was half asleep there

 

[Burgey]

I think he was undone by some pretty substantial drift there. Bennett was a moderate upgrade on Jadeja, except he turned it.

 

[Pothas]

Butcher had a very decent second half of his career, averaged around 40 once he came back in 2001. Definitely a Test standard bat longer than Bairstow has been but then Bairstow should have spent his whole career as a keeper.

 

[trundler]

Collingwood was a troll and was intentionally throwing shade on Hoggard who had a season and a half of being good. Forgot about Hicks and Ramps somehow though.

 

[Pothas]

Atherton averaged 42 after 70 tests, he was always one of England's top 2/3 bats 'til the '97 ashes. Not really mediocre IMO

Three shocking ashes series against McWarne + Dizzy/Pistol/Fleming (97, 98/99 and 01) really dented his stats

He averaged 46 against teams not called Australia or West Indies but he played more than half his Tests against them. Don't know if that actually changes how he should be rated as his record against them was obviously pretty terrible but still.

 

[Pothas]

Collingwood was a troll and was intentionally throwing shade on Hoggard who had a season and a half of being good.

Is that not Harmison?

 

[trundler]

Which one kept bowling wides

Edit: yep, that's it

 

[GIMH]

Haha yeah Harmison would make much more sense.

 

[Teja.]

Does Ramprakash have the worst returns to show for a specialist batsman who was given 50+ tests?