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Martin Crowe vs Virender Sehwag

Who was the better test batsman?


  • Total voters
    29

Coronis

Cricketer Of The Year
Crowe’s tours on turning tracks didn’t come at convenient times.
First one he was very young and got ill.
Second one he could have done better but there were concerns about getting shot dead in the NZ camp due to extreme political tension in Sri Lanka at the time (there had been a terrorist attack I think just before the first Test) which Crowe as Captain had to deal with and that was around the time when his knee injury became a serious problem and he still made a good century.
Third one was his last ever Test series when injury effectively ruined him.

Similar can be said for the South Africa tour. Went there when his knee had given up on him.

I get that to some extent you can only judge on output, but having watched a lot of footage of him bat and isolating his 1985-1994 numbers, he is clearly better than his final record.
If you isolate Sehwag’s 9 year peak he averages something like 55 iirc.
 

subshakerz

International Coach
Sehwag's huge innings are going to be so much more celebrated in the future than they are now. The guy's three 290+ scores were against Steyn/Morkel/Ntini, Akhtar/Saqlain and Murali/Herath. Two of them in wins where his crazy pace of scoring was crucial.
Yes, the runs are not as impressive as the rate of scoring over the length of a long innings. He was the first to start that trend.
 

_00_deathscar

International Debutant
Obviously that is his own timeline.

My point is averaging 56 for a peak is not the most outstanding thing in the 2000s. Others would be averaging in the 60s in their peaks. Sehwag's SR is what is exceptional.
Ok, which openers? Hayden probably did I’m guessing.
 

anil1405

International Captain
Sehwag was an opener though, and he had an ~80 test period where he averaged 56+ at a ridiculous SR.
Very few openers averaged more than Sehwag did in the 21st century and coupled that with his s/r (which is the highest ever among tests for a proper batsman) says a lot about how destructive he was. Surprised that Hayden's s/r is wayyyy lower.

As @OverratedSanity pointed out, a unique player indeed.
 

Coronis

Cricketer Of The Year
Obviously that is his own timeline.

My point is averaging 56 for a peak is not the most outstanding thing in the 2000s. Others would be averaging in the 60s in their peaks. Sehwag's SR is what is exceptional.
Eh its not really impressive in any era.

Anyway not really a fan of rating players based only on their peaks.
 

BazBall21

International Regular
Crowe started very young and was on one leg by the end. It’s less about his peak and more about how prolific he was for the majority of his career without the mitigating circumstances. Poor batting support too. Not saying he’s the only player who had an adverse career.
 

anil1405

International Captain
Eh its not really impressive in any era.

Anyway not really a fan of rating players based only on their peaks.
So many factors go into rating players, people just hand pick certain criteria based on their convenience.
 

BazBall21

International Regular
Away record seems to take priority over runs against quality bowling/attacks on here. Eye test isn’t mentioned much too. But Sehwag is ironically very highly regarded on here and he’s an example of a player with a rusty alien conditions record but some beast mode hundreds against class bowlers.
 

Coronis

Cricketer Of The Year
An opener averaging 57+ isn’t impressive in any era?
I’d love to know how many openers have done that over 50+ tests

Hayden looks like one, and he just breached 60
That wasn’t specifically what I was referring to, I was just talking about peaks in general.
 

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