No hopers who made it

[Bahnz]

Thought I'd make this thread as an antidote to the "Young players who never lived up to their potential" thread.

I was also prompted by Temba Bavuma - who spent years struggling to keep his average above the 30 mark. He was so mediocre for so long that I completely missed the fact that he's been averaging 50+ for 5 years.

From an NZ perspective, John Wright is another one.

 

[Prince EWS]

Ishant Sharma weirdly fits both threads.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Khawaja

 

[Starfighter]

Ryan Harris

 

[kevinw]

For around the first quarter of his test career Broad averages around 33-34 with the ball.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Jimmy Anderson tbh

 

[ataraxia]

Thirimanne. I choose that to believe that his whole test career was SL playing the long game to give him the experience to perform for 7 tests in 2021 (before promptly dropping him).

 

[kevinw]

Marvin Atapattu didn't have the best start to his test career.

Mark Butcher averaged 34.68 overall but 41+ from the Summer of 2021 to 2024.

 

[honestbharani]

I dont think anyone thought SehWAG would go as well in tests as he did, especially as an opener.

I never had any hope for Ashwin as a test match bowler and he has retired an ATG test bowler. I didn't have much hope on MSD the test player or captain but he was immensely successful as both before tapering off towards the end. I never had Bumrah as a good test match bowler, and he has obviously gone on to be a great one. So while I have been predicting good things for many players who have gone to be good or even better, I still think my overall SR in CW when it comes to this predictions is a lot more miss than hit.

 

[Chubb]

Jimmy Anderson tbh

Yeah if you dig back into Cricketweb history there will be a lot of posts writing him off around 2005-6.

 

[MartinB]

Steve Waugh, David Boon, Merv Hughes Allan Davison, Richie Benaud all had ordinary starts the there careers.

Also Ian Redpath started as a dashing middle order batsman average high 30's in the 70's he average 50+ as patient accumulator opener/middle order batsmen. In 1975/76 against the West Indies he scored 3 slow centuries as an opener against Roberts/Holding

 

[Coronis]

Ryan Harris

 

[the big bambino]

Merv Hughes.

 

[honestbharani]

Yeah if you dig back into Cricketweb history there will be a lot of posts writing him off around 2005-6.

I am glad this seems to have been my first post on CW about Clouderson.

The point is in the last 10 years or so, Fleming's bat has got flowing only 4 or 5 times and one of those happened against SA led by Pollock. No, I am not saying he is a bad captain, but I thought he could have done better in that particular match. If I remember right, 12 out of 17 boundaries of Flem came off half volleys or short ones on the leg stump and it is the world's worst kept secret that the guy loves playing on the onside.


On the topic, I think Goughie should be given a go against Zim just to see if he still has it in him and if not, yes, he could be politely asked to step aside for Mr. Anderson.

 

[Blenkinsop]

Andrew Flintoff was picked for England far too early and it took him quite a while to get half decent.

 

[reyrey]

Ben Duckett

 

[Molehill]

Jimmy Anderson tbh

He could also fit into both categories.

 

[Molehill]

Andrew Flintoff was picked for England far too early and it took him quite a while to get half decent.

Graeme Swann another who didn't do a lot in the early part of his career before somehow becoming England's best spinner of the last 50 years.

 

[Daemon]

@Adders started off very poorly before turning into one of CW’s best

 

[TheJediBrah]

@Adders started off very poorly before turning into one of CW’s best

Bold prediction