I am also in Team Aravinda and explained myself in a long post about a month ago. He was the forerunner and had to break ground and made it easier for those who followed him.Keep it out of the retirement thread, ****s.
FTR I'm #TeamAravinda but cbf with stats and ex-player quotes.
More divided than usual?Dan is slowly turning into Phlegm. I'm not sure how I feel
Aravinda in seaming conditions? any examples?Too close to call overall. In the sub-continent, Mahela, and in seaming conditions outside Asia, Aravinda.
ya but you just rely on statsguru and never bothered to watch them bat.As much as I like Aravinda people mythologize him as a Test batsman too much. He really was a true great in ODIs, but in Tests he has an average of 36 away from home (considering his skill in handling fast bowling a surprise) - lower than Mahela's 42.
Mahela has been around longer, has won more matches for SL and has a better record in Tests.
If we're combining Tests and ODIs I can understand people picking Aravinda over him, but for Tests only it's a no brainer.
ODIs is a different matter - Mahela underperformed his whole career - imo he should've opened and played care-free from the start. He always managed to come up big when it mattered though.