See, Aravinda was a great talent and could dominate good attacks but he was crap most of the times that's why he averaged too low. We tend to remember players' best innings but easily overlook how many times they failed. Mahela may not be Aravinda in terms of talent but he contributed more to the team than Aravinda did. If I knew that I would get the absolute best from Mahela and Aravinda, I would pick Aravinda to represent my team but otherwise, it's Mahela.
I do think McGrath is the superior bowler - just not that much better.Yeah, that's fair enough and if you actually think that Pollock's bowling is just as good as McGrath's then that's fine to take his batting into account and make that call.
But just pointing out that if there's an understanding that McGrath is a slightly superior bowler, then the difference is bigger than just their bowling averages. Similarly, the difference between their batting averages compresses.
Tlr; only the best batsmen score runs against the best bowlers and vice versa.
The problem is you would not know what you would get from him. If you would always get the absolute best from each player you picked in an AT XI, you might as well go with players who had the best purple patch - it makes the whole discussion pointless.
I watched them both bat mate. It's pretty simple. Jayawardene is a fine player, at home in particular. Aravinda was a better player against unfamiliar bowling in unfamiliar conditions.
Clearly they're not, since we apparently only need ten players to beat them.
I had Ten Dollar Carl at 3, which led to him opting out
People pick McGrath ahead of Pollock because the former was more reliable in dismissing the elite batsmen. Whether that correlates directly with those point differences in bowling stats is a moot point because people aren't preferring McGrath just because of those stats. When we're facing the Martian batsmen, I'd be far more comfortable with McGrath bowling for us Earthlings.
I did too, and aside from some knocks in NZ early in his career, Aravinda promised much in tough conditions away from home without delivering. If that's the only major criteria to pick Aravinda over Mahela in Tests, I'd imagine you pick Hayden over Ponting because he did better vs "unfamiliar bowling in familiar conditions"?
I don't see how Murali's action is relevant to this discussion at all.
Sangakkara is obviously Sri Lanka's greatest Test batsman, Mahela vs Aravinda is a more relevant discussion.
I brought that up because Ponting did horrendously in India (unfamiliar conditions for him), but no one picks him over Hayden, who did great there. My point is just because a batsmen did better than another in unfamiliar conditions isn't enough of a reason to pick them overall over another without other good reasons.
It's interesting that you can't explain the discordance. In the end, Pollock proved himself to be a very very good lower order batsman. Sorry to say, but you don't fluke an average of over 30 over 150 innings without having ability. Pollock was a limited batsman, but he knew his limitations and maximised his output. Clearly Botham and Kapil were more naturally talented batsman, but credit to Pollock. His game was built around a pretty decent technique and smart shot selection.
I understand what you're saying, but I'm basing my view on having watched them both play. It's an opinion, is all.
Video shows Pollock's First Chance Average is 27
I tend to expect players with more talent to perform better than those with less. When they don't, I don't rate them as highly because that means they most likely didn't have the temperament. If you don't go by achievements but go by how they look/what potential they had, then it's all opinion on what they could've been. In terms of results in Test cricket, it's hard to show that Aravinda was better than Mahela. He may well be better to watch but his temperament was more geared towards ODIs. Unsurprisingly, he had the "Mad Max" nickname when he came to the scene because he would just have eye-catching cameos. This unfortunately meant he left his Test promise unfulfilled.
