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Gilchrist vs Flower as test bats

Gilly vs Flower

  • Gilchrist

    Votes: 10 32.3%
  • Flower

    Votes: 21 67.7%

  • Total voters
    31

honestbharani

Well-known member
Man, that brings back memories when opposition used to set fields with 3 to 5 guys out in the deep when he is batting, and then literally everyone in the circle for the guy at the other end.
 

a massive zebra

Well-known member
Makes sense though. Incredible batsman. Terrible team.
West Indies were only a terrible team for the second half of his career though. When Brian Lara joined the West Indies team, they were still the best in the world. They remained a decent team for the remainder of the 90s, by which time Lara was already half way through his career.

Was Lara any better than his colleagues in comparison to Don Bradman, George Headley and Andy Flower? I guess Bradman didnt lose much and Headley didnt play many tests. Would have thought Flower would be a closer rival to him though.
 
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TheJediBrah

Well-known member
West Indies were only a terrible team for the second half of his career though. When Brian Lara joined the West Indies team, they were still the best in the world. They remained a decent team for the remainder of the 90s, by which time Lara was already half way through his career.

Was Lara any better than his colleagues in comparison to Don Bradman, George Headley and Andy Flower? I guess Bradman didnt lose much and Headley didnt play many tests. Would have thought Flower would be a closer rival to him though.
Flower was one of the next biggest on the list wasn't he, but he didn't play as much as Lara. And yeah Bradman didn't really lose much so he's not gonna be there.
 

a massive zebra

Well-known member
It is weird to see Ponting high on the list as he played for an ATG team and was terrible in the only place they regularly lost (India).
 

CodeOfWisden

Active member
For me the more daunting task is to be the accumulator In your team,make runs in every conditions and bear all the pressure of teams performance.
It doesn't matter to me whether Gilchrist could have done that if he came higher up ,the fact is he didn't.
Laxman was an all conditions Batsman and more clutch than any other Batsman in India's team ,people may aregue that he would have been a 50+ avg Batsman if he batted at 4 but the fact is that I just don't see the same hunger for runs that I saw in tendu,dravid,flower,Khan in laxman or Gilchrist.
Laxman ,Gilchrist were more like rescue acts while sachin,dravid,Khan, flower were the MAN.
 

Flem274*

123/5
Flower gets my vote. Will never forget that test against SA when he scored 341 runs across 2 innings (and was only dismissed once - out slogging when Zim were 9 wickets down in the first innings), more than all other the 10 Zim batsmen managed combined.
yea it's insane to come from such a small, lightweight nation light years behind the resources of aus, eng and india or even their neighbour and be that good.

think how much some sides spend on talent scouting and development then zimbabwe pull a flower, houghton or streak out of their arse.
 

Migara

Well-known member
yea it's insane to come from such a small, lightweight nation light years behind the resources of aus, eng and india or even their neighbour and be that good.

think how much some sides spend on talent scouting and development then zimbabwe pull a flower, houghton or streak out of their arse.
You could say same about Bangladesh when they pulled out a Shakib from no where, Afghanisthan, when they pulled out Mujeeb and Rashid Khan, or early Ceylon / SL when we could pull out a Sathasivam or Aravinda de Silva.

Having said that Bangladesh is never a "lightweight". The population is insane.
 

Chubb

Well-known member
Flower coming out of Zimbabwe is a bit easier to understand if you see Zim as a smaller-scale version of South Africa. Which to an extent it is, at least on the sports field.

South Africa churns out competent international-level sportspeople through its private school system. Sometimes they produce truly great players.

Zimbabwe has a smaller but otherwise very similar private school system. Even today it produces competent professional-level players - and it produced one All Time Great (Flower) and a few others who are pretty damn good (Houghton, Streak, Brendan Taylor).

Whatever its faults Zimbabwe actually managed to get a genuinely high level of interest in cricket among black Zimbabweans. It's the second-most popular sport in the country, and those schools are still producing good players of both ethnicities. But I don't think they will ever see another Flower.

Consider the amount of Zimbabwean-raised players who have been capped for other countries or earned pro contracts in recent years:

Colin de Grandhomme
Gary Ballance
Sam, Tom and Ben Curran
Hilton Cartwright
Blessing Muzarabani (marginal I know, but he's giving it a shot)

And I'm sure there are more I can't think of right now. This is why I get annoyed when people think Zim shouldn't be considered a top tier nation any more. Cricket owes Zimbabwe!
 
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