Cricketers who surprised you

[PackenHols]

Alastair Cook
He seemed to be quite a capable batsman when he started off at England. Century on debut against India I believe. Then went on a patch of scoring fifties but not converting them. He then had a diabolical series against Bangladesh and the first few tests of the Pakistan test series in 2010. He then regained a lot of confidence and absolutely battered the Aussies. Next few years were a century nearly every series. Began playing ODIs again, and has had some good success in the format. Became test captain, won a series away to India. Now has fallen on hard times yet again. He surprises me because he has come back numerous occasions and had good success along with forcing his way back as a regonised ODI player.

 

[puddleduck]

So he's surprised you because like any international standard batsman he goes through form highs and lows instead of just scoring his average every single game? Did he surprise you that he was that good? Did you think he wouldn't ever adjust to the first difficulties he faced?

I think Matt Prior has surprised me. In that I never thought he would be international standard. Then he was. Now he's crap again and can't bat and his keeping is back to average against spinners.So yeah. Hopefully he'll surprise me again soon and confirm that he's a world class keeper batsman.

 

[surendar]

Cricket who surprised me in the year 2013 - Gazi when he came out with an unbelievable display of a century & a 6-fer against Kiwis. To be frank, that Kiwi tour of Bangladesh was full of surprises or probably the turning point for Bangladesh to realize that 'anything is possible if we play as a team'.

Outside the year 2013, some cricketers who surprised me,

Venkatesh Prasad : Am surprised because, he is called as opening fast bowler for India? No matter how he got smashed by classy lefties - Jayasuriya, Saeed Anwar and Gary Kirsten, he still continued in team XI to open up the bowling. I really don't know/care what his stats on papers say now, but to see him LIVE for years and years, I felt so frustrated to watch him in tests and ODIs. His dismissal of Aamir Sohail in 96 WC and tight wicket taking bowling against Pakistan in 99 WC, I would rate them as top though am still surprised regarding his place in the team for the reasons I mentioned above.

Vinod Kambli : This guy really showed lot of potentials, but am surprised that he wasn't guided/coached in proper way to become an asset of India. Sachin & Kambli both started their cricket life(from school) almost in same time but Sachin stayed on the plane that had a smooth take off while Kambli(for some reasons) missed to board that plane. After coming to INTL arena, and especially after his ankle injury - his name and image has gone completely like deleting of files from the hard disk. Very strange.

Allan Donald : Probably, it is a moment of surprise than a cricketer to surprise. In classy 1999 semis, I just got surprised of Donald wondering in which world he was in, for messing up the running between wickets. That moment, if it had gone right, probably we would have seen Kallis getting retired from ODI arena now instead of the tests. There was only ONE team that deserved to be crowned as 99 WC champs and it was SA, no matter on what happened in reality.

Andy Flower, Neil Johnson, Murray Goodwin, Brandes and Streak : Just surprised that, these potential/gifted/threatening players never came forward with right directions to take Zimbabwe to the next level after their own careers. Way these players were playing, Zimbabwe should have been in next level comparing to where they stand at present.

Charles Coventry : Surprised when he scored the highest ODI score of unbeaten 194 Runs against Bangladesh, equalling Saeed Anwar and before Sachin's double ton. Though he ended up 194 unbeaten, he was talked about only a little.

Michael Bevan : The way his ODI career ended, really surprised me as he has always been the best match finishers to turn the things from impossible to possible anytime he comes to the crease. Very sad to see him go out of INTL arena sooner than expected.

 

[War]

Michael Bevan : The way his ODI career ended, really surprised me as he has always been the best match finishers to turn the things from impossible to possible anytime he comes to the crease. Very sad to see him go out of INTL arena sooner than expected.

Yes this was one of weird selection decision of the dominant AUS era for sure.

He just had a bit of a below par series in SRI 2004 (his first in ages where he didn't score) & he was promptly dropped.

AUS selectors never adequately why he was axed. Its debatable whether he would have made it to the 2007 world cup - but he deserved a longer run in the ODI for being such a great player for sure.

Word in AUS circles was that he was a bit introvert in the team environment. He just scored his runs, but didn't mix much with team mates. So with a young Michael Clarke emerging at the time - the just axed him abruptly at the first opportunity he failed.

 

[sifter132]

^Bevan was definitely a victim of selectors looking forward rather than at the present. Those are the kind of decisions that are never really explained eg. Simon Katich dropped from Test team. Everyone just blamed Michael Clarke, but really it was a decision for the future where Australia didn't want to rely on 3 old guys to survive until the 2013 Ashes. Turns out Katich was the only one that might have made it

Other nominations here:
Steve Smith is making a lot of people eat their words at present. Ditto Mitchell Johnson.

Ben Stokes is better than I thought he'd be. Thought he was a really hittable looking bowler, and only seemed to have a pull shot and nothing much else. First impressions weren't right so far.

George Bailey in ODIs have been amazingly effective. However in Tests, he's been as ineffective as I feared...

 

[War]

^Bevan was definitely a victim of selectors looking forward rather than at the present. Those are the kind of decisions that are never really explained eg. Simon Katich dropped from Test team. Everyone just blamed Michael Clarke, but really it was a decision for the future where Australia didn't want to rely on 3 old guys to survive until the 2013 Ashes. Turns out Katich was the only one that might have made it

Ha ye true, but of course the back stories to both rumours had equal merit.

Speaking about Katich, the form of Rogers in the Ashes showed if the AUS selectors had valued experience long before recalling him & Haddin in time for the 2013 Ashes home/away test - Katich or even Brad Hodge could have been playing right now.

 

[sifter132]

Oh yeah forgot to mention Chris Rogers in here. I thought he scored about double the runs he deserved during the England. Looked edgy and tentative, and was lucky to survive a few chances. But what a change when there is no off-spinner in the opposition! He's cashed in on runs without Swann. Played really nicely, and he'll enjoy not seeing an off-spinner in South Africa as well!

But to your point...Rogers success and selection is just as much an indictment on the young Aussie batsmen as it is proof that older players can do well. Rogers wouldn't have got picked if just a couple more younger guys had grabbed their chance. If Hughes/Marsh/Cowan/Khawaja/Smith had done better, Rogers wouldn't have been near the mid-year Ashes tour. Well he would have been there, just piling up runs for Middlesex instead. It's a little like happened to Hodge, the selectors wanted younger players to step up rather than going back to a veteran with only average talent. That's my biased definition, Rogers and Hodge are successful state level cricketers, but I would be surprised if they averaged 45+ over a long Test career. George Bailey would be similar, he's only getting picked because the young guys are failing, not through a compelling weight of runs for Tasmania.

 

[War]

Would disagree on Hodge, i can see why some might question Rogers or Bailey because their techniques are a bit off - but not Hodge.

Hodge was a classy player with a very sound technique - it still criminal that AUS dropped him for the 2006 tour to S Africa after he scored a double hundred, to recall Martyn (although Martyn shouldn't have been dropped in the first place).

Like Stuart Law - Hodge weas horribly unlucky not to play more tests.

 

[grkrama]

surprise of 2013
Murali Vijay - Didnt expect him to hold up good on SA wickets facing steyn ,morkel and philander, but he did well to blunt them and stup a platform for the middle order .

Ashton Agar ,hope he gets groomed well,instead of being made into flash in the pan

Sachin - retiring was expecting him to go on a few more tours ,esp since he retired of other forms.


All time Surprise Cricketer
ZULU ,lance klusener, he was such a talent and his onslaughts with the bat are still memorable,in my book he was always one of the best allrounders to not realize his full potential.his only weakness while batting was against spin other than that he was a delight to watch.