Overrated and Underrated Test XI

I think they are more indicative of how marketable a player is, not his "rating" based on his cricket skills but on his ability to sell tickets and jerseys. Not the same "rating" criteria we are looking at in this thread.
 
11. Kemar Roach - Highest paid in IPL, enough said :facepalm

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He isn't even close to being highest paid in the IPL. Anyways he is rated as a good young pace bowler, nobody in their right mind rates him as one of the best today.
 
I think they are more indicative of how marketable a player is, not his "rating" based on his cricket skills but on his ability to sell tickets and jerseys. Not the same "rating" criteria we are looking at in this thread.

I think you're reading too much into the marketability. Kemar Roach is a bit of an unknown quantity to the majority of the Indian public. He was paid such a high salary because he is rated highly by the owners and they thought that he could win them matches and perform successfully for them. Due to the fact that he is an unknown quantity to the Indian public, increased ticket sales and jersey sales because of Roach would only come as a result of consistently good performances by Roach. Even so, the majority of ticket and jersey sales that can be attributed to individual players alone would come from Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds and Rohit Sharma.
 
I don't want to get too far off -topic but I do believe that it might be a balance of the two "ratings"

Roach exploded onto the scene with the Ponting spell just a few weeks before the IPL auction. There was hype around him and most cricket fans at least heard of the guy who bounced out Ponting.
 
I don't want to get too far off -topic but I do believe that it might be a balance of the two "ratings"

Roach exploded onto the scene with the Ponting spell just a few weeks before the IPL auction. There was hype around him and most cricket fans at least heard of the guy who bounced out Ponting.

The owners rated him, not the fans. He was still unknown to the Indian public at the time. He has only played one ODI match against India and didn't do anything remarkable in it (6 overs, 1-27). If the owners did think he would sell jerseys and tickets, it's because they thought he could perform consistently and only then win over the Chargers' fans. It might be true for Gilchrist and Symonds because they had already established themselves when they were bought by the chargers, but not Roach.

Anyways...

I don't think Roach is overrated because he pretty much carried the West Indian pace attack in Australia. He doesn't have the stats to show for it but he still bowled really well in spells. I think Aamer is destined for far more success though.
 
Both Aamer and Roach were the victims of shoddy fielding and dropped catches that Aussies tour. Their numbers should have been way better.
 
I don't want to get too far off -topic but I do believe that it might be a balance of the two "ratings"

Roach exploded onto the scene with the Ponting spell just a few weeks before the IPL auction. There was hype around him and most cricket fans at least heard of the guy who bounced out Ponting.

Same thing happened with Ishant Sharma. He had that one spell vs Ponting, didn't even pick up that many wickets, and got sold a few weeks later of $900,000! He can't even find a place in the KKR side now.

Granted, he had some decent performances in the ODI series and even a couple of tests that followed, but come on! $900k to Ishat?
 
Underrated Test XI:

1. A.Cook
2. A.Strauss
3. R.Dravid
4. P.Collingwood
5. M.Clarke
6. S.Katich (c)
7. M.Prior (wk)
8. G.Swann
9. N.Hauritz
10. G.Onions
11. B.Hilfenhaus
 
Nah, that's not the reason.

Uhh, hate to break it to you, but yeah it is. The fielding was just atrocious (at least the catching) was just atrocious by both teams and Aamer and Roach were on the receiving end quite a few times.
 
Uhh, hate to break it to you, but yeah it is. The fielding was just atrocious (at least the catching) was just atrocious by both teams and Aamer and Roach were on the receiving end quite a few times.

I think Aamer had the dropped catch when Watson was on 99, but otherwise I can't remember any others.
 
Granted, he had some decent performances in the ODI series and even a couple of tests that followed, but come on! $900k to Ishat?

in fairness, that price was bulked up considerably by the fact he was well under-22 and so would qualify as one of the teams 2 u22 players for a few seasons. but yeah, would have still proved a bad buy at even half that given out bad he is.
 
I think Aamer had the dropped catch when Watson was on 99, but otherwise I can't remember any others.

I remember having this conversation with someone on CW. Aamer had 6-8 catches dropped off his bowling, so he was very hard-done-by. Not sure how many drops Roach had, but I don't think it was anywhere near that many.

Edit: Remembered incorrectly; it was 10 drops off his bowling in his career. 2 in Australia.

1st Test
3.4

Mohammad Aamer to Paranavitana, FOUR, Dropped Oh boy that should have been taken, Aamer fires it inwards on a full length and induces a thick leading edge, I think it was Younis who fluffed the catch at third slip falling to his right, the ball rolls away to third man

7.2

Mohammad Aamer to Jayawardene, no run, Dropped Akmal's the culprit, Aamer bowls it in the corridor outside off and induces a nick, Akmal didn't have to move, he's dropped a sitter

2nd Test

64.2

Mohammad Aamer to Mathews, no run, dropped at second slip, a sitter put down by Khurram Manzoor, Mathews edges the ball as it leaves him with angle, a healthy edge which flies around chest high to Manzoor

3rd Test

6.1

Mohammad Aamer to Sangakkara, no run, dropped, Manzoor the culprit, short outside off, Sanga pushes at it away from his body trying to get it past point, Manzoor is perfectly placed at gully exactly for that shot, and spills it in front of his face, straightforward chance put down. How costly will that prove?

14.6

Mohammad Aamer to Sangakkara, FOUR, edged and dropped, bowling from wide of the crease, Sangakkara is caught walking forward to a short of a good length delivery just outside off, tries to play it straight, and inside the line, gets a thick outside edge just wide of Manzoor at gully who gets his fingers to it as he dives to his right, but can't hold on. A difficult chance, but could have been taken.

4th Test

54.1

Mohammad Aamer to Bond, no run, Dropped It's Farhat again, man he's having a nightmare of a match at slip, Bond opens the face of the bat and offers catching practice, Umar went for it from second slip and Farhat may have been distracted at first slip, it carried to Farhat and he failed to hang on

5th Test

54.3

Mohammad Aamer to McCullum, no run, dropped, the third one of the innings, Gul the culprit, he's perfectly positioned at point, short and wide and it's slashed straight to him and he drops a straightforward chance

6th Test

131.4

Mohammad Aamer to O'Brien, 1 run, dropped, another one, Umar Akmal can't repeat the Vettori beauty here, short outside off, it's guided just wide of him at gully but came much quicker and he couldn't react in time moving to his left

7th Test

7.5

Mohammad Aamer to Katich, no run, dropped, Umar Akmal's the man, short and wide and he went for the cut, the first aggressive shot from the left-hander, struck hard and the 19-year old reacted late at gully, and was in some pain after letting it slip

62.3

Mohammad Aamer to Watson, 1 run, dropped on 99, fuller delivery and Watson drives in the air to backward point and the fielder, Rauf drops it and Watson has his century, well played, raises his bat to the crowd. Everybody rises to clap.Maiden century for Watson.

8th Test

A MIRACLE NO DROPS!!!!

This is ****ing unbelievable I thought it would be about half this number. Must have been 25 odd drops by Pakistan in those 8 matches. Think of all the runs that would have saved him, wickets he lost and pressure Pakistan lost.
 
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also, this is all a matter of perception, being over-rated doesn't mean a player is better than an under-rated one.

I put Hughes in my over-rated XI but really, he's not that over-rated here. Most people in the UK see him as being found out in the ashes and a bit of a flop considering the expectations and his performances for middlesex before them. He's probably better than some here give him credit for. Mendis is the same, some people see him as over-rated but every time Sri Lanka field him the indians here baulk at his ability and think he's crap, so you can't say he's over-rated from all sides.
 

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