Javagal Srinath vs Zaheer Khan

[Sidhoni]

Haven't seen much of Srinath live tbh but lately looking at his stats and few articles it prompted me to find out how he is rated in comparison to Zak.

 

Srinath's Stats :

 

Tests

 

ODIs

 

Zaheer's stats :

 

Tests

 

ODIs

Edited April 4, 2017 by Sidhoni

[Pollack]

Zaheer without blink of eye.

[kira]

Srinath easily

[Sidhoni]

30 minutes ago, Pollack said:

Zaheer without blink of eye.

Vote to daal do

[speedheat]

Srinath for me over Zak any time any format.

[Rightarmfast]

Wouldnt want to vote. There career spanned through different times. Srinath always had it hard. while when Zaheer came, a culture of fast bowling was already starting and he had Sourav with him.

[Trichromatic]

Srinath.

 

Zaheer had 2-3 good years, but except that he went missing on multiple ocassions in tests. It's not surprising that he was always averaging in mid 30s and managed to pull it back to low 30s with those 2 good years when he was among top 10 bowlers in world.

[Gollum]

Srinath easily. Zak was a mediocre bowler who had 4 years of super performance.

[Gambit]

Srinath in India and Zaheer away.

[Pollack]

3 minutes ago, Gambit said:

Srinath in India and Zaheer away.

Sensible. One would expect Srinath type bowler to shine outside even more but alas that was not the case. Zaheer was pretty consistent.

[sandeep]

Zaheer had a couple of good years after that famous county stint - that's the only time he was anywhere close to being better than Srinath.  But his pace had tailed off quite a bit towards the end.  So he only had a year or 2 of goldilocks effectiveness - Srinath's overall body of work in tests is way better.  Both of them at their absolute peak? I'd say Srinath edges it, but not by much.  

[jusarrived]

I think srinath underachieved as a bowler , but still has done marginally better than Zaheer . 

[Vilander]

Srinath marginally better in ODI, Zaheer was phenomenal in tests for a period and was part of world no 1 side, i remember him reverse swinging at will at times when Anderson/Broad could not do jack **** in the other side.

[Rightarmfast]

Since their bowling styles were different, its hard to compare. Zaheer was a left armer, and historically there have been few left armers. During his peak years, Zaheer was unanimously considered world's best fast bowler. He will go down as one of the best left arm fast bowler in the history of game. ( I am not saying he is the best left armer ever, but he will be amongst the top 10 left arm fast bowler of all time). 

 

Srinath was a right arm pace bowler, and even though his performances required more effort, he will not be counted as good as Zaheer when it comes to world rankings.

[sandeep]

1 hour ago, Rightarmfast said:

Since their bowling styles were different, its hard to compare. Zaheer was a left armer, and historically there have been few left armers. During his peak years, Zaheer was unanimously considered world's best fast bowler. He will go down as one of the best left arm fast bowler in the history of game. ( I am not saying he is the best left armer ever, but he will be amongst the top 10 left arm fast bowler of all time). 

 

Srinath was a right arm pace bowler, and even though his performances required more effort, he will not be counted as good as Zaheer when it comes to world rankings.

That's harsh on Srinath there - Zaheer had at best two good years with the ball 2007, and 2009.  While Javagal posted 4-5 equivalent years in the mid-90s stretch.  And that too, at a time where India was nowhere near as good a team as it was during that 2007 timeframe.  

[Rightarmfast]

/\ Try to understand what I am trying to say there

[Jimmy Cliff]

Srinath at his best could run through sides in a way Zaheer couldn't (for instance his spell vs SA at Ahmedabad in 1996 or his 13-fer vs Pak in 1999). But for most of his career he bowled just a touch too short. It wasn't until the NZ tour in 2002 followed by the WC 2003 where he hit the right length (and also got the ball to hold it's line after coming in with the angle) which made him lethal for those 3-4 months. He was also unlucky in the sense that he got injured in early 1997 when he was at his fastest and missed out on cricket for almost an entire year. I think if we had Srinath available, we'd have won the Test series in WI in 1997.

 

 

[sarcastic]

Zaheer Khan is definitely better after his county stint but then he always had fitness issues particularly even in the middle of a test series (or even test match sometimes) and this is a very serious issue for a winning team. 

Srinath on the other hand may have issues now and then but was very devastating when in flow and ran through line-ups or at least he picked up two or three quick wickets to hand momentum to India. 

On the side note, how does Ishant Sharma stand in comparison with both Srinath or Zaheer. Will we ever see him matching them in some sense. If fit, he  might as well overcome both these at least in terms of the number of test wickets! He was expected to do much more in the beginning only disappointed so far. 

Edited April 4, 2017 by sarcastic

[Ultimate_Game]

I will take the post county cricket Zaheer (late 2000s) across all formats.

[Rightarmfast]

12 hours ago, sarcastic said:

Zaheer Khan is definitely better after his county stint but then he always had fitness issues particularly even in the middle of a test series (or even test match sometimes) and this is a very serious issue for a winning team. 

Srinath on the other hand may have issues now and then but was very devastating when in flow and ran through line-ups or at least he picked up two or three quick wickets to hand momentum to India. 

On the side note, how does Ishant Sharma stand in comparison with both Srinath or Zaheer. Will we ever see him matching them in some sense. If fit, he  might as well overcome both these at least in terms of the number of test wickets! He was expected to do much more in the beginning only disappointed so far. 

Ishant Sharma is the biggest underacheiver. He is the perfect example of how badly our fast bowlers are handled. BCCI should have given all their support and training to bowlers like him, but I guess nobody bothered .