Richard Hadlee or Glen Mcgrath?Who would you rather select in a test team?

[Harsh Thakor]

 

No pace bowlers in the history of test cricket equalled the control of Glen Mcgrath and Richard Hadlee.There have been pacemen quicker,  who have swung a ball more and been more versatile but none who could put the ball in the same place or corridor as them.They often resembled bowling robots wit their phenomenal consistency and accuracy.Curtly Ambrose and Joel Garner were perhaps more relentless but not as skilled in overpowering opponents or mastering their weaknesses.Staistically  Hadlee and Mcgrath were the best of all pacemen of the last half century .

 

Hadlee was a connoisseur of swing with mastery of swinging a ball in and out and a most penetrative leg-cutter.He also had an effective slower ball and a bounce which he only deployed occasionally.Mcgrath posessed every element of a great fast bowler be it pace,movement,bounce or control in perfect proportion ,more in total package than Hadlee.Hadlee was faster and able to swing the ball more but Mcgrath was the marginally more craftier ot intelligent who had a more subtle change in pace.On a green top Hadlee was the most dangerous of all but could become defensive on flat strips.Mcgrath's craft often enabled him to overcome unhelpful batting conditions.Mcgrath was a better judge of weaknesses of great batsmen  in terms of mastery in deploying weaponry.Hadlee was more the classical artist. Mcgrath more the craftsmen.Mcgrath was in some way similar to Andy Roberts,a  little mores o than Hadlee.

 

What was striking in Hadlee is that he bore the brunt of one of the weakaest teams and bowling attacks  and still had 431 scalps ,with 36,five wicket hauls and taking 10 wickets in test match on 11 occasions.In peak era Hadlee took 330 wickets in 60 tset matchse at aan average of around 19 and strike rate of around 47.In contrast Mcgrath represented a world champion taem being a participant in 84 winning causes in tests and 71 with partner Shane Warne.More than 80% of his scalps were in winning causes.He was instrumental in Australia becoming the most formidable cricketing power and giving  anew dimension to Australasian cricket .Mcgrath however did not have as many five or ten wicket hauls in test cricket or as good a strike rate as Hadlee in his peak period.,nor such a good average of around 13 run sin test wins.Hadlee gave better performances at his best but still Mcgrath's bowling at Lords in 1997 or 2002 was as good as anything of Hadlee.Mcgrath was by a margin more of a bowling metronome.Hadlee was more lethal in single spells.

 

Comparatively both were equal against the peers of their day.Hadlee compared favourably with the likes of Lillee ,Imran and Marshall while Mcgrath was ranked arguably even above Wasim,Ambrose,or Donald.Hadlee had better competitors in his peak than Mcgrath with Wasim and Donald or Ambrose close to retirement when Mcgrath was at his best.

 

Opponents of their eras felt Mcgrath was more daunting or challenging ,Rahul Dravid  and Sachin Tendulkar rated Mcgrath the hardest to face of their time while no great batsmen like Viv,Gavaskar or Chappell brothers thought Hadlee was as lethal as Lillee,Marshal or Andy Roberts.

 

 

It was the batting where Hadlee totally outclassed Mcgrath with the capacity to emulate a specialist batsmen or a genuine allrounder.Richard has a tset century v West Indies to his credit.In mid 1980's he was arguably the best all rounder in the world .On his day he could tear a good bowling attack to pieces.

 

In ODI's both were equally clinical and penetrative.Mcgrath had a great statistical edge because he played in an era with much more one day cricket played.

 

In the final analysis with  a gun on my head I may have called a dead heat.Hadlee would be a better choice in helpful conditions or giving strength to batting depth.Mcgrath wold have a more effective armoury in unhelpful conditions or in a crisis.Some experts have ranked Richard ahead like David Gower or Geoff Armstrong  ranked Hadlee around 8 places ahead while Cristopher Martin Jenkins vice-versa in favour of Mcgrath.Mcgrath's pure control may supplement the pace or variety of Marshall and Wasim more than Hadlee ,but the latter was more artistic and much more useful as a batsmen.Mcgrath was more of a computerized machine,Hadlee more of an architect.

 

STATISTICS BY S RAJESH OF CRICINFO

 

Since coming of age on that historic trip to the West Indies in 1995, McGrath never looked back in Test cricket. His average of 20.87 is bettered only by one bowler during this period.

Best Test bowlers since 1995 (at least 5000 balls)

Bowler	Tests	Wickets	Average	5WI/ 10WM
Muttiah Muralitharan	94	618	20.71	54/ 19
Glenn McGrath	116	544	20.87	29/ 3
Curtly Ambrose	50	186	20.88	11/ 0
Allan Donald	55	255	21.04	16/ 2
Shaun Pollock	107	416	23.19	16/ 1
Courtney Walsh	64	280	23.22	15/ 2

His ODI summary is equally impressive, with an average of 22 and an economy rate of less than four runs per over. Like in Tests, in the one-dayers too he was hardly bothered by such trivialities like the toss and the playing conditions. He took slightly longer to find his ODI bearings, but since 1999 his numbers are unmatched.

Best ODI bowlers since 1999 (at least 5000 balls)

Bowler	ODIs	Wkts	Average	Econ
Glenn McGrath	176	286	20.03	3.83
Muttiah Muralitharan	196	316	20.40	3.64
Brett Lee	150	267	22.65	4.69
Shoaib Akhtar	128	203	22.89	4.61
Shaun Pollock	227	300	23.65	3.64
Makhaya Ntini	150	235	23.66	4.42
Wasim Akram	102	139	24.64	4.05
Shane Warne	98	143	26.83	4.38

One reason why McGrath deserves to be considered among the all-time great bowlers is his performance in the subcontinent - in conditions which were usually not conducive to fast bowling, McGrath adapted superbly, averaging 23 runs per wicket, which is among the best for overseas fast bowlers.

Best overseas fast bowlers in Tests in the subcontinent since 1980 (at least 2000 balls)

Bowler	Tests	Wickets	Average	5WI/ 10WM
Malcolm Marshall	16	68	20.17	3/ 0
Courtney Walsh	17	77	20.53	5/ 0
Glenn McGrath	19	72	23.02	1/ 0
Shaun Pollock	17	60	23.18	2/ 0
Jason Gillespie	14	54	23.75	1/ 0

Over a long international career, few cricketers have walked the talk like McGrath has. His predictions went famously wrong during the 2005 Ashes, but almost every other time he has been spot on, a testament to his unmatched ability and his huge self-belief. On the big stage, in the most important matches, against the best opposition, McGrath has invariably brought out his A game. His Ashes average is a splendid 20.92, with 157 wickets from 30 Tests; he finished as the leading wicket-taker in World Cups, with 71 from 39 games at 18.19; and in finals of ODI tournaments he averages an astounding 16.43.

Equally impressive was his ability to live up to his pre-match talk of nailing the opposition team's best batsman, whether it be Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis or Stephen Fleming - they all rank very high in his list of batsmen dismissed most often in Tests. The table below lists his averages against specific batsmen since June 2001 - not many have enjoyed too much success against him.

McGrath versus the top batsmen in Tests since June 2001

Batsman	Balls	Runs	Dismissals	Average	Runs per over
Herschelle Gibbs	492	191	3	63.67	2.32
Nathan Astle	297	189	3	63.00	3.81
Brian Lara	233	90	2	45.00	2.31
Jacques Kallis	378	133	3	44.33	211
Michael Vaughan	349	193	6	32.16	3.31
Marcus Trescothick	438	184	6	30.67	2.52
Kevin Pietersen	270	135	5	27.00	3.00
Graeme Smith	224	81	5	16.20	2.16
Chris Gayle	177	63	4	15.75	2.13
Michael Atherton	210	86	6	14.33	2.45
Stephen Fleming	222	63	7	9.00	1.70
Rahul Dravid	170	26	3	STATISTICS BY S.RAJESH IN CRICINFO ON RICHARD HADLEE     There were several outstanding bowlers who were at the peak of their powers in the 1980s, but even among them Hadlee stood out. In the 11-year period between 1978 and 1988, his average of 19.57 was bettered only by Imran. Malcolm Marshall and Joel Garner had a slightly higher average, while Kapil and Botham find themselves at the bottom of the table below, with their averages almost 10 higher than Hadlee's. Best Test bowlers between Jan 1978 and Dec 1988 (Qual: 150 wickets) Bowler Tests Wickets Average Strike rate 5WI/ 10WM Imran Khan 58 272 19.39 47.8 19/ 5 Richard Hadlee 60 330 19.57 48.4 32/ 8 Joel Garner 53 234 20.27 50.6 7/ 0 Malcolm Marshall 61 300 20.88 45.8 18/ 3 Michael Holding 47 192 23.69 50.8 9/ 1 Dennis Lillee 38 184 24.32 52.6 11/ 3 Bob Willis 60 218 24.50 53.7 9/ 0 Iqbal Qasim 44 155 27.38 75.2 8/ 2 Ian Botham 92 363 28.07 56.0 25/ 4 Kapil Dev 95 329 29.44 60.0 19/ 2 Playing for one of the weaker teams in international cricket meant some of Hadlee's best performances went in vain, but there were several other occasions when he single-handedly won matches for New Zealand. On the 22 instances when he finished on the winning side, Hadlee took a whopping 173 wickets - that's almost eight wickets per match - at a spectacular average of 13.06, which remains the best among bowlers with 150 wickets in wins. In 22 matches Hadlee had 17 five-wicket hauls, including his career-best figures of 9 for 52 during an unforgettable performance against Australia in Brisbane. Best averages in Test wins (Qual: 150 wickets) Bowler Tests Wickets Average Strike rate 5WI/ 10WM Richard Hadlee 22 173 13.06 33.5 17/ 8 Imran Khan 26 155 14.50 38.3 11/ 6 Muttiah Muralitharan 53 430 16.03 42.6 40/ 18 Malcolm Marshall 43 254 16.78 38.1 17/ 4 Allan Donald 33 187 16.79 35.5 14/ 3 Curtly Ambrose 44 229 16.86 44.4 13/ 3 Fred Trueman 34 177 17.30 40.8 11/ 2 Waqar Younis 39 222 18.20 35.0 14/ 4 Dennis Lillee 31 203 18.27 39.0 17/ 6 Shaun Pollock 49 223 18.30

Edited May 30, 2020 by Harsh Thakor

[Ankit_sharma03]

MCgrath would nyways be my 1st name in any world XI

[Harsh Thakor]

Please come here ICF fans appreciate @ Nikola @raki05 @cricspin

[CricketTruth]

Hadlee - both great bowlers but Hadlee offers the extra batting. 

[Nikhil_cric]

McGrath. He had that extra yard of pace when he needed it and could reverse the ball, generate more bounce etc. 

[zen]

Hadlee .... one of the biggest test match winners with the ball. Also a great cricketer overall - can bat at #8 and field relatively better. 

 

[Ankit_sharma03]

Mcgrath

[Nikola]

McGrath. He might not run through opposition but if he is going to get me key wickets then he is my first pick.