India's Unlucky Test Cricketers/Unfulfilled Test Cricketers (Played at least 20-50 Test Matches) in the past 20 years

[daryl1985]

Irfan Pathan.

More a question to others as i did not have access to India matches when he came through.

Could he have had a better test career, did he do his talent justice?

[Laaloo]

Sreesanth

 

What a talent 

[New guy]

22 hours ago, Vijy said:

 

3 however, once his pace, fitness, and swing dropped, he was rightly discarded.

It never dropped for him in tests. Averaged 20 last series he played

[Vijy]

19 minutes ago, New guy said:

It never dropped for him in tests. Averaged 20 last series he played

it dropped for him in LOIs, and given that he has struggled to maintain intensity in LOIs, it was natural to assume that he could not sustain it over 5-day period in Tests.

[Adamant]

Irfan Pathan massively underachieved. 

 

The fact that Pathan didn't retire as an ATG all rounder was the biggest loss to Indian cricket. 

[Adamant]

Irfan Pathan was a better bowler than Zaheer Khan and also had the ability to average 35 + with the bat. 

[Vijy]

1 minute ago, Adamant said:

Irfan Pathan massively underachieved. 

 

The fact that Pathan didn't retire as an ATG all rounder was the biggest loss to Indian cricket. 

had Pathan been in a better fast bowling culture, and also given more clarity regd his role (TM sent him mixed messages), he could have become one of the best ARs of his period. although his avg is inflated by Bangers, it still reads very well in tests - avg of low 30s with bat and ball.

[AKane]

37 minutes ago, Vijy said:

had Pathan been in a better fast bowling culture, and also given more clarity regd his role (TM sent him mixed messages), he could have become one of the best ARs of his period. although his avg is inflated by Bangers, it still reads very well in tests - avg of low 30s with bat and ball.

I think that he did some weight training that affected his flexibility. He became stronger but that did not translate to faster/better bowling  due to the flexibility lost.

 

Hence your remark of "fast bowling culture" is so relevant and valid. Someone should have advised him against it IF that is what he did. Working on flexibility and mild strengthening exercises was the way to go.

[Chakdephatte]

6 minutes ago, AKane said:

I think that he did some weight training that affected his flexibility. He became stronger but that did not translate to faster/better bowling  due to the flexibility lost.

 

Someone should have advised him against it IF that is what he did.

Do you have any proof to back such assertion. I know it's common knowledge but I want research paper or link to some study. From what I know, and have felt, it shows temporary effects on flexibility, i.e for first two weeks to month. It gets corrected after that.

[putrevus]

Irfan Pathan was 100 times the allrounder Pandya ever was, Guru greg was instrumental in ruining him.He should have been given a defined role but never got one .

[AKane]

39 minutes ago, Chakdephatte said:

Do you have any proof to back such assertion. I know it's common knowledge but I want research paper or link to some study. From what I know, and have felt, it shows temporary effects on flexibility, i.e for first two weeks to month. It gets corrected after that.

 

If you are asking about proof about Pathan doing this - I don't. He suddenly declined as a bowler ... some say a remodeled action and his pace did drop off. I saw pics of his sweating on weights and was guessing. That is why the capital IF in that statement.

 

As for loss of flexibility in weight training - they say if you do "full range of motion" during training, you will not lose flexibility. Trick is defining full range of motions. Any imbalance will cause lack of flexibility. I suppose if you have a very well defined lifting program and lots of stretching before and after exercise - you should be okay.

 

Again I am speaking from what you mentioned "common knowledge". The temp effects on flexibility or "soreness" felt after starting training are as you said temporary. However - long term weights with not enough stretching and lack of full range of motion will be a problem. At least it was for me. To any acquaintance now I recommend lots and lots of stretching and be very careful with weights.

[AKane]

2 minutes ago, AKane said:

 

If you are asking about proof about Pathan doing this - I don't. He suddenly declined as a bowler ... some say a remodeled action and his pace did drop off. I saw pics of his sweating on weights and was guessing. That is why the capital IF in that statement.

 

As for loss of flexibility in weight training - they say if you do "full range of motion" during training, you will not lose flexibility. Trick is defining full range of motions. Any imbalance will cause lack of flexibility. I suppose if you have a very well defined lifting program and lots of stretching before and after exercise - you should be okay.

 

Again I am speaking from what you mentioned "common knowledge". The temp effects on flexibility or "soreness" felt after starting training are as you said temporary. However - long term weights with not enough stretching and lack of full range of motion will be a problem. At least it was for me. To any acquaintance now I recommend lots and lots of stretching and be very careful with weights.

 

Yeah and investing some money with learning from a well qualified trainer is well worth it. Do not take word of mouth advice from some yoyo in the locker room.

[Chakdephatte]

17 hours ago, AKane said:

for loss of flexibility in weight training - they say if you do "full range of motion" during training, you will not lose flexibility. Trick is defining full range of motions. Any imbalance will cause lack of flexibility. I suppose if you have a very well defined lifting program and lots of stretching before and after exercise - you should be okay.

 

Again I am speaking from what you mentioned "common knowledge". The temp effects on flexibility or "soreness" felt after starting training are as you said temporary. However - long term weights with not enough stretching and lack of full range of motion will be a problem. At least it was for me. To any acquaintance now I recommend lots and lots of stretching and be very careful with weights.

 

Aaha, Yes. Stretching is the key, I would say it is more important  than the exercise itself. I would always do 7-10 minutes warm-up and 10 minutes of static stretching even for a session of 45 minutes. After each stretching session, all my pain would ease out. I suspect a major reason for injuries among sportspersons is lack of a warm-up.

17 hours ago, AKane said:

Yeah and investing some money with learning from a well qualified trainer is well worth it. Do not take word of mouth advice from some yoyo in the locker room.

Yeah, I fell for it initially. My experience is 90% of people at gyms do most of the exercises with a poor form. I would go onto say most people do simple pushups wrong.

Edited December 14, 2021 by Chakdephatte

[Vancouver]

I always boggles me how Dinesh Karthik, Writhiman Saha and that Biryani guy (Dhoni's friend) played so many games for India, he has to be THE worst player I have seen in Indian colours.

[R!TTER]

On 12/14/2021 at 12:04 AM, AKane said:

some say a remodeled action and his pace did drop off

He did, but the biggest issue was our over reliance on his batting! FFS he opened (in tests?) for India IIRC, when was the last time an opening pacer did that for any major test nation 

 

Not just Greg, Dravid was instrumental in ruining him 

[mishra]

Kambli Srishanth . Both have been wrongfully booted out of team when it could have been managed. 

[Majestic]

Irfan Pathan hands down the biggest under-achiever.

 

Sreesanth would have done very well in Kohli's captaincy too.