'Of all Indian pacers I've seen and played with, I would put Bumrah on top of the pack': India legend Javagal Srinath

[Majestic]

26 minutes ago, vvvslaxman said:

 

That doesn't tell you the whole story. He played in Australia in 1992 as a rookie.  Next one was against ATG Australian side. In between never had a chance. In some of the series he was very unlucky not to have more wickets. AHe was one guy who created enough pressure that Prasad was able to capitalize on. One thing he lacked was raw aggression. Ganguly had an argument with him Srinath if i remember right. Ganguly asked him to be available for England tour i think. Srinath refused. In 2000 our team was more like Tendulkar or bust team. It was not easy to exert pressure on opposition like we do now. Imagine only Bumrah is bowling  with Unadkat, Vinay kuamr as back ups.  

Would you rate him higher than Zak? If yes then why?

[Majestic]

7 hours ago, Clarke said:

 

I'm guessing you're just going by stats without having seen 90s cricket since the numbers don't tell the complete picture.

 

Yes he wasn't a Kapil Dev level bowler, however the typical taunt from Cronje etc to the then Indian captain/team was "your two vs our four". They knew the likes of Ganesh/Johnson were ineffective and hence Srinath & Prasad were extremely overused while even their ARs like McMillan/Kallis were good enough to keep one end tight and get the odd wicket as fourth seamers. 

Same question.

 

Who would you rate higher between Zak and Srinath and why? Maybe add Kapil in it also.

[Vijy]

Just now, Majestic said:

Same question.

 

Who would you rate higher between Zak and Srinath and why? Maybe add Kapil in it also.

Srinath was the best of trio in Asia, Zak was better in SENA; Kapil was superb for a 5-yr period both home and overseas. Hard to pick a conclusive winner of the trio. One can even add Ishant over a 3-yr period, who was quite deadly overseas.

 

As a cricketer taking all the skills into account, Kapil is obviously far ahead (batting + fielding).

[Majestic]

I must mention that I only see Srinath in the latter years of his career and he didn't convinced me. Maybe also because our pace attack was more of a laughing stock when compared to what the rest of the world were producing.

 

The overseas stat in 90s that we haven't won a single test overseas does hurt.

Edited January 3, 2022 by Majestic

[Vijy]

Just now, Majestic said:

I must mention that I only see Srinath in the latter years of his career and he didn't convinced me. Maybe also because our pace attack was more of a laughing stock when compared to what the rest of the world were producing.

 

The overseas stat in 90s that we haven't won a single test overseas does hurt.

he was at his best in mid to late 90s. another issue he had was the complete lack of "pace culture", by which I mean having seniors to guide him, ability to hunt in packs, strength and fitness conditioning, etc. The MRF pace academy, for instance, was nowhere near as functional as it's now. Very different times in 80s/90s, which people forget about when comparing 2010s players with them

[vvvslaxman]

6 minutes ago, Majestic said:

Would you rate him higher than Zak? If yes then why?

 

Zaheer is a much smarter bowler. Very good at setting up batsmen. Even Zaheer looked insipid in the beginning. Especially Zaheer's pace would be like mid 135 in the first spell. Then 130, 125, Until Zaheer joined the county he was not going to be one of the best Indian fast bowler. Srinath right of the bat was very good. Also under Wadekar (who tried to recreate his nostalgic 1970s spin era) we largely used spinners in Indian conditions. From a strategic perspective team management was more into encouraging spinners than seamers. Here we had the fastest bowler India ever produced. But we never made the most out of him. ANother thing was we hardly played any tests in the 90s compared to other eras. We just invited ZImbabwe/England/Srilanka to India and beat them up with spinners on underprepared pitches. 

[Clarke]

1 hour ago, Majestic said:

Same question.

 

Who would you rate higher between Zak and Srinath and why? Maybe add Kapil in it also.

 

Didn't watch Kapil bowl, purely on reputation he's prolly the best followed by Zak and then Srinath in my book based on the formers superior skillset such as yorkers or round the wicket bowling. Let's be clear, we're talking of Indian ATGs here and theres not as much a gap between these two with him being superior in some circumstances. He still was the go to bowler when the captain wanted a breakthrough. There was a time commentators were perplexed when Srinath did not open the bowling in NZ.

 

Srinath was our spearhead for a long time who didn't get much support other than Prasad and later on Agarkar. To those of us who started watching in the 90s, Agarkar was a breath of fresh air compared to the trundling 90s. 

Edited January 3, 2022 by Clarke

[First class]

Prior to Kapil and Srinath , Indian pace attack was non-exiting , they were used to take off the shine from the ball for the spinners. Kapil was a class act  but Srinath was also was very very good bowler but he was in an era when Indian pacer would not able to put any pressure on opposition psychologically nit in SENA and Indian's were never sure of victory in SENA . Now a days , when Indian's play in SENA, they know they can win , bowlers are confident and able to exert pressure from both ends, that's why Shami , Bhumbra and gang are so successful. Had Srinath played in today's Indian team with same support from other end, he would have been equally if not more successful than Bhumbra and Shami. He was taller, faster and accurate. 

[raki05]

21 hours ago, Majestic said:

Srinath was overrated. Didn't know how to bowl overseas. Averages 36 overseas and is the major reason why India won zero tests overseas in 1990s with the Pakistanis laughing their ass off on the mediocrity of bowling we put up that decade whenever we travelled.

 

Also, he used to get sledged by batters. In contrast, pacers like Zaheer used to sledge several talismanic cricketers including AB de Villiers and JP Dumminy and got them out in big games.

Really??

[Majestic]

Kapil Dev remains India's greatest bowler by far with 434 test wickets to his name playing in non friendly conditions of India at an average under 30.

 

Both Zaheer and Srinath are clearly a level below as visible by their stats.

 

Shami I would say is somewhere in between the level of Kapil and Zak/Srinath. Very skillful but not able to run through sides as much as Bumrah does.

 

Potentially, Bumrah is the best.

[Majestic]

17 minutes ago, raki05 said:

Really??

I would say,  Srinath is comfortably behind Dev, Bumrah, Shami and even Zaheer as test pacer, more so in overseas tests where you need your pacers to be at their best to win games.

Edited January 4, 2022 by Majestic

[Clarke]

13 hours ago, vvvslaxman said:

 

That doesn't tell you the whole story. He played in Australia in 1992 as a rookie.  Next one was against ATG Australian side. In between never had a chance. In some of the series he was very unlucky not to have more wickets. AHe was one guy who created enough pressure that Prasad was able to capitalize on. One thing he lacked was raw aggression. Ganguly had an argument with him Srinath if i remember right. Ganguly asked him to be available for England tour i think. Srinath refused. In 2000 our team was more like Tendulkar or bust team. It was not easy to exert pressure on opposition like we do now. Imagine only Bumrah is bowling  with Unadkat, Vinay kuamr as back ups.  

 

Even in that tour, the fact that he was beating batsmen won't show on the scorecard. I think it was Langer who scored a big one, but the scorecard won't tell us that Srinath beat him like dozens of times, I recall that from the commentary. When one compares the corridor between Srinath & McGrath it becomes evident which one is more forceful in bringing the edges and bad shots. So he's not up to ATG legend level but he was a solid bowler to have. 

[Clarke]

Look at Srinath's and Prasad's workload compared to the rest of the top quicks. Rotator cuff was the top injury covered until it was replaced by tennis elbow.

 

He was extremely overused despite being a pace bowler when he started coz the cupboards were empty. 

 

 

[putrevus]

Srinath never had a wicket taking stock delivery. Always bowled short of good length. He was easily rattled when attacked by batsmen.


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[Real McCoy]

Srinath was the quickest bowler in India during the 90s. He bowled quicker than Kapil, Zaheer in their prime. SA batsmen said that much. In that series in 96/97, he was clocked at 156k faster than what Donald was clocked at. @Rightarmfast this is the thread for you. enlighten those who havent watched sri in his prime. Just for effort alone, Srinath wins the battle. I remember him destroying the saffers on a dustbowl in 96. Ahmedabad perhaps. also RAF claims he was blocked by Kapil for most of his early career because Kapil didn't want Srinath to gain popularity and probably gave him shitty advice. Sri OTOH helped Zaheer, Nehra, Agarkar, etc without claiming it. Just on that alone, Srinath is a better person than Kapil.

[putrevus]

Bowling faster means nothing. You need speed but this fascination by some people over speed gun readings is ridiculous.

[Real McCoy]

its not just speed. he was rushing a lot of batsmen and other bowlers like Prasad got wickets. You should see how many Prasad took when Srinath was not there. He left a big hole in the 97 season. IIRC this was where SL scored 900 runs

6 minutes ago, putrevus said:

Bowling faster means nothing. You need speed but this fascination by some people over speed gun readings is ridiculous.

 

[Pollack]

Bumrah who? Thakur is the real deal ! 

[vvvslaxman]

4 hours ago, Pollack said:

Bumrah who? Thakur is the real deal ! 

 

 

 

Ironically Thakur would have never had a Test career but for Bumrah's absence lol He was slated to be picked in place of Bumrah.

 

https://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/india-predicted-xi-for-4th-test-shardul-thakur-and-kuldeep-yadav-in-consideration-india-likely-to-play-both-pant-and-saha-101610611721137.html

 

India vs Australia: With Jadeja and Vihari ruled out, and an injury cloud over Bumrah, India may be forced to play Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav and Wriddhiman Saha in the fourth Test at Brisbane starting Friday.

 

Forced 

 

 

[Pollack]

9 hours ago, vvvslaxman said:

 

 

 

Ironically Thakur would have never had a Test career but for Bumrah's absence lol He was slated to be picked in place of Bumrah.

 

https://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/india-predicted-xi-for-4th-test-shardul-thakur-and-kuldeep-yadav-in-consideration-india-likely-to-play-both-pant-and-saha-101610611721137.html

 

India vs Australia: With Jadeja and Vihari ruled out, and an injury cloud over Bumrah, India may be forced to play Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav and Wriddhiman Saha in the fourth Test at Brisbane starting Friday.

 

Forced 

 

 

My comment wasn't meant to be taken seriously bro. Obviously bumrah is the real deal. But God bumrah is a choker as of now.

BTW, most of the awesome decisions of kohli were forced rather than intelligent choices. Atleast he has luck in these things.

Edited January 5, 2022 by Pollack