Most Selfish Indian Cricketer

[zen]

To add to the discussion, a few names below:

 

80s-90s 

 

Kapil Dev - His career is about capitalizing on a relatively short peak that he enjoyed in the early to late 80s. Said to have portrayed himself as undroppable, while working to keep bowlers who bowled quicker than him out of reckoning. Used Indian cricket to pursue a meaningless test record that he achieved by playing like 45 more tests than the guy whose record he was trying to break. Thankfully, his wish to play till the 1996 World Cup at home wasn’t fulfilled.

 

Ravi Shastri - As a batsman, just played according to what suited him in ODIs. As a bowler, was found out. In the 80s, Mithun would do multiple films and of those films, one would click at the box office. Based on that one film, he would get more films. Shastri did the same in cricket.  

 

Azhar - Folks have already written about him. 

 

90s-00s

 

Sachin - He was relatively decent in the 90s where he was portrayed like a one man army. But “people” put the 100s’ record in his mind. After that he was not the same player. Even in tests, especially overseas, he became “one 100 per series” player where he would hit a 100 in a series and probably think that his job was done. His “slowing down” in LOIs when nearing his 100 became his trademark. 

 

Ganguly - Another player who appeared to be playing for his runs. In 2000 Champions Trophy final, he ran out Sachin who was firing in that game. 

 

00s-20s:

 

R Jadeja - who can forget him running out Hardik Pandya in CT 2017 final. Maybe he is overrates his own abilities. 

 

Kohli, Rohit, etc - you know the story and their “politics”.

 

H Pandya - He appears to be highly self centered. 

 

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Edited August 18, 2024 by zen

[Lord]

3 hours ago, Nikhil_cric said:

He doesn't play white ball year round. Where was he in SL ODIs ?

 

He is not the most durable athlete. His frame is slight and wiry like Steyn - who was similarly built and not the most durable. 

 

Hardik has already had back injuries as well. 

 

If you want another 3 years out of him, he has to be used sparingly. 

 

 

Steyn played Tests and was a Test ATG. Its about prioritising.

[Nikhil_cric]

7 minutes ago, Lord said:

 

Steyn played Tests and was a Test ATG. Its about prioritising.

Steyn played Tests .

 

But SA schedule was never punishing like Big 3. They rarely played a 4 Test series. 

 

Also, Steyn was rested for a lot of ODIs and bilateral T20Is.

 

Even then Steyn's body started breaking down after 30 quite frequently 

 

[Lord]

2 hours ago, Nikhil_cric said:

Steyn played Tests .

 

But SA schedule was never punishing like Big 3. They rarely played a 4 Test series. 

 

Also, Steyn was rested for a lot of ODIs and bilateral T20Is.

 

Even then Steyn's body started breaking down after 30 quite frequently 

 

 

I'm not asking Pandya to play all Tests like Steyn anyway. He just needed to play SENA Tests and could have been rested from bilateral LOIs like Steyn was. Even if he could have played 2 Tests out of all SENA series, it would have been great for our balance.

[putrevus]

21 hours ago, Lord said:

 

I'm not asking Pandya to play all Tests like Steyn anyway. He just needed to play SENA Tests and could have been rested from bilateral LOIs like Steyn was. Even if he could have played 2 Tests out of all SENA series, it would have been great for our balance.

You just cannot wake up and play test cricket. You body needs to withstand the vigors of test cricket. That can only happen if you play FC cricket.If Pandya had played enough FC from younger age he would have had less injuries too, he was not good enough? He debuted FC in 2013.

[Lord]

3 hours ago, putrevus said:

You just cannot wake up and play test cricket. You body needs to withstand the vigors of test cricket. That can only happen if you play FC cricket.If Pandya had played enough FC from younger age he would have had less injuries too, he was not good enough? He debuted FC in 2013.

Could easily have done that sacrificing some white ball cricket.

[coffee_rules]

- Drawvid - post 2006 he was a stats-padded except for his last series in Eng. 

- Pujara for playing some very slow innings to get back into the side, taking body-blows etc.

- SRT maybe extended Test career 2 years. Every long-term cricketer can be called selfish.

- Ganguly was mediocre cricketeer was in the team only because he was the captain. Only when he was dropped, he came back and played some good innings.

- Kapil Dev may be extended his career 2 more years just like everybody else in India does.

- Even IVAR, Ponting have been accused of extending careers past their sell-by date.  Add Gooch, Gower, Anderson , Walsh to this list.

[Lord]

2 minutes ago, coffee_rules said:

- Drawvid - post 2006 he was a stats-padded except for his last series in Eng. 

- Pujara for playing some very slow innings to get back into the side, taking body-blows etc.

- SRT maybe extended Test career 2 years. Every long-term cricketer can be called selfish.

- Ganguly was mediocre cricketeer was in the team only because he was the captain. Only when he was dropped, he came back and played some good innings.

- Kapil Dev may be extended his career 2 more years just like everybody else in India does.

- Even IVAR, Ponting have been accused of extending careers past their sell-by date.  Add Gooch, Gower, Anderson , Walsh to this list.

That is not necessarily selfishness. They believe in their own abilities too much which makes them great in first place. Its for selectors to take the call.

[AKane]

10 minutes ago, Lord said:

That is not necessarily selfishness. They believe in their own abilities too much which makes them great in first place. Its for selectors to take the call.

True - sometimes players walked away from test cricket when they could still play well like Gavaskar in 1987. Sometimes selectors did the right thing like dropping Sobers and Kanhai from the WI team to India in 1974-75 and turning the captaincy over to Clive Lloyd.

 

Edited August 19, 2024 by AKane

[putrevus]

1 hour ago, Lord said:

Could easily have done that sacrificing some white ball cricket.

Thakur was better fit, so Pandya not playing was a blessing.

 

 

[Lord]

16 minutes ago, AKane said:

True - sometimes players walked away from test cricket when they could still play well like Gavaskar in 1987. Sometimes selectors did the right thing like dropping Sobers and Kanhai from the WI team to India in 1974-75 and turning the captaincy over to Clive Lloyd.

 

 

Retiring too soon is also a problem, specially if there's no alternative.

 

[Lord]

8 minutes ago, putrevus said:

Thakur was better fit, so Pandya not playing was a blessing.

 

 

 

No. Pandya could have provided great balance. We could have played one more seamer.

[coffee_rules]

37 minutes ago, Lord said:

That is not necessarily selfishness. They believe in their own abilities too much which makes them great in first place. Its for selectors to take the call.

How do you define selfish then? Maybe Pandu believes he can contribute more in white ball cricket with his limited physical abilities.  
 

My definition is using his power and clout to extend his career even though he doesn’t have the ability to fit in the 11. 

[Lord]

1 minute ago, coffee_rules said:

How do you define selfish then? Maybe Pandu believes he can contribute more in white ball cricket with his limited physical abilities.  
 

My definition is using his power and clout to extend his career even though he doesn’t have the ability to fit in the 11. 

He doesn't need to play bilateral LOIs and IPL for that. He completely gave up on Tests knowing how crucial he was to our Test side in SENA.

 

Selector's job is not give in to power and clout. Player will obviously try to play as much as they can. 

 

 

[putrevus]

17 minutes ago, Lord said:

 

No. Pandya could have provided great balance. We could have played one more seamer.

I don't think so.Thakur as a test bowler is better than Pandya. Thakur also has uncanny knack of scoring runs in crisis.

[AKane]

6 minutes ago, putrevus said:

I don't think so.Thakur as a test bowler is better than Pandya. Thakur also has uncanny knack of scoring runs in crisis.

Thakur had surgery in June btw....

 

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/india-news-shardul-thakur-undergoes-successful-foot-surgery-1438335

 

 

[putrevus]

13 minutes ago, AKane said:

Thakur had surgery in June btw....

 

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/india-news-shardul-thakur-undergoes-successful-foot-surgery-1438335

 

 

He should be ready then for Australian tour.

[Adamant]

Sachin

Kl Rahul

Pandya - gets fit before every IPL and doesn’t want to play tests at all. This body being fragile is the dumbest excuse, everyones body is fragile unless it is put through rigorous training and exercise.

Also the way he ditched his franchise was ridiculous.

 

[AKane]

 

1 hour ago, Lord said:

1 hour ago, AKane said:

True - sometimes players walked away from test cricket when they could still play well like Gavaskar in 1987. Sometimes selectors did the right thing like dropping Sobers and Kanhai from the WI team to India in 1974-75 and turning the captaincy over to Clive Lloyd.

 

 

Retiring too soon is also a problem, specially if there's no alternative.

 

Who retired too soon? Gavaskar played 16 years from 1971 - 87. That is enough is it not?

 

Besides the alternatives were there in Srikkanth, Sidhu and Shastri too.

[Lord]

4 minutes ago, AKane said:

 

 

Who retired too soon? Gavaskar played 16 years from 1971 - 87. That is enough is it not?

 

Besides the alternatives were there in Srikkanth, Sidhu and Shastri too.

 

Just saying it is, not referring to Gavaskar. People romanticize retiring early too much.