India's Greatest Player against Genuine Fast Bowling

[Asoka]

Guys,who do you think is India's greatest batsman against genuine quicks?Here are a few who immediately come to my mind 1.Mohinder Amarnath - Mohinder was seen, in the latter part of his career, as the finest Indian batsman against express pace. Both Imran Khan and Malcolm Marshall have praised his batsmanship, courage and ability to endure and master pain. In 1982-83 Mohinder played 11 Test matches against Pakistan (5) and the West Indies (6) and scored over 1000 runs in the two series.In his "Idols", Sunil Gavaskar described Mohinder Amarnath as the finest batsman in the world.He made his first test century at Perth at the WACA (the fastest and bounciest wicket in the world) batting against Jeff Thomson at his fastest. He followed this test century with another 10 against top class fast bowling.Gideon Haigh writing in The Age says: "In an era replete with fast bowling and unrestricted in use of the bouncer, he never stopped hooking - despite many incentives to do so. He received a hairline fracture of the skull from Richard Hadlee, was knocked unconscious by Imran Khan, had teeth knocked out by Malcolm Marshall and was hit in the jaw so painfully by Jeff Thomson in Perth that he could eat only ice cream for lunch. 'What separated Jimmy from the others,' Michael Holding said, 'was his great ability to withstand pain . . . A fast bowler knows when a batsman is in pain. But Jimmy would stand up and continue.'In the Bridgetown Test during India's tour of the West Indies in 1982-83, Amarnath had to retire for stitches after being hit on the head. On returning to the game, he faced one of history's most lethal fast bowlers Michael Holding. It was a given that Holding would try to intimidate Amarnath by bowling a bouncer, and indeed he did so. While most would expect that a batsman in such a situation would do the prudent thing and duck, instead Amarnath stood his ground and hooked the ball to the boundary. 2.Gavaskar - Gavaskar was widely admired for his technique against fast bowling, with a particularly high average of 65.45 against the West Indies, who possessed a four-pronged fast bowling attack regarded as the most vicious in Test history.Enuff said. 3.Gundappa Vishwanath - He tended to produce his best performances on difficult pitches and a number of his best innings were not centuries, but were crucial to the team's cause.Against Australia and the West Indies, both known for their strong pace attacks, he had a batting average of over 50. He was at his peak in the mid-1970s. Against the West Indies at Madras in 1974-75 he scored 97 not out out of a total of 190 against a bowling attack containing Andy Roberts. Despite not being a century, it was regarded as one of the finest performances by an India and it led to an Indian victory.His matchwinning 124 out of 255 on another fiery, bouncy Madras wicket against West Indies in 1978-79, and innings of 83 and 79 against New Zealand on a Christchurch greentop in 1975-76 are also epic.Bradman called him a better batsman than Gavaskar after watching him tear apart Lillee and Thompson in one particular match.Andy Roberts called him the greatest batsman he has ever bowled to. My notable omissions-SRT,Dravid,VVS,Sandeep Patil

[Sooda]

Polly Umrigar

[vaibhav_delhi]

From the ones I have seen 1. Tendulkar 2. Dravid 3. Gambo I also liked the look of deep dasgupta. Laxman gets rattled by express pace, raina, dada cant play bounce all that well, sehwag sometimes lacks control. Dhoni has the potential to play great fast bowling imo.

[King Tendulkar]

Tendulkar and Gavaskar

[vamos_rafa]

Gavaskar, Amarnath,Dravid->Technically speaking these 3 are the best. SRT is in a different class altogether. He's always been able to find new ways to counter fast bowlers.

[ravishingravi]

Gavaskar, nothing else comes even close.

[Sir john]

laxman and sardesai

[Bublu Bhuyan]

[putrevus]

Amarnath for that one year 1982-83 was best player against genuine pace and bounce unlike these days the bounce those West Indian pace demons extracted was almost lethal.He was still very good other times but he was at his peak for those 11 tests. His two scores of 90 and 80 odd on that pacy and bouncy Barbados wicket in 1983 would be rated as the two best innings ever played any Indian batsmen against genuine pace bowling.The way he hooked Marshall, Holding, Garner and the master of two types of bouncers Roberts was just iincredible. Those guys used to aim those bouncers at the head and chest with their pace which still feel was much more express than any akthars or lees have ever bowled.Unless you were very short batsman you had to play those bouncers. Either batsmen were fending those bouncers off their gloves to slips behind or those who dared to play hook shot not the pull shot most modern batsmen have to play because no bowler these days can generate that bounce at that pace risked getting seriously hurt.If I am not wrong Amarnath was hurt in one of those knocks had to retire and came back and still scored those runs.

[jf1gp_1]

Sachin and Dravid

[Sachin=GOD]

Of the players I have seen, its Goddy, Dravid and Sehwag.

[straight.drive]

It is Sunny all the way..He is once in a generation batsman...

[hari504504]

Vijay Manjrekar ??... my grandfather used to rate him very high. His battle against Trueman in England is considered legendary. One of the biggest under achievers in Indian cricket along with Kambli.

[pensionplan]

Hard to pick one. A group of Vishy, Gavaskar, Laxman, Dravid, Tendulkar, Jimmy Amarnath are all good in handling quality pace through their careers. They won some battles and lost others. When you take into account the bowlers are there to get wickets too that is to be expected. It is unfair to pick one and leave someone out as they all have battled hard abroad to earn that.

[Asoka]

What is true is that the sight of today's pacers toiling on pancake pitches is not 1% as intimidating as a Holding or Thompson with a red cherry bowling on a lush green savannah pitch.Moreover earlier there wasn't much protective gear also.Raina (minus a helmet,thigh pad,elbow guard and chest guard) facing Thompson/Imran/Holding will be the ultimate gore + horror movie.So I guess today's players cannot even be compared to their great predeccesors. Even modern day greats like Sachin,Dravid,VVS and Ponting have been wanting in this department.Taking the example of Sachin,even he has struggled against the few good pacers he has faced in his lifetime(not to offend Sachin fans since I myself adore Sachin).Sachin,the greatest modern day batsman has been dominated by Akhtar,Bond,Waqar,Wasim,Ambrose,Walsh etc and has even been hit on the helmet numerous times.He would definitely have struggled against the likes of Holding,Lillee,Thommo,etc. So I would rate SMG,GRV and MA over the modern day masters in this department.Would love to hear the thoughts of fellow ICF members.

[Sooda]

Vijay Manjrekar ??... my grandfather used to rate him very high. His battle against Trueman in England is considered legendary. One of the biggest under achievers in Indian cricket along with Kambli.

Thats a good call. Even Hazare for that matter, the only other Indian bat of that era who could hold his own vs Trueman and the guy scored two tons in a match vs Lindwall and Miller so cant be a mug. Not quite the same calibre of pace bowling that Amarnath faced though

[Sooda]

Even modern day greats like Sachin' date='Dravid,VVS and Ponting have been wanting in this department.[b']Taking the example of Sachin,even he has struggled badly against the few good pacers he has faced in his lifetime(not to offend Sachin fans since I myself adore Sachin).Sachin,the greatest modern day batsman has been dominated by Akhtar,Bond,Waqar,Wasim,Ambrose,Walsh etc and has even been hit on the helmet numerous times.He would definitely have struggled against the likes of Holding,Lillee,Thommo,etc.

Hmm. Somehow I am not sure that is true, needs looking into.

[youngindia]

Taking the example of Sachin,even he has struggled badly against the few good pacers he has faced in his lifetime(not to offend Sachin fans since I myself adore Sachin).Sachin,the greatest modern day batsman has been dominated by Akhtar,Bond,Waqar,Wasim,Ambrose,Walsh etc

My pet annoyance. people spreading myths/wrong info. there is no basis for your comments. mcgrath,gillespie,murali and donald had reasonable sucess but then sachin had sucess against them as well. none of these bowlers had anything to trouble sachin consistently. when you have trouble against a bowler consistently , its because you don't read him or pick him. for instance the trouble we had against mendis in his first 6 months. that's how it works i have seen nothing of that sort sachin has suffered with relation to any of the bowlers. there is a small case for walsh who dismissed him with a rising delivery in their last few odi's.but its inconceivable it would have continued beyond one season. there have been bowlers like collins and razzaq who troubled him for one season as well. but he has always figured them out. one guy who has had surprising sucess has been hansie cronje. waqar/wasim didn't have huge sucess against india in general in tests and sachin didn't play much against them in tests.he has not played much against bond either, the one series being a joke played on rubbish pitches. from the little action we did see, there was nothing to indicate that either of the bowlers had any magic wand to trouble sachin all the time. i don't know why you mention ambrose at all. his one notable sucess the delivery in the ODI in the nz match by a ball that lifts up sharply closer to the chest. high quality bowlers will trouble anyone ,similarly high quality batsmen will trouble anyone as well. it goes one sided only when one side can't pick the other properly at all. for example cullinan against warne. it has not been true in sachin's case certainly not consistently. richards and gavaskar had their share of defeats as well.

[achilles]

Jimmy and Sunny.

[dhillon28]

Tendulkar Gavaskar Visvanath