WHAT A GREAT FAST BOWLER was WAQAR ?

[Gunner]

Waqar is one of the greatest Strike bowlers in the history of cricket. He had an incredible career Strike Rate of 43 despite playing mostly in the Subcontinent (IMO Strike rate is the best stat to assess a Test Fast bowler). His stock ball was the full inswinging delivery, and some of which would swing a metre at pace before destroying the stumps. I rate him a better fast bowler than Wasim, who was more versatile. Don't know why, but he was quite poor against India, averaged 49 against us in tests.

[don_corleone840]

Waqar is one of the greatest Strike bowlers in the history of cricket. He had an incredible career Strike Rate of 43 despite playing mostly in the Subcontinent (IMO Strike rate is the best stat to assess a Test Fast bowler). His stock ball was the full inswinging delivery, and some of which would swing a metre at pace before destroying the stumps. I rate him a better fast bowler than Wasim, who was more versatile. Don't know why, but he was quite poor against India, averaged 49 against us in tests.

frankly speaking he was no match to wasim.Wasim was ALIEN.He had a gravitational control over swing

[Utalk]

Gunner Waqar never played India during his peak. He made his debut against them and then played ten years later in India when he passed his sell by date.

[Utalk]

frankly speaking he was no match to wasim.Wasim was ALIEN.He had a gravitational control over swing

As a test bowler I rate Waqar better. Wasim had more tricks but our most high profile series Waqar out performed him.

[The Outsider]

Vastly overrated bowler - perhaps the worst bowler in the sub 25 club. Feasted on weak NZ, SL, and Zimbabwe line ups.

[Ram]

Vastly overrated bowler - perhaps the worst bowler in the sub 25 club. Feasted on weak NZ' date=' SL, and Zimbabwe line ups.[/quote'] Not to be opportunistic and rain on the Waqar parade, but its hard not to look at these videos from the 90s, seeing how the ball is swinging many miles, how many bottle tops and gravel filled pockets were in operation back then? :phehehe: Ravi Shastri hit the nail right on the centre of the head when he said - As the number of hi-def cameras on the ground increased, in seemed to have inverse relationship on the swing the Pakistani bowlers could get.

[Utalk]

Vastly overrated bowler - perhaps the worst bowler in the sub 25 club. Feasted on weak NZ' date=' SL, and Zimbabwe line ups.[/quote'] Such a poor comment! I am amazed. Waqar averaged 23 against WI who was one of the toughest opponent of his time. Eng he played a key role in us winning there 92-96. He was against central to a 1-1 series against a strong SA side in SA 98 and has very good record against them. His numbers are poor against India against whom he never played at his peak. Average of 33 against is not a disaster by any definition.

[ravishingravi]

Waqar was brilliant. But imo, there is Wasim and then there are rest.

[rkt.india]

Vastly overrated bowler - perhaps the worst bowler in the sub 25 club. Feasted on weak NZ' date=' SL, and Zimbabwe line ups.[/quote'] Why others could not feast on them?

[panther]

nz was a better team if not as good as india in the 90s, zimbabwae were okish.

[Raghav_12]

Why others could not feast on them?

Not in context of this discussion but in general this line of argument is very flawed. Some people are better at minnow bashing then others that doesn't mean that they are definitely better than others. There would be many players who would have better averages at FC level then ones who established themselves at international level, like Graeme Hick. But that doesn't mean that Grame Hick was better than say Stewart or Atherton. You can't use argument if FC cricket was easy then why couldn't Atherton could score as much as Hick. That's useless argument. PS - My this post is not in context of discussion in this thread. I personally feel that Waqar was very good bowler.

[rkt.india]

Not in context of this discussion but in general this line of argument is very flawed. Some people are better at minnow bashing then others that doesn't mean that they are definitely better than others. There would be many players who would have better averages at FC level then ones who established themselves at international level, like Graeme Hick. But that doesn't mean that Grame Hick was better than say Stewart or Atherton. You can't use argument if FC cricket was easy then why couldn't Atherton could score as much as Hick. That's useless argument. PS - My this post is not in context of discussion in this thread. I personally feel that Waqar was very good bowler.

But NZ was better than India on those days. As Utalk said he has done as good against England and SA as well.

[munafbhai]

It is a surprising coincidence though and a pointer as well. With the HD technology and number of cameras growing on ground and zooming on in the cricket ball every minute of match increased ,surprisingly the swing decreased alarmingly.Around same time the bottle caps of cold drinks started to be made of plastic. Besides it is also important to note the relation of neutral umpires. Pakistan's dramatic wins stopped as soon neutral umpires ventured into the games. The only thing that can be genuinely credit ot Waqar = pace.

[Utalk]

It is a surprising coincidence though and a pointer as well. With the HD technology and number of cameras growing on ground and zooming on in the cricket ball every minute of match increased ,surprisingly the swing decreased alarmingly.Around same time the bottle caps of cold drinks started to be made of plastic. Besides it is also important to note the relation of neutral umpires. Pakistan's dramatic wins stopped as soon neutral umpires ventured into the games. The only thing that can be genuinely credit ot Waqar = pace.

So there were no cameras around when Jones and co reverse swung Aus in 2005? Zaheer khan was getting reverse swing in 2007-2010. You are talking as if 90s was in 18th century and there was no decent coverage. As for neutral umpires it was Pakistan who pushed for them and appointed neutral umpires in late 80s. We won 80% of 20 odd ODIs in India against India 84-05 with both Indian umpires.