11 underrated test cricketers

what is your test side full of underrated cricketers...this is mine, let me know what you think and of course make your own

1.Brendan Taylor
2.Graeme Smith
3.Azhar Ali
4.Darren Bravo
5.VVS Laxman
6.Misbah ul-Haq
7.Mark Boucher
8.Darren Sammy
9.Nathan Lyon
10.Steven Finn
11.Lonwabo Tsotsobe

Don't think that Smith is under-rated by any stretch, neither is VVS Laxman.

Finn I wouldn't say is under-rated. He is clearly recognised as a huge talent, but has been expensive as well as taking wickets thus far so people are just reserving judgement on him whilst he beds in.

I don't think too much of Nathan Lyon.

Tsotsobe is a good call, he is a very decent bowler. Not a world beater, but effective.

Cf, i will consider my team and post it later.

G. Smith, Laxman and Boucher are very, very much highly rated in the cricket world. Lyon is getting plenty of plaudits.

No's 1,3,4,6,10 and 11 are good to very good cricketers, but Sammy i believe will never be rated.

fists have u seen lyon bowl since he got in the aussie side? he has been taking wickets and keeping things tight, he is doing superbly well.

Yeah he's done pretty well...however, he doesn't do anything brilliantly. Not much turn, decent control. Reminds me of Paul Harris a bit in that he will never be massively dangerous, but will always do a good job.

Gotta say I agree with FoF with regards to Nathan Lyon. HE seems to be a bowler of heart more than talent. Nothing wrong with that, but the better batsmen will sort him out. After all he got Williamson with some decent pressure, but his other 3 wickets where tailenders. He didn't pose much threat to Vettori or Brownie

Tough one this one, always hard to define exactly what is meant by underrated. Underrated by whoom? I would suggest no one in international cricket is underrated by those in the know, but the general public at large is a different story. I suppose one can loosely define it as "doesn't necessarily get the credit they deserve". In which case I think G. Smith does perhaps qualify.

Let me just throw out a few names of people I feel don't/didn't get enough credit for their achievements.

Larry Gomes (guilford will like this): often the glue that held a great West Indian line-up together.

Darren Lehman (ODIs, sorry for going off topic): played loads of important innings in what was unquestionably the best ODI side of all time. Usually batted in the unglamorous middle-overs, and of course was surrounded by Gilchrist, Hayden, Ponting and Symonds. Canny bowler and surprisingly agile fielder also.

Damien Martyn: ridiculously good record, numerous important innings, but suffered from being barely the 5th best batsman in his country.

Kallis (until recently): despite figures which stack up with almost anyone who's ever played the game, for a long time no one ever mentioned his name amongst the great batsmen. My feeling is this is changing somewhat.

Younus Khan: excellent record, good fielder, great player of spin. Seems forgotten.

Dinesh Ramdhin: Underrated by his own country. I have no idea which genius at the WICB thinks Baugh is better, but they are mistaken.

Bichel: outshined by his more illustrious team-mates McGrath, Warne and Lee but Bichel contributed so many important performances to a great australian side. Would get into most international sides in history, but never really nailed down a starting test place.

S. Pollock: ridiculous amount of wickets, great longetivity, great record in all formats. Yet has anyone ever put him in their world 11?

Sticking to some off-topic, I always thought Brad Hogg didn't get enough credit for being the 2nd best spinner around in ODI cricket (after Murali) while he was playing.

Zaheer Khan very much like Kallis has only recently gotten the credit he deserves for being a genuinely great player.

Mike Selig wrote:

Let me just throw out a few names of people I feel don't/didn't get enough credit for their achievements.

Larry Gomes (guilford will like this): often the glue that held a great West Indian line-up together.

Guildford likes that enormously.

Mike Selig wrote:Tough one this one, always hard to define exactly what is meant by underrated. Underrated by whoom? I would suggest no one in international cricket is underrated by those in the know, but the general public at large is a different story. I suppose one can loosely define it as "doesn't necessarily get the credit they deserve". In which case I think G. Smith does perhaps qualify.

Let me just throw out a few names of people I feel don't/didn't get enough credit for their achievements.

Larry Gomes (guilford will like this): often the glue that held a great West Indian line-up together.

Darren Lehman (ODIs, sorry for going off topic): played loads of important innings in what was unquestionably the best ODI side of all time. Usually batted in the unglamorous middle-overs, and of course was surrounded by Gilchrist, Hayden, Ponting and Symonds. Canny bowler and surprisingly agile fielder also.

Damien Martyn: ridiculously good record, numerous important innings, but suffered from being barely the 5th best batsman in his country.

Kallis (until recently): despite figures which stack up with almost anyone who's ever played the game, for a long time no one ever mentioned his name amongst the great batsmen. My feeling is this is changing somewhat.

Younus Khan: excellent record, good fielder, great player of spin. Seems forgotten.

Dinesh Ramdhin: Underrated by his own country. I have no idea which genius at the WICB thinks Baugh is better, but they are mistaken.

Bichel: outshined by his more illustrious team-mates McGrath, Warne and Lee but Bichel contributed so many important performances to a great australian side. Would get into most international sides in history, but never really nailed down a starting test place.

S. Pollock: ridiculous amount of wickets, great longetivity, great record in all formats. Yet has anyone ever put him in their world 11?

Sticking to some off-topic, I always thought Brad Hogg didn't get enough credit for being the 2nd best spinner around in ODI cricket (after Murali) while he was playing.

Zaheer Khan very much like Kallis has only recently gotten the credit he deserves for being a genuinely great player.

Fantastic post. I don't think that Shaun Pollock makes it into a world 11 but I agree - he should at least be mentioned along the other greats. I used to be terrified when he would bowl against Pakistan - I wasn't bothered too much about Donald or Kallis - just when Pollock came on - there was a wealth of skill and experience mixed with a quiet intelligence. I remember him being cricketer of the year once or twice along with being top of the bowling rankings - for one or two years. If I remember correctly he was also a fairly handy batsman who got SA out of a scrape or two - SA used to have competent batsmen all the way to number 10 and number 11 was Allan Donald

Bichel was such a difficult bowler to play - the pressure would pile on - even in a test match - the batsman would be bogged down , then either panic and do something stupid or get over anxious and turn the bat too early/late and give a catch to the inside field.

Younus is Pakistans Dravid - only difference is that India appreciate Dravid.

Zaheer isnt underrated, he gets rated by a lot of people

I think it was at the 2003 WC when England played Australia and England needed to win to progress, and Bichel took 7-20 off 10 overs (!) and yet, perhpas more importantly, he came out at number 10 and scored 34* and allowed the master Michael Bevan to get Australia over the line. Certainly underated! If he was any other nationality he would probably be a great for that country!

And another one, and I am probably going to get roasted for this but I am going to say it, Ashley Giles. Remembered more fondly now than he was when he played, but he knew his limitations when he bowled and played to them. A great team man, always could be relied on by the captain and scored vital runs down the order. I think he highest Test score was again Australia second innings at the Oval in 05. He is remembered rather jokingly as the "wheelie bin" but we shouldn't forget that he could actually play cricket a bit aswell!

Giles was slightly underrated, however Bichel wasnt consistent enough to be classed as underrated.

JDizzle wrote: Ashley Giles. .....He is remembered rather jokingly as the "wheelie bin" !

IMO the best nickname in cricket....

In earlier generations a rather under rated character was Barry Knight. Regularly dropped and recalled by England he did a useful job as an all rounder....

cricketfan90 wrote:Zaheer isnt underrated, he gets rated by a lot of people

I agree he is now, but for a long time he wasn't (similarly to Kallis).

JDizzle wrote:
And another one, and I am probably going to get roasted for this but I am going to say it, Ashley Giles. Remembered more fondly now than he was when he played, but he knew his limitations when he bowled and played to them. A great team man, always could be relied on by the captain and scored vital runs down the order. I think he highest Test score was again Australia second innings at the Oval in 05. He is remembered rather jokingly as the "wheelie bin" but we shouldn't forget that he could actually play cricket a bit aswell!

About right. Giles's record wasn't really any worse than any other spinner since Underwood (Panesar and Swann not included). He certainly compared reasonably with Emburey, Edmonds and Tufnell (and of course scored hatful more runs than the latter two). IIRC he came in at the Oval with the score on around 200/7, and England in real danger of collapsing and giving Australia a sniff. Everyone rightly remembers the Pietersen innings, but without Giles he may have been left stranded.

good shout on Giles, I was going to mention him too. People remember the way his career ended (with him ludicrously keeping Panesar out of the side in Adelaide, a decision which probably cost England any chance at retaining the Ashes), but it's forgotten that for many years he was England's best spinner, and was a very valuable cricketer for England in that time. Produced some genuine match-winning performances, and almost always could be relied on to keep an end tied up. Also remains the only bowler to have got Tendulkar stumped in a test match

on the theme of fine players in a great side being over-looked, Langer has always seemed to live in the shadow of Hayden, but in tricky conditions he was the better bet IMO.

Nasser Hussain is often remembered for his captaincy, but his batting tends to be under-rated for me, he consistently made runs when his country needed it the most.

Langer was certainly underrated, good shout mfc.

Ravi Rampaul

1.ravi rampaul
2. mohammad hafeez

I always thought that Paul Collingwood never really got the credit he deserved.

tigerrobins wrote:I always thought that Paul Collingwood never really got the credit he deserved.

completely agree.

A couple of Bears players I reckon are a little underated:

Dennis Amiss:
OK a couple of people have (quite rightly) mentioned him on the top 10 openers thread, but generally he is rarely mentioned in discussions about the best English batsmen since the war. But an overall average better than that of Cowdrey, Gower, Gooch or Thorpe and an average as an opener comparable to almost any opener in history surely means that, despite his failures against Australia, that is exactly what he was.

Bob Willis:
Yes Willis is rated, but I don't think that he gets the credit he truly deserves. 325 wickets at an average only surpassed by Trueman, Bedser and Statham among England pace bowlers who have taken 100+ wickets since the war (and then only just by Bedser and Statham, who both had worse strike rates than Willis). CLR James, the famous anti-imperialist, Marxist, West Indian cricket lover reckoned that, in the mid 1970s, a period in which Lillee, Thompson, Holding, Roberts etc were playing Willis was the best fast bowler in the world. You may not agree, but I reckon he was closer than is often acknowledged.

Collingwood, I think, should be regarded as a terrific CRICKETER in that he was a gritty batsman who absolutely made the most of what he had, a useful bowler and a wonderful fielder.
This cracking batsman/fielder combination was also present - at least in one-day games - by Nick Knight.
Some people just look like solid, professional, competent hard-working cricketers - and Knight and Collie certainly are among them.

The Phantom Chris Martin is vastly under rated. When he first into the side, he was seen more as injury cover for Bond, Butler and Tuffey. Whilst the main 3 where nearly all ways injured, The Phantom has racked up 200 Test wickets, but rarely gets a mention.

cricketfan90 wrote:what is your test side full of underrated cricketers...this is mine, let me know what you think and of course make your own

1.Brendan Taylor
2.Graeme Smith
3.Azhar Ali
4.Darren Bravo
5.VVS Laxman
6.Misbah ul-Haq
7.Mark Boucher
8.Darren Sammy
9.Nathan Lyon
10.Steven Finn
11.Lonwabo Tsotsobe

I think some of those players are rated quite highly (at least by the wider cricket community, if not in their own country).

Tsotsobe's an interesting call. I think he's a typical IPL type bowler. Not much pace, so batsmen can't use it against him, but not a great threat either, unless batsmen are playing big shots. Essentially he's a medium pace trundler of the type England used to produce so many of, and now India seems to have in droves.