Umar Akmal, he has not produced for us since his debut... I'm actually begining to lose my patience with him!

You can't look beyond Sehwag. The mother of all fat track bullies.

I will be a bit harsh but, currently I think 2 teams are very overhyped. One being pakistan. I believe with, amir and asif gone, they will really struggle in conditions outside subcontinent. remember even against australia and england they were at most times getting bowled between 90-150. And the only people that brought them to the game were asif and amir. Now they will taste their both weaknesses and will struggle in both areas. Im wondering how pak fans feel about their team outside asia against teams like aus, england and sa?
The next thing is I feel england bench strength is very overhyped. England fans have to agree with me here? There bowling looks ok, and their batting has been horrific. The likes of bopara, samit patel, bairstow, and james taylor are not even in the picture any more.

About a single player, I would somewhat agree with know it all and kash that swann and sehwag are overhyped atm. Remember both this players before have proved their worth, and hence its only in the last 2 years for sehwag outside asia has been overhyped. You cannot single out sehwag being overhyped for all of his career as he has scored match changing centuries outside asia many times against better bowlers than the current lot.

You are a hard man to please viru. We whitewashed you 4:0 with our overhyped team

As for my vote then there is only 1 person - Sehwag. A walking wicket.

I know some people on here will remember what i said about Bairstow, he's simply not good enough, the way he got out today was just embarassing for the lad. Get him out of the team now. We cant have children playing in a test match and against the South Afrians he will get murdered. Its funny how my preferred choice Morgan smashed a 100 today, shame it had to be against Lancs! We MUST get Morgan in for the South Africa series, the way he performed against them in the past, well i think Steyn still has nightmares of the Six that Morgan hit against him that went many a mile.

Interesting to see Umar Akmal suggested, he is whats wrong with the modern day cricketer. Shane Warne once told a story of how during the England Test series, the akmal brothers ran after Warne begging him to sign them up for the IPL...this was during a test match! If i was Warne i would of smacked them both.

mychest, we are talking about overhyped players. India after getting 8-0 whitewash are no longer hyped. If this article was about a bad team then i would have definately mentioned india, but that is out of the topic.
I havent said england is overhyped, I have said their bench strength is. Give me one player from the bench that has performed to the standards that people talk about?

interesting comment re morgan.the lad was bedding in nicely last summer offering so much more than bairstow does.seems to me morgan was the scapegoat for the pakistan defeat.bell and pietersen were just as bad out there but kept their place.i suspect the coming one dayers will decide who bats 6 in the sa tests.bopara,morgan,bairstow,taylor,compton,butler all in contention for me.

Couldn't disagree more re. Swann.

I wouldn't even say Swann is particularly hyped, so how he can be 'over-hyped' is beyond me.

Most acknowledge that Swann had a disappointing tour of the UAE, even with his impressive stats. In Sri Lanka he pretty much bowled us to victory in our only victory of the Winter. That's a fact.

You can't deny that Swann is a consistent match winner in the right conditions. He's proved it on multiple occasions.

You also can't deny that he can hold up an end. A career economy of 2.97 over 44 matches in all conditions proves as much. He's also been part of a 4 man attack that has taken England to the top of the rankings.

If people are saying that he is the next Shane Warne, then he's over-hyped. But they're not.

If people are saying he has the mystery of Murali, then he's over-hyped. But they're not.

If people are saying he's currently the best spinner in the world, then he's not over-hyped.

i dont think there are that many in test cricket, compared with other sports.

maybe it's because test cricket really does find you out. there have been a few players whose pre test career was overhyped, but i dont see too many players having inappropriate reputations once they become establised at the top level.

one that stands out for me though is courtney walsh. no doubt a very good bowler, but a big factor in the number of wickets he took was his physical fitness and freeness from injuries. i would say that several of the bowlers that he played alongside were better than him, yet he ended up taking more wickets than any of them.

I personally don't think Courtney Walsh was overrated, he may not have been Ambrose but he was certainly WI's best bowler since Ambrose.

I reckon Mitchell Johnson is incredibly overrated by a lot of Australians. Think Watson is a tad overrated too. Matt Prior is another who I think is rated a little more highly than he should. Morne Morkel, Zaheer Khan and Mendis also make my list.

duncan zaheer khan is a class. I think you are saying this after his australian tour. but dont forget he was coming out from an ankle surgery and we all know that after this surgery zak will never be himself. He is the reoson and the only reoson why india were able to stay no.1 for such a long time.

I personally don't think Courtney Walsh was overrated, he may not have been Ambrose but he was certainly WI's best bowler since Ambrose.
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I actually think that I might have slightly missed the point.

It may be that you dont agree with this either, but what i really meant with the walsh reference is that whilst i think that ordinarily test statistics don't lie, walsh's figures - especially wickets taken - overstate how good he was. There are probably at least half adozen of his own team mates who I would rank higher or as high as him at their absoloute best, yet he is the 2nd highest wicket taker of any fast/fast medium bowler from any country.

Angelo Matthews
Umer Gul
Gatham Gambhir
Stuart Broad
Shane Watson

Shiv Chanderpaul

ian salisbury
john crawley
jason gallian
phil hughes

Sachin Tendulkar

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

I do kind of agree the point about Walsh to an extent... and it's because of a fundamental difference between bowling stats and batting stats.

As a batsman the number of runs you can score is theoretically limitless provided you're good enough. Apart from your own mistake, the only thing that can end your innings is a declaration, or your other ten team-mates getting out. In both those cases yuo get a 'not-out' so your avaerage doesn't suffer.

As a bowler there's a ceiling of 20 wickets per test, no matter how good you are. If you're one of 4 equally skilled bowlers you're on average going to pick up just under 5 wickets per test (to allow for the odd run-out).

On the other hand, if you're the stand-out bowler in an otherwise mediocre attack (e.g. Murali) you're going to take 5-fers and 10-fers much more regularly that your equally skilled couterpart in a strong attack.

The bowling AVERAGE will still tell the story, but your aggregate wickets stat may say as much about the weakness of the rest of the attack, as it does about the strength of the individual bowler.

As an extreme example, look at Colin Croft - hardly had a test career at all becasue of the strength of others. Transplant him into today's test scene, and I'd wager he'd be the number one test bowler in the rankings.

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On the original point about over-rated I'd nominate the 'middlesex spin twins' John embury and Phil Edmonds. I've always thought if they'd been playing for an unfashionable shire county instead of Middlesex they'd never have got selected for the test team in the first place.

On the other hand, if you're the stand-out bowler in an otherwise mediocre attack (e.g. Murali) you're going to take 5-fers and 10-fers much more regularly that your equally skilled couterpart in a strong attack.

The bowling AVERAGE will still tell the story, but your aggregate wickets stat may say as much about the weakness of the rest of the attack, as it does about the strength of the individual bowler.
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I agree with that part of your post.

I dont think that's why walsh has so many wickets though because he had quality bowlers alongside him for much of his career. he just never misssed a game and stayed fit for a very long time.

I don't think anyone rates Walsh higher than say, Ambrose, Garner, Holding or Marshall, but I don't think anyone rates him higher than those bowlers. I don't reckon he's overrated, he was an incredibly good bowler and he's definitely in the top 10 bowlers of the last 20 years.

Shiv Chanderpaul? Are you mad, the man is a class batsman who had to bat in a terrible team, can't see how he is overrated.

Zaheer Khan is a very very good player, but some Indian fans think he is one of the best bowlers of the last 10 years, I don't really see this.

From what I seem to remember, Shiv Chanderpaul (whilst being one of the best 2 or 3 batsman for the West Indies) tends to often bat at 5 or 6, which means he bats very often with the tail.

He bats really badly with the tail, often taking singles in the first or second ball of the over leaving the 9, 10 and Jack exposed. He also hardly ever accelerates or takes risks when the wickets are tumbling. A 20 or 30 run burst at the end of the innings (even if you do get out) could be the difference between success and failure to win a test. Chanderpaul usually plays safe, stays not out, tailenders are taken out and the team suffers.

Again, no stats in front of me, but I'm pretty sure Chanderpaul has got a high number of not outs boosting his average. Whilst he may be a good batsman, you can't judge how good a batsman is by simply looking at stats.

How many games has Shiv won for the West Indies?
Probably less than Gayle who has played in the same team and has a lower average.

There are times when walsh only got into the windies side because others were injured. On that basis, he's at best the 5th best bowler in that side at that particular time. Yes he is 2nd in the all time test wicket takers' list (apart from the two spinners). That must be misleading.

Yes, and for the years after Ambrose retired he was WI's best bowler.

"As a batsman the number of runs you can score is theoretically limitless provided you're good enough. Apart from your own mistake"

Are you Geoff Boycott in disguise? Bowlers can bowl well and get batsmen out...

Harbhajan Singh. As far as i'm concerned a bog standard average international spinner, but he seemed to be made out as something special