BT & KJ return summary

[jaybro]

12 games?

What's the point?

Should be at least double, especially considering Zimbabwe have no international series until March.

What will the players be doing?

[eugene]

But ultimately you want your highest paid players to do well against players from other teams. Doing well by Zimbabwean standards isn't going to win us anything. BTs stats would have been very good 10-15 years ago, but today they are just average. It really does show how our cricket is a decade behind the curve.

[CrimsonAvenger]

It's a good thread there jaybro. BT hasn't really disgraced himself, but yes, we do expect more from him. His litmus test is in BD, but I expect him to show that he can do well in alien conditions too, now that he has experience around the world. KJ was never an established white ball player, but has done decently in the format he was known to be good at. Just that we don't play enough tests for him to be useful. If we use himself as yardstick, then he has done much better with white ball than his first stint.

[Kriterion_BD]

We’re talking about Zimbabwe and comparing him to other batsman in the side.

Given that BT's position in the team is undisputed, thats a meaningless comparison. We can make that comparison for Waller or Chigumbura or Hamilton to see if they deserve a spot in the ZIM squad.

I would say, based on the small number of games, that BT and KJ have both performed about equally which is that they have neither met nor exceeded expectations. Here's my take:

BT has decent stats, as you've pointed out. In the must win games vs WI and UAE he hit a superb ton and had a failure. Thats neither bad nor awesome. Overall, I'd give him a 6.5 out of 10.

KJ has been mediocre in white ball cricket, but thats still a significant improvement to his pre-Lancs record. Yes he disappeared in the Qualifiers, but thats also his best format. In Tests he's been terrific, and a small sample size should not be held against him as he could have just as easily been tonked in those few innings. I'd give KJ a 6.5 out of 10 overall as well.

At the end of the day, 6.5 out of 10 is certainly good enough to walk into the ZIM side, so anyone who argues whether it was worth it to bring these guys back (ahem, HHM/ZCF Outkast), its very obvious it was worth it.

But if ZIM are to compete with the middling (ODI) sides like PAK, BD, SL, WI, AFG they will need those two to step their game up another notch, plus get Raza to perform as he was recently, and need Ervine, Cremer, and Chatara to get back to their best form as well. Overall a tall ask, unless others like Tari, Burl, and other youngsters start to massively up their contributions as well.

[jaybro]

I understand that our guys are way behind the other nations (that’s not breaking news) but saying BT hasn’t done enough (in ODI’s) I think is harsh. He’s averaged higher than his career average during his return so I think he has done his job.

It’s the other batsman that have let the side down only Raza can hold his head high the rest are averaging well below their career mark during this time.

Also saying if we want to compete against the best we need more from BT, well that’s also a bit harsh on BT and the blame needs to be targeted elsewhere. It’s not his fault that ZC can’t produce any good young players anymore, if Zimbabwe want to compete with the rest they’ll need more BT to average 60.

[jaybro]

Saying that BT and Jarvis were equal on performances in ODIs is laughable not even close to being in the same atmosphere.

[Kriterion_BD]

Saying that BT and Jarvis were equal on performances in ODIs is laughable not even close to being in the same atmosphere.

I had some dumb typos in my last post cuz I posted that from my Xbox One. But I think you got the correct gist despite that.

I meant BT and KJ have done equally well Across both formats as a whole (don’t care about T20s as it’s not real cricket IMO).

As for BT’s ODI game, 40 average at 85 strike rate is certainly NOT poor. It’s just not great like it was 10 or 20 years ago. 40 is the new 30 for ODIs. You have to remember that relatively unheralded players like Babar Azam it Ajinkya Rahane are averaging 50+ and 40+ respectively since the last World Cup.

[jaybro]

I get your point and yes it’s always good to compare yourself against the best, but realistically our guys aren’t in the class as Kohli, QDK, Rahane, Smith etc.

I did point out that BT only crossed 50 on the 4 occasions and his failure to play the match winning innings against the UAE were disappointments. But I think overall in the ODI format he’s been very good which is why I gave him a 8/10. Maybe if he averaged 60 and scored 200* v UAE he might have got 10

[Jemisi]

Both have been fine, both need to give us some more in BD.

[Conant]

Jarvis is better than Vitori.

Which Vitori, the one who allegedly chucks or you are just comparing figures. Either way you are dreaming and biased, as usual.