Let's start the year with some positivity, right?
Wrong.
I
did plan to shelve this because I thought it may be a tad late, but we're now halfway into the
Border-Gavaskar series, and I'm in the perfect frame of mind to indulge in some bitterness.
Here are the worst of 2011 then, and remember, it's always debatable.
Andrew Strauss (316 runs @ 28.72, 2 fifties): Strange year for him - he had come into some pretty good form in ODIs, and was great in the
World Cup, after which he quit LOIs. His form in Tests dipped, thanks to a well-publicized weakness facing anything with a left-arm. His year's high of
87 came against
India,
after Zaheer Khan was ruled out with injury. At
34, he won't be around long if this form continues, but we'd rather see him play on than see
Alistair Cook at the helm, inevitable though it may be.
Brendon McCullum (245 runs 24.50, 2 fifties): He made big runs in the last two years, including a
225 in
India and a hundred against
Australia, but since the start of 2011, he managed only
two fifties, both against
Pakistan. And it gets worse - in his last six innings, he only has
88 runs at a shade over 14. A player like him always has a big one around the corner, though, and his next opponent is
Zimbabwe.
Ramnaresh Sarwan (83 runs @ 10.37): Remember him? How
bad do you have to be, that despite
11 years of experience with around
11,500 international runs at a 40+ average, a team like the
West Indies, which is
starved of reliable batsmen, actually drops you? A comeback doesn't look likely soon, as he hasn't played any first-class cricket since the home Tests against India, and was ignored by
Guyana for the domestic T20s.
Mahela Jayawardene (517 runs @ 24.61, 1 hundred, 2 fifties): The latest entrant into the
10,000 club in both Tests and ODIs had just the one good series against
Australia at home. In
18 other innings, he averaged just
under 19, with a
high score of
49. 2012 hasn't begun well for him, as he scored
30 and
12 against
South Africa.
Jesse Ryder (97 runs @ 12.12): Very worrying return for such a talented player. Worrying for
New Zealand, that is... my brows are not easily furrowed. His noteworthy innings in Tests have all come against
India,
Sri Lanka and the
West Indies, and last year's failures were against the high-quality pace attacks of
Pakistan and
Australia. It won't get easier for the big man when they play
South Africa in
March - it will be a make or break series for him. And by that I mean it will either make him thirsty (you know) or it will break his duck.
{The Cricket Nerd: incorrectly deconstructing expressions since 1764}
Ashwell Prince (178 runs @ 22.25, 1 fifty): He really should have been dropped a while ago - he only has
three fifties since
March 2009. Luckily for him,
Duminy didn't do enough to replace him, but
Rudolph's return and subsequent shift to
#6 (where he scored an unbeaten
50 the other day), means that it will be tough for him to force his way back in.
Brad Haddin (335 runs @ 20.93, 2 fifties): B-Hads did his best to get himself on this list - he worked really hard all year to be recognized. Batting, keeping, throwing balled-up aluminium foil into a bin from a distance... he has messed up all of it. Sure,
T-Paine was injured, but
anyone could outperform him at this point.
Mitchell Johnson (13 wickets @ 56.61): This one was a no-brainer, really. The man has a whole
Barmy Army rhyme dedicated to him, for Sachin's sake. I'm just really surprised that Australia stuck with him for so long, when the likes of
Pattinson,
Cummins and
Copeland were lying around. And they miss him so much, that they bring in a likeness,
Mitchell Starc? Oh, Australia. If you weren't thrashing the pants off us (not in a dirty way), I'd laugh.
 |
| "The hell? Did I just move that with my mind? Damn, I'm sexy." |
Amit Mishra (7 wickets @ 61.85): Possibly the worst spinner to have played for India this decade? Keep in mind that list even includes
Piyush Chawla. He looked terrible in
England - he was too slow, could not contain the batsmen, and hardly looked like getting a wicket. I'd be surprised if he plays for India again. Like most Indian spinners that aren't
Pragyan Ojha, he even did better with the bat. Think about that:
Kumble scored a maiden hundred towards the end of his career,
Harbhajan scored two, and current culprit
Ashwin is making merry in the lower order.
Dilhara Fernando (7 wickets @ 57.42): Now here's a bowler that I've always wanted to put on a 'worst of' list. He's a wild card, by which I mean he has the extraordinary ability to produce more crap than a bucket of laxatives, out of which he'll occasionally produce something special. The fact that he has played
39 Tests can only be attributed to his nationality.
Shahadat Hossain (2 wickets @ 197): I was wary of putting a
Bangladeshi player here, because their individual performances are generally far from spectacular, but these numbers really amazed me. I mean, this is a man who is quick and who can get the ball to move - it's not just
2 wickets in 4 Tests that annoyed me, it's the
economy of 4.74! He sprays it so much, that... you know what, I don't have a joke for this. Get it together, man.
Surprise exclusions: Harbhajan Singh, Abhinav Mukund, Kemar Roach, Sreesanth. That's right, you guys were so bad you aren't even on my
worst list.
