6 Pairs of Cricketers with almost the same game

6 Pairs of Cricketers with almost the same game: Every batsman has a unique set of shots and every bowler has a different way of holding the ball. Rahul Dravid would never see a long hop like Andrew Symonds, and Shoaib Akhtar would never want to bowl like Glen McGrath. That is to say, the attributes about every cricket player differ largely from those of his counterparts and that is actually how it should be, that is what makes the game interesting. And yet there have been instances when some players have seemed to imitate some others so much, that it is unbelievably similar. There have been examples of striking resemblance between players in regards of shot selection, back lifts, and stances or bowling styles and peculiar manners of spinning or swinging the ball. We studied some such players extensively, and here we bring you 6 Pairs of Cricketers with almost the same game. 1. Sachin Tendulkar & Sir Don Bradman: Sachin Tendulkar & Sir Don Bradman. (© Getty Images) How they reflect each other?: Two of the greatest men to have ever stood at the crease, Sachin Tendulkar and Sir Don Bradman both shared a very similar batting technique. Both of these batsmen played with their heads down – that is to say, their eyes were always fixed on the connection between the bat and the ball and therefore, they seldom played any loose shots in their entire international cricket careers. That is why perhaps, when Bradman saw Tendulkar playing, it reminded him of his own prime time. Similar manners of timing the shot, similar ways of balancing the body weight, making a difficult stroke seem a lot easier, and a very good temperament as long as they were on the field is what makes Tendulkar and Bradman very, very similar to each other when they bat. What is the difference?: The only difference between the Master Blaster and the Don of Cricket would be that since Bradman played every shot with some amount of calculation, he was far clean in a technical aspect than Tendulkar. Before sending the ball beyond the boundaries, it seemed like Bradman played the stroke in his mind over and over again. Sachin Tendulkar, though a very sound batsman technically, didn’t look as clean as as Bradman because most of his shots came spontaneously – something we believe he learnt in his teenage years in the Kanga League. 2. Brian Lara & Darren Bravo (West Indies): Brian Lara & Darren Bravo. (© Getty Images) How they reflect each other?: We can sum this up in a short story: One day God was tired of making new batsmen with different styles and unique footwork so once, just once, he put a man named Darren Bravo in the same pattern that was originally made for another bloke named Brian Lara. That might well explain how insanely similar Lara and Bravo are. With the same stances, same manners of approaching the ball, a footwork that can well be called ditto, and the strikingly similar back-lifts, Brian Lara and Darren Bravo share a lot in common including the genes (they are cousins and come from the same family-tree)! What is the difference?: Lara was always more unorthodox in his shot selection. In other words, he played quite bravely and some times even bluffed with good balls to weigh his chances of scoring some easy runs. Bravo on the other hand is more careful than Lara and would seldom even dream of playing the dangerous hook with absolutely zero ease and a lot of power that Lara some times executed just fine! 3. Abdul Qadir & Mushtaq Ahmed (Pakistan): Abdul Qadir & Mushtaq Ahmed. (Photo Source: PA Photos / ESPNcricinfo Ltd) How they reflect each other?: When Mushtaq Ahmed began his stride towards the peak of his career as a specialist bowler, he was always seen as the heir to Pakistani-legend Abdul Qadir who showed Pakistan the magic of leg-spin first-hand. There was a very striking similarity in the way both these blokes spun the ball – with their wrists! Further Mushtaq Ahmed soon learned the techniques of trapping the batsmen in humid conditions on turning wickets from Qadir and the imitation was so clean that he was never much acknowledged for being himself as much as he was for trying to be Abdul Qadir. What is the difference?: Their bowling styles. For a leg-spinner, Mushaq Ahmed had quite an odd way of bowling whereas Qadir bowled in a more conventional fashion. This made it easier for Qadir to improvise his bowling and baffle the batsmen continuously. Needless to say, he ended up on a far successful level than Ahmed. 4. Rahul Dravid & Cheteshwar Pujara (India): Rahul Dravid & Cheteshwar Pujara. (© AFP) How they reflect each other?: Unlike many, I would not go as far as calling Pujara the new Dravid but I’d definitely say that there is a lot of similarity between the two batsmen and like Dravid, Pujara seems very reassuring at the crease. The unbreakable defense is one thing that makes Pujara look a little like Dravid but more than that, if there is anything that makes us call these two batsmen similar, its the temperament. A good temperament is that one golden attribute every player must possess and which seems to be in plenty about Pujara and Dravid. The way they play the first ball on walking out of the pavilion always reflects their desire to play until the umpire calls stumps for the day. Both these batsmen show the zeal to play and test the endurance of the bowler. The batting styles and footwork and almost every other similarity about these batsmen is a mere by-product of the tempo the show. What is the difference?: Flexibility. Rahul Dravid had the flexibility of changing his batting manners in permissible manners with respect to the format of the game he was playing. Three sixes on three consecutive balls in the only T20 International he ever played speaks oceans about how he flexed his bat. Pujara, though a talented player in all formats, is yet to learn to bend his bat the way the team and the format of the game demands. Once he does that, we could perhaps call him something close to The Wall! 5. Michael Bevan & Mike Hussey (Australia): Michael Bevan & Mike Hussey. (Photo Source: AFP) How they reflect each other?: What would you do if the gear-box of your bike needs a replacement? You’d get a new one to fulfill the requirement. The Australian Cricket team unknowingly did something similar when they got Mike Hussey in the team. Lacking a good finisher after the abrupt disappearance of Michael Bevan from the cricket-world, Australia found him again in Mr. Cricket. Regarded as one of the finest finishers of the game, Michael Bevan did wonders for the team in the 2003 WC, especially against England where he teamed up with tail-ender Andy Bichel and brought his side back in a seemingly lost game. It is therefore inevitable that the greatest similarity Michael Bevan and Mike Hussey had between themselves was the way they handled pressure. Knowing what kind of cricket is required at what point, both of them devised peculiar ways of playing which were very similar to each other. The very, very different type of shot selection which included continuous alteration of risky and safe strokes made them the benchmark of how a finisher should ideally be. Apart from this playing style, both of them were the best fielders in the entire team in their respective times! What is the difference?: Hussey was far better than Bevan on a lot of fronts – particularly adapting different strokes on different types of wickets. This was because of the fact that Hussey did not merely play cricket, he saw and read about it equally much to continuously improvise his game – an attribute Bevan lacked. 6. Sanath Jayasuriya & Kusal Perera (Sri Lanka): Sanath Jayasuriya & Kusal Perera. (Photo Source: AFP) How they reflect each other?: Kusal Perera seems like a clone of Jayasuriya for many reasons. Right from the way he holds his bat to the way he finishes the strokes reminds many of Sanath. Both the batsmen use their bottom hand very effectively while batting which in turn makes it easier for them to lift the ball. Perera’s back-lift and the drop of the front shoulder sometimes looks like a carbon copy of the Matara Mauler. Perera matches his idol Jayasuriya on another very important front, the approach. Both the batsmen play the game with a devastating air about them and level each other when it comes to the on-field aggression. What is the difference?: Perera prefers shots that look like they come straight out of the coaching manuals. His game seems quite different when he plays with the straight bat. Jayasuriya on the other hand, was very unorthodox with his game and rarely played with a straight-bat.

Topics

Featured Section

Current Series

Cricket Fantasy Tips

Cricket Stats

IPL Teams

ICC Rankings

Interviews

Twitter Reactions

Cricket Appeal

Social Tracker

More Links

# Follow Us

Other Sports

6 Pairs of Cricketers with almost the same game

6. Sanath Jayasuriya & Kusal Perera (Sri Lanka):

Latest Articles

Jay Shah condemns PCB's trophy tour decision in PoK

IPL 2025 Player Auction List Announced

Australia vs Pakistan Match Preview, 2nd T20I