79: Rangana Herath

93 matches. 433 wickets @ 28.08. Strike rate: 60.03. 34x 5wi.

15 years. 6x good. 3x excellent. 1x outstanding.

The discussion

There are lots of sexy spin bowlers these days. Carrom balls are sexy.  ‘Other ones’ are sexy. In fact, mystery balls of any kind are very sexy. They bring excitement to the game with their variations, and a myriad copycat bowlers, everywhere from the backyard to the park or the street. It has even crept into club cricket, with bowlers all trying to emulate the latest craze.

Rangana Herath did bowl the carrom ball, but I never regarded him as a ‘sexy’ bowler. In my mind, he exists as a ‘traditional’ finger-spinner, much like Nathan Lyon. In fact, he’s so unassuming that if you were asked to list the top-10 Test wicket-takers as part of a pub quiz, I think it’s likely that the majority of quiz teams would forget that Rangana Herath has 433 Test wickets and ranks 10th on that list.[1]

In fairness, Herath was not without variation — I’ve already mentioned his carrom ball, and his arm-ball took a lot of wickets, but his hallmarks were pinpoint accuracy and the patience and stamina to bowl long spells to build pressure. Herath often dismissed batters through volume, rather than by deception. Or at least that is the general perception.

Not very sexy, is it?

Stu’s View

Talking about Rangana Herath got me thinking — spinners who focus primarily on line and length (rather than sharp spin) do not get enough credit. And I’m as guilty of this as anyone! We all want to see the sexiness, to use a Baldyism, of a doosra, or see the ball rip back through the gate and crash into the stumps. But when a fast bowler bowls with immaculate control — let’s use someone like Ollie Robinson, as a recent example — we laud them and start comparing them to greats of the game like Glenn McGrath. It’s not fair! The artworks created by Herath, or Daniel Vettori after injuries to his back[2], were crafted methodically, chipping away until the masterpiece came into full view. So, although the exhibition of their work in individual frames or highlight reels isn’t always filled with the surge of emotion that comes from a magic delivery, when you examine the body of work in its entirety, the true beauty is on full display.[3]

Be honest, if I asked you to write down your own list of the 100 greatest Test cricketers of all time, would you have written Rangana Herath’s name down? I’d say probably not — unless you’re from Sri Lanka. But look at the statistics. Check out the wickets, averages and strike rates for all spinners with 250+ Test wickets.

Source: ESPN CricInfo

There’s Rangana Herath right up near the top. Fourth in wickets, 5th in average, 4th in strike rate. He has a better average and strike rate than Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and Nathan Lyon. Now let’s focus on the 5wi and 10wm numbers. Check this out:

Source: ESPN CricInfo

Prior to Murali’s retirement, Rangana Herath had played just 22 Tests over an almost 11-year span, with only 8 of those Tests outside of Sri Lanka. His average and strike rate were nothing to write home about, not that he’d had much opportunity to tour prior to 2010. But post-Murali is a completely different story — 362 wickets in 71 Tests at an average of 26.15 and a strike rate of 56.9, with thirty (30!) 5wi and nine 10wm hauls. Once he became the leader of the attack, Herath came into his own as a strike bowler, especially at home. It’s remarkable, really, that the two of these great bowlers overlapped and followed one another — from 1992 until 2019, Sri Lankan fans (and world cricket) were able to enjoy at least one master at work.

Whenever the record of a sub-continent cricketer comes up for discussion, conditions always feature heavily, usually decrying Asian spinners for having prospered in favourable conditions. Critics will often point to the home record in the context of the state of the pitches. Excessive turn, uneven bounce and deterioration on days four and five of a Test match are a fact of life playing in Asia. It won’t come as a surprise that many bowlers from this part of the world have substantially better records at home than away, and Herath is no exception:

Source: ESPN CricInfo

The figures tell the story — Rangana Herath was a different prospect at home than he was elsewhere. The home record is reminiscent of the greatest bowlers of all-time, the strike rate being especially impressive. The regional breakdown further supports the notion that Herath wasn’t particularly effective outside of Asia — an average of over 45 in Europe and Oceania demonstrates the extent to which Herath struggled in those locations. Of course, this has to factor into any examination of his career.

The verdict

It really is incredible that a bowler who played for 10 or 11 years as second fiddle to Murali could finish their career with so many wickets in their own right. The statistical case for Rangana Herath hinges on his record from 2011 onwards, and his amazing career hauls of thirty-four 5wi and nine 10wm, both top 5 rankings across all of the Hall of Fame candidates that we evaluated. However you perceive Herath’s stats in comparison with Nathan Lyon, Harbhajan Singh or even a pre-war cricketer like Hugh Trumble, the number of times Herath dominated the opposition is a major reason why he finds himself inside the Hall of Fame.

Not only did Herath collect bags of wickets, he did so at a rate per 100 innings that ranks 11th (5wi) and 9th (10wm) as well, which is just as incredible and stands up to comparison against all bowlers, seam or spin, regardless of the number of Tests played or the era they were played in. Yes, the stats clearly show that he benefitted from the advantage provided by home conditions, but you still need to be a great cricketer to dominate an opposition and take large bags of wickets with the frequency that Rangana Herath did.

In fact, across this Hall of Fame analysis, I tended not to significantly downgrade players who enjoyed favourable home conditions. Players cannot (for the most part) control what country they represent, and where their Tests are scheduled. I prefer to take above average performances at face value, with the expectation that a player should perform to an above average standard in conditions that are favourable to them. That being said, there’s no doubt Rangana Herath would have rocketed up this list significantly had he performed away from home to the remarkable standard he was able to produce in Sri Lanka.

In one word

Unassuming

Notes

[1] How do I know this? Because this happened to our pub quiz team. Try it with your mates around the bar. I’m almost certain at least one person will omit Herath from their list.

[2] important to always mention at least one New Zealander

[3] Baldy jumping in again: I’m reminded of the (possibly apocryphal) tale of Michelangelo staring at a chunk of marble for eight hours a day, every day, for weeks on end. When asked what he was doing, he would reply, ‘but I’m working, of course’. As the story goes, he would stare at the marble block for day upon day, infuriating his patron(s), before finally taking his chisel to the marble. The result? The Statue of David. Sometimes a slow trickle of line and length isn’t revealed as a masterpiece until the very end: the last chip of the chisel or brush of paint, or the ball that finally results in the dismissal. Most of us don’t see the thinking and planning that goes into it, only a few appreciate it. Fewer still (like Stu) revel in it.

Bio

Record

Source: ESPN CricInfo

career peak

Source: ESPN CricInfo