Hashim Amla

...

Hashim Amla was talking about facing Nathan Lyon, and that's when I had to put it on mute because I realized I was enjoying this a little bit too much.

[laughs]

It was just, it was, it was a, it was a, it was, it was a world-class cricketer talking about what it's like to face, you know, the best off-spinner to ever do it for Australia.

Be- good question for, like, South Africans.

Are you going, do you want Smith or are you gonna have a de Villiers or a Amla? Like, there's some-

Yeah

... serious players there.

That's-- We're gonna have to start nailing down an order at some point.

I just wanna give you two more names before we do.

Two, uh, great South African cricketers, AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla-

Phew

And I think about the way in which, um, they were able to devastate Australia, uh, in that, um, in that test match in 2018 when Australia thought they were in pretty good nick, having won at Durban only for South Africa to, um, play one of the great, one of the great all-round test performances.

AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla facing their own barrage of reverse swing in that first innings was, was a sight to behold.

Just on reverse swing, by the way.

I mean, I know some people probably want us to do 20 minutes on sandpaper right now.

There are the players who took a while to be good when they were young, and then have the quick drop-off, which is, you know, um...

And I think that I'm probably more understanding of, oh yeah, but seven years of some of the greatest cricket of all time, whether you be Hashim Amla, Ricky Ponting, Virat Kohli, um, I'm trying to think of some others.

Gordon Greenidge, whoever else it might be.

Maybe, um, those sorts of guys, like, deserves to be respected.

So I think it...

Was it Hashim Amla?

It was.

Yeah.

Um, I was just happy to get one, and then you get an average, don't you? You just want an average.

[laughs]

Well, Hashim Amla, that's a pretty good one, so congratulations-

Thank you

There were great players making, you know, who were achieving great things.

If you think back to Mitchell Johnson, Hashim Amla, Ebi de Villiers, Dale Steyn.

These were great players.

And of course, you know, that 10-year block concluded with a very controversial series here in 2018 and what happened at Newlands with the Australian cricket team there.

But I think if you look at the overall package, I understand also why so many people, you know, speak, speak of him the way they do, and I'm, I'm talking specifically bowlers of his era.

PJ says: "What are some examples of batting and bowling techniques that changed the most from international debut to retirement? Hashim Amla had the craziest technique when he played in the under 19 World Cup, and watching Shane Warne's debut seems so weird considering how his action and run-up ended." Um, I mean, it's pretty common for bowlers, PJ.

I'd say, what? Keemar Roach after the accident is maybe one of the most obvious ones.

It'd be-- They tell me that Len Hutton, who lost about an inch of reach off his arm in the war, didn't change his batting all that much.

Yeah.

I haven't really seen the right-handers try that as much, right? Like, that sort of Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis to an off-spinner thing of just being like, "You're gonna hit me on the pads, but I'm pretty confident you're gonna hit me outside the line of the stump," right?

Hmm.

No one's worked that out.