Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill belonged to the same era, but MacGill got way fewer opportunities despite having a brilliant record.
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Shane Warne is arguably one of the greatest players to ever play the game. He was the first bowler in the world to claim 700 test wickets. He ended his career with 708 test wickets, whereas he has 293 ODI wickets under his belt. Warne also bowled the “Ball of the Century” in the 1993 Ashes.
Apart from his on-field records, Warne has had a lot of controversies throughout his career. He failed the drug test ahead of the 2003 World Cup. Warne even passed on the critical information to a bookmaker about the game. He has also been in a rift with Muttiah Muralitharan, Arjuna Ranatunga and Steve Waugh. Despite all the off-field controversies, Warne is hugely admired in the cricketing circuit.
Stuart MacGill calls Shane Warne his “destiny”
Stuart MacGill is one of the most talented cricketers, but yet unluckiest to play the game. MacGill scalped 208 test wickets in just 44 games at 29.03. He had 12 five-wicket inning halls and 2 ten-wicket match halls under his belt. However, he was born in the Shane Warne era. MacGill was also a leg-spinner, and it was almost impossible for the Aussie side to play Warne and MacGill together. He only got his chance when Warne was injured or when he was out due to disciplinary actions.
In 2019, MacGill gave an interview to Sportstar and talked about his destiny alongside Shane Warne. Although, MacGill said that he never considered Warne his rival.
“I didn’t think of Warnie as a rival. Perhaps, he was my destiny. He put leg-spin on a pedestal and I got noticed,” MacGill said.
“For me it was more over-spin. I would flight the ball, then there would be drop and bounce. I wanted to get batsmen playing forward and then get them to realise they are not quite there.”
“I had the leg-spinner, the wrong-one, the slider and the top-spinner. Got a lot of wickets with the top-spinner. Used the googly mostly against [the] tail.”
It is interesting to note that Stuart MacGill had a better record than Shane Warne in home test games. From his Test debut in January 1998, MacGill took 135 wickets at 27.68 against Warne’s 30.42.
