Did Shane Warne conquer Test cricket in the sub-continent?

Too true Moot - a bit of a duff off the field but certainly the best our generation will ever see on it. What a cricketer - "we wont see his like again".

Jason Gillespies's double ton was in the second test not the first as indicated above. I think perhaps you were referring to the series, but it wasn't written this way.

All bowlers and batsman for that matter, have a ‘hole’. You weigh up the ‘hole’ or holes when making the assessment of the player vs their peers and others through history.

"Overall, Shane Warne is arguably the greatest cricketer of all time." I'd suggest that it is Bradman first, daylight second, and then a select bunch including Warne, Sobers, SF Barnes and WG Grace. Only Bradman achieved statistics more than 60% superior to those of any other contemporary player. And harsh to downplay the career of anyone pre-2000, who through circumstances beyond his control, didn't get the opportunity to play Test cricket full-time, and in and against 11 other countries.

Absointercourselutely!

Warne conquered Test cricket full stop. I don’t think we’ll see another like him in the near future. Once in a lifetime I would have thought

And what separated Warne from the other two was his indomitable spirit. They took wickets, many in some games, but Warne won matches.

Not with 350 wickets and the longevity of Kumble. As with Warne and Muralitharan, longevity is part of what makes these players so special.

Of course he bowled to some very fine batsmen but none of the players born and bred in those conditions. I suspect if we did some digging we'd find some Indian spinners with better home stats than Kumble.

I did say on Asian pitches- but if speaking of Indian pitches then Kumble is the master there. I would say Kumble bowled to some very fine players too.

Doctoring is probably too strong a word. What would happened in the 90s is every August CA would meet each of the curators and make suggesstions. I certainly don't think Australia is worse then others but there is no doubt boards influence pitches, particularly against the more cash strapped opponents.

You need to check your facts on pitch doctoring. Since Warne retired we've learned that in some instances Indian curators were ordered to prepare the two sides of the pitch differently at each end. The off side for right handers was kept dry and dusty, which naturally helped India's spinners. They deliberately kept more grass on the leg side for right handers knowing that Warne preferred to bowl a leg/outside leg line. Desperate stuff but pretty effective. As for Australia tailoring pitches to suit Warne, if that's the case then how did McGrath take 500+ Test wickets, Brett Lee 300 and Gillespie 200 while playing at the same time as Warne? BTW, if you want a country that does dodgy pitches, come to New Zealand, where subcontinental teams often magically face green tops or regularly get sent to Dunedin where it's freezing. No wonder NZ has a 'strong' home record.

This doctoring accusation of the Aussie pitches does not seem right. Australia dishes up greater variation than anywhere else. I've rarely been surprised by a pitch season-on-season.

I posted a piece but took a detour to Coventry.

You've also got to keep in mind that he had to bowl at the best players of spin in the world where Kumble didn't and you might like to check Kumble's home and away stats, in Pakistan and Sri Lanka his wickets cost more than 40 a piece. Murali took his wickets in India at 45.45, very similar to Warne's.

Yep, the formula was India got green pitches and England, SA, NZ etc got drier surfaces to suit Warne. You wouldn't guess that in his career Warne only took 1 wicket at the SCG from his 2 tests against India and that wicket was on debut! I was there, I think it was Tendulkar's second test ton as an 18 ear old.

Kumble did not have the numbers, overall, to challenge. Warne won games by an indomiable spirit and this Kumble rarely displayed. ----- MM was a chucker and was enabled by the biggest cheating the ICC has ever been involved in. You know, where they allowed flexion in the bowler's delivery as a legal delivery. And, yes, I've heard the numerous defences but that's people trying to be nice as in bespoke bovine droppings.

Warne is not the kind of spinner who is ideally suited to Indian pitches. A good comparison is Kumble. Kumble bowled quicker and with more overspin andnless turn. And further he had a more deceptive googly than Warne - Warnes googly was much easier to pick. Lastly Indian pitches lacked the pace for Warnes skidder or flipper to be effective. In terms of Asian pitches, Warne is far from being the greatest spinner of all time. That accolade undoubtedly lies with Murali or Kumble.

Very good results in SL, Bangla and Pakistan, but the best you can say about his record in India, the biggest challenge, is that it was mediocre – an average of 43. Way behind most of the good spinners over the years, eg Benaud, Underwood, Gibbs, Lock, Saqlain, Swann, Lyon. Although strangely enough, his average is a little better than Murali’s. Several Australians have done very well -Benaud, Lyon, Mallett, Matthews, Gleeson, O’Keeffe. This hole is in Warne’s record is one of the reasons it’s pretty hard to argue he was the best bowler of all time, let alone the best cricketer.

Yeah that's inmteresting and I had to double-check to believe it. Shows how Australia doctors pitches like everyone else. As soon as India would come the boucne would get a little steeper. 1992 was his debut and 2003 he missed via suspension but 1999 he played all 3 Tests yett McGrath and Lee seemed to take all the wickets. THen he retired before the 2007 series