The legendary England Captain Bob Willis died at the age of 70 due to a short illness. Bob Willis had 19 years of cricket span like from 1971-to 1984. Where he had represented his Team England in 90 Test International Matches and grabbed 325 wickets at 25.2. He was the fourth-best player after James Anderson, Stuart Broad, and Ian Botham. He had also given his participation in 64 ODIs. Here in this article we talk about England Captain Bob Willis.
Willis had an integral contribution when England won the Ashes Trophy in the year 1981. He took 8 for 43 due to which England won this Tournament in the third test match in Headingley. Due to his long run-up for a sprint across 30 yards that earned him to achieve the nickname ‘Goose’, Willis gave a compelling view with the ball in hand. It was termed as ”a tremendous trier” by Botham. He achieved this title because of the way he had a comeback after going through several injuries in both of his knees in 1975.
England Captain Bob Willis Cricket Career:
He became the captain of Team England in the year 1982 in an ODI series against India. He had both the experience of success as well the failure during his tenure of two-year and was sacked from the position in favor of David Gower in early 1984 after the Pakistan series. Unfortunately, his international career came to an end in the year 1984 at Leeds where he was fortunate enough to see his greatest victory after completing at nearly seven runs an over against team West Indies side.
Willis had played 308 first-class matches for England. In Surrey, Warwickshire, and Northern Transvaal he has claimed 899 wickets at 24.99 including 34 five-fers. He also had an outstanding record in List A, having the 421 wickets from 293 matches. He has achieved many praises like Wisden’s Cricketer of the Year in 1978. Willis was named as the country’s greatest Test XI by the ECB On the occasion of England’s 1000th Test in August 2018.
During his post-playing career, Willis did commentary with many of his teammates and formed a partnership with his former team player, Botham on the Sky Network. He quickly got the frame of being one of the harshest critics of players and the modern game. In 2006 he was not present in the commentary panel but still remained active in his cricket career without giving up his own opinions.
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