The class of mid 00's
 

These are the batsman who made their debuts in mid 2000's Cook, Amla,Clarke, Hussey, KP and AB how would they compare to the previous generations of great batsman once their career's wind up, lets say how they would stand up against Sachin, Lara, Ponting, Dravid, Kallis, Inzi or even the class of the 80's Border, Viv, Gooch, Miandad, Gavaskar, Crowe.

Will any of them leave a lasting memory like Viv, Lara, Sachin or Gavaskar?

No doubt a few of them will have records up there with the best in time - most likely Clarke, Cook and Amla in that order. It's more worrying to talk about bowlers, though.

Pretty sure all of those except Crowe debuted in the mid 70s.

yeah got my dates mixed up

The Clarke/Cook one may come down to who ends up the better captain/the one whose game longterm is least shafted by pressure of the job.

Frightening to think though that someone like Anderson is arguably our best paceman for 30 years yet he isn't fit to lace the boots of the majority of the big star bowlers of the 80's and 90's. Steyn would sit favourably among them though.

No,mention of KP? He is my second favorite of the bunch after Amla... The guy single-handedly changes the course of games. Just look at this year... every hundred he's scored has been a masterclass. He's the one who's really made an impression on me by just being ****ing exciting and memorable.
Amla, KP, Cook, Clarke... only these four could probably stand favorably in comparison with former greats. This is assuming theyll continue to play at the same high level for many years to come, so its a big assumption but its the best we can do

Bowlers: Steyn. Thats all, even though i love anderson

so true

To Satyanash above, KP is mentioned.

I would say Graeme Smith as an opener and averaging 50 for his whole career with a strike-rate of 60 and being captain for 10 years should be right up there. Considering he opens in the majority of matches in South Africa (the most difficult place to open in the world). 26 Test centuries - 18 wins - 8 draws

Its so tough to judge how good these batsmen will be as the reminder keeps coming in that there is a shortage of world class fast bowlers and you can say the same for spinners. But in saying that all those batsmen are class and who is to say they wouldn't score runs against the real best of previous era's as well.

Its always so difficult to judge different era's of course but its an interesting perspective because I haven't really bunched the early to mid 00's batting group before.

KP has already left plenty of lasting memories for mine. He's the only real genius-level batsman going around. The rest are extremely good but not in the same league as the previous generation's top 3-4.

whoops... somehow missed kp in ur post :p

Would put smith there but he debuted way before thr others

No worries mate.

Thought Pup and Biff were the same age as they went to the same u19 WC ? So would have debuted more or lesss the same time.

Hashim has the making of a real great..has so much time and looks absolutely classy..this decades best player? Hope so..if we are taking of 2k batters got to bring pitches to the equation as well..

Clarke didn't debut until he was 23

Just checked. Graeme test debuted in 2002 at 21 years of age. So only 2 years difference in their test debuts.

Amla is just a superb player.

The stats of the players you mention may stack up in the end but I am struggling to think they will live long in the memory a la Lara, Sachin et al. Or AB, Richards and that lot.

Maybe they will, mind.

Great set of batsmen 6 of them:
Smith, Amla, ABDV, KP, Cook, Clarke : I think they all might end up with 10000+ runs and round about 50 avg.
Too bad about the bowling though only Steyn is undeniably great. Jimmy might get 350 wickets but still be averaging around 30.