Gilly, Dhoni or AB?

[harsh.ag]

Taking Dhoni because of his mad abilities during a chase. Gilly can be replaced by a handful of people at the top. The same goes for AB (though to a lesser extent) who isn't as good a chaser as Dhoni. I would definitely like to have him in the team though.

 

[Gowza]

AB averages over 70 as keeper strike rate of 100, 58 matches as keeper.

 

[Spark]

Taking Dhoni because of his mad abilities during a chase. Gilly can be replaced by a handful of people at the top. The same goes for AB (though to a lesser extent) who isn't as good a chaser as Dhoni. I would definitely like to have him in the team though.

The counterargument is that a batsman like ABdV means you don't need a crazy good chaser as often, though.

 

[Jono]

The counterargument is that a batsman like ABdV means you don't need a crazy good chaser as often, though.

Bevan and Hussey had great reps as finishers whilst playing for Australia, the best ODI team with Ponting and Gilly in there. Dhoni became a great finisher with Sachin in his team.

 

[Spark]

Bevan and Hussey had great reps as whilst playing for Australia, the best ODI team with Ponting and Gilly in there. Dhoni became a great finisher with Sachin in his team.

Bevan true. Hussey was a finisher, not a chaser, which is exactly the sort of thing ABdV is probably ATG level at. Chasing and finishing are not quite the same thing in my book.

 

[Tec15]

AB easily. Gilchrist is highly overrated as an ODI opener. Plenty of players who could do what he did and better.

 

[Furball]

AB easily. Gilchrist is highly overrated as an ODI opener. Plenty of players who could do what he did and better.

Name names then. Because nobody in the history of the game has scored as many runs as Gilchrist at the average Gilchrist scored at, as quickly as Gilchrist scored them.

 

[Spark]

Someone do a year-by-year breakdown of ODI averages. I'd say 36 was pretty fantastic for an opener in the early 00s.

 

[dogwalker]

Name names then. Because nobody in the history of the game has scored as many runs as Gilchrist at the average Gilchrist scored at, as quickly as Gilchrist scored them.

Replace Gilchrist with any batsman ever and that would still be true.

 

[Furball]

Someone do a year-by-year breakdown of ODI averages. I'd say 36 was pretty fantastic for an opener in the early 00s.

36 is also fin3 when you consider Gilchrist's SR. Average and SR in openers tend to be inversely proportional (and it's why Tendulkar's numbers are so phenominal).

 

[Furball]

Replace Gilchrist with any batsman ever and that would still be true.

Er, no it wouldn't. Neither de Villiers or Dhoni* have scored as many runs as Gilchrist.

*not 100% on Dhoni

 

[dogwalker]

Edit: Tables are too hard.

 

[Spark]

I certainly wouldn't have traded Gilchrist for any other opener in the world going around at the time save for Tendulkar, and certainly not for any other keeper-bats.

 

[honestbharani]

I'd pick Gilchrist on the basis he's easily the best keeper of the 3 and I'd only have Tendulkar ahead of him as an opener. I wouldn't even consider ABdV as a keeper to be honest.

I always thought ADBV was pretty good as a keeper.. Dunno where all this he is the worst is cominng from.. Anytime I have seen him keep, he has been more than just tidy... Plus, Dhoni is awesome to the spinners, so if I m picking both Warne and Murali (and I will, most days) I will surely play Dhoni as the keeper and go for my dream opening duo of Lara and Sachin...

 

[Spark]

ABdV is so naturally gifted from a hand-eye PoV that he's fine most of the time but you can tell that he's not a natural keeper. His footwork is... not great.

 

[Top_Cat]

There are heaps of blokes who could do a tidy job and not embarrass themselves, would venture to say the majority of bats playing Test cricket could do it. But that 0.01% chance only the best will take can swing a ****ing series. I would also venture to say that with the sheer number of nicks McG, Gillespie and Lee generated, AB's 'keeping wouldn't have been enough to keep the gloves on him in that era whereas blokes going hard for the stumps like Steyn and co. would make the keeping less of a factor. It depends on who else is lining up and why, great batting aside, AB's skills as a 'keeper need to be weighed carefully against that.

 

[Jono]

Incredible that Dhoni only has 9 ODI tons. Obviously been a lower order batsman most of his career, and has been surrounded by Sachin, Sehwag, Kohli and Yuvi for pretty much all of it who scored more of the tons, but it still surprised me.

 

[honestbharani]

I never thought Gilly's footwork was great either.. Just look at how much he had to dive around compared to a Healy.. As I said, sometimes that aspect is overrated, esp. in ODI cricket. Come on, even Dravid kept and helped a team reach a WC final and it took a Ponting special to knock that team out...

 

[Jono]

Nah that team was always losing, Ponting special or not.

Edit: I realise that's not your point at all but India were by so far the 2nd best team in that competition its not funny.

 

[viriya]

Name names then. Because nobody in the history of the game has scored as many runs as Gilchrist at the average Gilchrist scored at, as quickly as Gilchrist scored them.

One surprising thing about Gilly is that his hundred/innings ratio is less than that of Jayasuriya's - even though he had a better average and strike rate overall.. Suggests that Gilly was more likely to get a quickfire 30-50 and get out and not play the high impact innings as often as you would like.