The best batsmen from this list - choose 3

[OverratedSanity]

I'm kind of curious to see a YK vs Yousuf battle now. I always felt Pakistani supporters in particular rated Yousuf higher, but that might have been a couple of years ago tbf.

Won't be close

 

[Zinzan]

Funny you say that, I just found a thread comparing them in early 2014, (admittedly before Khan had that excellent run in the UAE vs. Aust & NZ) and opinion couldn't have been more split.

 

[Xuhaib]

I'm kind of curious to see a YK vs Yousuf battle now. I always felt Pakistani supporters in particular rated Yousuf higher, but that might have been a couple of years ago tbf.

most Pakistani supporters give a lot of value to odi's so when they will compare, performances in both formats will be taken in to account .Among casual Pakistani fans YK will always remain Inzi and Yousuf plain looking cousin because of his mediocre odi record.

 

[G.I.Joe]

most Pakistani supporters give a lot of value to odi's so when they will compare, performances in both formats will be taken in to account .Among casual Pakistani fans YK will always remain Inzi and Yousuf plain looking cousin because of his mediocre odi record.

Younis Khan won them a T20 WC. What has Yousuf ever done?

 

[harsh.ag]

most Pakistani supporters give a lot of value to odi's so when they will compare, performances in both formats will be taken in to account .Among casual Pakistani fans YK will always remain Inzi and Yousuf plain looking cousin because of his mediocre odi record.

Younis Khan won them a T20 WC. What has Yousuf ever done?

 

[Prince EWS]

I think Younis is in a subclass a fraction higher than the rest, and Chanderpaul was probably the best of the rest. I find it hard to easily compare Smith to Jayawardene because they had such different roles but I think I'm going to go with Smith here.

Clarke and Pietersen are probably more memorable than any of them, but as I said in another thread recently I think Clarke is memorable for his peak and Pietersen is memorable for his ability to occasionally play really top quality knocks -- when compared to other top batsmen of their era I think their overall careers lag a bit.

 

[G.I.Joe]

Artistic licence

1 T20 WC under Younis Khan vs 0 (?) ODI trophies in Yousuf's corner...

 

[OverratedSanity]

Artistic licence

1 T20 WC under Younis Khan vs 0 (?) ODI trophies in Yousuf's corner...

Well, technically, t20's are one-day internationals, aren't they?

 

[G.I.Joe]

Just to go off an a related tangent...

Supposing Dhoni's India finished runner-up in the 2011 WC, but the rest of his career stayed the same (including the 2007 T20 WC win)...

Where would people stand on Ganguly vs Dhoni when rating them as ODI captains?

 

[Contra]

Just to go off an a related tangent...

Supposing Dhoni's India finished runner-up in the 2011 WC, but the rest of his career stayed the same (including the 2007 T20 WC win)...

Where would people stand on Ganguly vs Dhoni when rating them as ODI captains?

I'd still rate Dhoni just that little bit higher purely because of the self belief he managed to instill in the team. I'm a MASSIVE Ganguly fan when it comes to captaincy, but Dhoni's captaincy in the recent 2015 WC has just tipped him that bit higher.

In 2011 Dhoni pretty much had all the right tools to win the WC at the time, but in 2015 he had a team which was limited in ability and hadn't managed to win a game all tour, then to take them through a WC winning 7 consecutive games and almost taking 80/80 wickets was awesome to see. Honestly if India had managed to win that WC I would have considered Dhoni to be the greatest limited overs captain of all time.

 

[AldoRaine18]

Sounds like the Gilchrist-needs-a-likeness-of-his-head-chiseled-on-Mount-Rushmore argument to a certain extent.

It may be because a run is a run. Slow runs can let your partners score runs and accumulate more extras. Slow runs can sometimes save a test match so as to salvage a draw. For openers, slow runs can take the shine off the ball and the soften it for the middle order.

What OS is trying to say there is while Smith is rightly rated above Sehwag in terms of overall game, technique and impact, it's a disservice to Sehwag not to mention his match winning ability even if he did not provide it regularly. His 83 against England at Chennai for example, set the tone for the chase completed by Yuvraj and Sachin, and he got those runs in no time when time was of the essence. That is something only he tried to attempt. His 195 at MCG was also great to watch, so it is unfair to talk about him as if he had nothing to his game. Two triple centuries to his name, no less. He had the X factor, the fact that he had little intelligence to go with it doesn't eliminate that. Plus, his long running partnership with Gambhir was one of the cornerstones of the India's successful runs that led them to the number 1 spot.

 

[Jono]

Younis Khan won them a T20 WC. What has Yousuf ever done?

score more test runs in a calendar year than any **** ever has ftr, but I see your point.

Yousuf's chance to shine was 06/07 Saffers tour. Can't remember, was he injured at the start of it? Was arguably top 3 best bats in the world heading into that series.

Edit: yep he missed the first test. Ironically Younis' innings in the 4th innings of the 2nd test won them the match while Yousuf flopped.

 

[GIMH]

Yeah in 06 Yousuf was awesome. Scored an immense double at Lords over here. They had a cracking batting line up back then, Younis, Inzy and Yousuf in the middle order. Quality all round side in fact.

 

[91Jmay]

What OS is trying to say there is while Smith is rightly rated above Sehwag in terms of overall game, technique and impact, it's a disservice to Sehwag not to mention his match winning ability even if he did not provide it regularly. His 83 against England at Chennai for example, set the tone for the chase completed by Yuvraj and Sachin, and he got those runs in no time when time was of the essence. That is something only he tried to attempt. His 195 at MCG was also great to watch, so it is unfair to talk about him as if he had nothing to his game. Two triple centuries to his name, no less. He had the X factor, the fact that he had little intelligence to go with it doesn't eliminate that. Plus, his long running partnership with Gambhir was one of the cornerstones of the India's successful runs that led them to the number 1 spot.

Who said he had nothing to his game? He just isn't in the same class as he other players mentioned.