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CW decides the top 45 ODI Batsmen ever: The countdown thread

mr_mister

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Equal #40. Shikhar Dhawan (9 points)



Lists featured on: 2/28
Top 5 finishes: 0
Highest finish: 16th (1 time)

Highest ODI score: 143(115) v Aus in ‘19
Highest WC score: 137(146) v SA in GS of ‘15
Highest WC KO score: 45(41) v Aus in SF of ‘15

World Cups played at: 2
World Cup finals played in: 0

WC innings per 50+ score: 2.50 (equal 7th/45)
Career innings per 50+ score: 2.98 (equal 6th/45)


One of the three current top order batsmen holding India’s batting together in ODIs, Dhawan is the first to pop up on this list. His career is far from over, but in the eyes of some he’s already done enough to make this list. That’s fair enough because he’s played 133 games for 17 tons, with an average just under 45 at a strike rate of just under 95. That’s a great return and by no means from a small sample size. His two top order batting partners may make him a little underrated as it can sometimes be forgotten how good he is in his own right.

Despite having only played 1 and a quarter WCs due to an injury in the most recent one, he’s still already notched up 3 WC tons so he’s certainly proven he can play with #pressure. It’s helped him to very high positions in the two 50+ ratio categories. He’s 33 but should get one more cup to alter his record there, for better or worse.

Dhawan loves SL, averaging 70 against them from 16 games. He’s great at generally getting his side off to a fast start through a flurry of boundary strokes.
 
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mr_mister

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Have 2 days off work and nothing planned. Will try and pump through at least 5 over the next couple of days.



Equal #38. Marcus Trescothick (15 points)



Lists featured on: 2
Top 5 finishes: 0
Highest finish: 13th (1 time)

Highest ODI score: 137(142) v Pakistan in '01
Highest WC score: 58(66) v Namibia in '03
Highest WC KO score: N/A

World Cups played at: 1
World Cup finals played in: 0

WC innings per 50+ score: 5.00 (Equal 39th/45)
Career innings per 50+ score: 3.70 (25th/45)


Tresco, despite only playing in one world cup(which was a pretty disappointing campaign for him and his nation) is remembered for having quite a successful yet underdeveloped ODI career. By the end of 2003, only 3 years since he debuted internationally in 2000, he'd already passed Hick and Knight to slot into 2nd of all time for England's most ODI centuries. In June '05 he notched his 9th ton to pass Graham Gooch and found himself with the most ODI centuries ever by an englishmen, only 5 years into his international career and still only 29. He ended up with 12 and only played from 00-06, stopping prematurely due to a mental health battle.

With a slightly inferior average to his contemporary and another well praised opener in Nick Knight, but with a far higher ratio of tons, Tresco was arguably England's best ever ODI opener until Roy, Hales and Bairstow in recent times have muddied that argument.

His force and consistency at the crease was welcomed with open arms by England when he came onto the scene. They'd fielded a huge amount of under performing players in the 90s and despite having those underrated gems like Hick, Fairbrother and Knight, Trescothick was successful in both formats and his rapid accrual of tons at the top of the order was real tangible success in the way Australian and Indian ODI batsmen were having.

Looking a little deeper into his career ODI stats shows that he benefited a fair bit from easy opposition however. He averaged over 50 against 4 teams: Bangladesh, Ireland, Namibia and West Indies(during some of their weakest years post Walsh/Ambrose). Against Australia he averaged barely 30 and against SA a tick under 28. It seems high quality bowling could blunt him somewhat.
 
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h_hurricane

International Vice-Captain
Have 2 days off work and nothing planned. Will try and pump through at least 5 over the next couple of days.



Equal #38. Marcus Trescothick (15 points)



Lists featured on: 2
Top 5 finishes: 0
Highest finish: 13th (1 time)

Highest ODI score: 137(142) v Pakistan in '01
Highest WC score: 58(66) v Namibia in '03
Highest WC KO score: N/A

World Cups played at: 1
World Cup finals played in: 0

WC innings per 50+ score: 5.00 (Equal 39th/45)
Career innings per 50+ score: 3.70 (25th/45)


Tresco, despite only playing in one world cup(which was a pretty disappointing campaign for him and his nation) is remembered for having quite a successful yet underdeveloped ODI career. By the end of 2003, only 3 years since he debuted internationally in 2000, he'd already passed Hick and Knight to slot into 2nd of all time for England's most ODI centuries. In June '05 he notched his 9th ton to pass Graham Gooch and found himself with the most ODI centuries ever by an englishmen, only 5 years into his international career and still only 29. He ended up with 12 and only played from 00-06, stopping prematurely due to a mental health battle.

With a slightly inferior average to his contemporary and another well praised opener in Nick Knight, but with a far higher ratio of tons, Tresco was arguably England's best ever ODI opener until Roy, Hales and Bairstow in recent times have muddied that argument.

His force and consistency at the crease was welcomed with open arms by England when he came onto the scene. They'd fielded a huge amount of under performing players in the 90s and despite having those underrated gems like Hick, Fairbrother and Knight, Trescothick was successful in both formats and his rapid accrual of tons at the top of the order was real tangible success in the way Australian and Indian ODI batsmen were having.

Looking a little deeper into his career ODI stats shows that he benefited a fair bit from easy opposition however. He averaged over 50 against 4 teams: Bangladesh, Ireland, Namibia and West Indies(during some of their weakest years post Walsh/Ambrose). Against Australia he averaged barely 30 and against SA a tick under 28. It seems high quality bowling could blunt him somewhat.
Really admired him when he was good for a period between 2000-02. Considered the Eng ODI team of that time a joke but not this guy. That Natwest final innings was something else.
 

mr_mister

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Equal #38.Chris Gayle (15 points)



Lists featured on: 4
Top 5 finishes: 0
Highest finish: 16th (1 time)

Highest ODI score: 215(147) v Zim in '15
Highest WC score: 215(147) v Zim in '15
Highest WC KO score: 61(33) vs NZ in QF of '15

World Cups played at: 5
World Cup finals played in: 0

WC innings per 50+ score: 4.25 (equal 34th/45)
Career innings per 50+ score: 3.72 (26th/45)



The universe boss Chris Gayle made his ODI debut in 1999. 20 years later and he still appears to be very much a fixture of the West Indies ODI setup. He recently teased a retirement which fooled most people during a match(or was it before) against India, in a series where he brought up his 300th game, but after crunching 72 off 41 he possibly felt a change of heart because he then soon set the record straight that he was not in fact retiring just yet.

And in his defence, he has averaged 50 and struck at 109 this year from 17 matches and that's including a pretty mediocre WC performance. He hit 2 tons and 2 fifties against now world champions England in a 'JAMODI' series at the beginning of the year, which broke the record for most sixes ever hit in an any single ODI tournament(he hit 39 of them in 4 games). His running ability is shot, he's certainly a liability on some of his batting partners, but damn he can still wind up and spank a ball far when he gets it right. With minimal effort. His current batting style can basically be described as a homerun derby, right down to the stance he now adopts. He lost respect for bowlers a long time ago.

He's played under 14 captains(including himself for about 50 games) in ODIs and as West Indies cricket has experienced turbulent times he's still managed to forge a highly successful career and well... brand I suppose in white ball cricket. He can rub people the wrong way with his personality, he's not allowed to play BBL cricket in Australia after blush-gate, but on the field he does amazing things - which I truly think a lot of people take for granted now. An average of 37 and strike-rate of 87, while impressive in its own right, only tells half the story. He seems to take a lot of balls to get his eye in but once he starts launching he won't stop and can demoralize a bowling attack beyond the damage his strike-rate might reveal. His block-block-bash method results in a lot of dots but it results in a lot of sixes too. Back when he used to be slightly more orthodox in the early 2000s with regards to his batting he could still always get away from a side once in, having already racked up three 150+ scores by the end of 2004.

His ability to get frequent big daddies in both formats resulted in him hitting a double ton at the 2015 WC and joining an elite of club of players who have done so. His efforts in WC tournaments is certainly underwhelming however and he's always felt more at home against substandard attacks rather than ATG ones. But if a bowler is anything less than high quality they will almost literally always be absolute fodder for him and you can't say that about every ATG batsman going around. He averages 60 or better against: Canada, Kenya, Netherlands, Scotland, the UAE and Zimbabwe. The man did not miss out on cashing in when up against minnows.
 
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mr_mister

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I haven't forgotten, things have come up recently. Bad timing

Ive finished the four previous countdowns and I'll finish this too
 

aussie tragic

International Captain
Just an idea to save time, forget about the WC records aspect, other than Burgey, I don't think anyone else really thinks it's a thing?
 

mr_mister

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Yeah sorry everyone. These are monstrous efforts, I think the writeups I take so much pride in just seemed too daunting this time. Also I don't have a computer these days and were doing them all on phone

I could post the list without writeups and just the most basic info I guess

Thing is I actually painstakingly counted everyone's votes with pen and paper and I've misplaced those pieces of paper. In past I did it electronically but yeah no computer

Lol
 

Coronis

Cricketer Of The Year
Would be interesting to see a test version of this done after DoG’s thread is finished to see how his list compares to CW consensus.
 

mr_mister

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
The top 10 according to that thread:

Bradman
Sobers
Hobbs
Viv
Sachin
Lara
Hutton
Hammond
Pollock
Headley
 

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