Who would be your top 10 greatest Asian cricketers?

[Sir Alex]

Even after considering Sanga is a class keeper?

I have given a great deal of importance to their batting in this, which is their primary specialisation. Sanga of course is a okay keeper but his batting was not Sangakkaran when he used to don the gloves. Also Dravid wasn't terrible with the gloves either, although in the shorter format.

There is no question about how they should rank if you consider batting alone. But yes, you have a point when you consider overall contribution.

 

[Sir Alex]

Just one inning.. the rest of his career he batted with strike rate of mid 50s even in ODI matches...even Dravid has days that he tend to play with better strike rate but that doesn't make him an aggrassive and watchable batsman..this is not the case with Gavasker but dravid has never been the main batsman who has taken charge.. he has simply played the supporting role in most of his innings.... he is fine to keep one end while batsman like Sehwag, Sachin, even Ghambir pile runes in the other end.. but he never played the main role himself.. where he has taken charge and other batsman batted around him..that is why i never rated dravid that high..

Moreover, i don't think those batsman that you have named were as bad as the pairs pakistan tried.. I mean look at this list.. Imran Farhat, Imran Nazir, yasir hameed, taufeeq Umar, M. Wasim, W. Wasti, and the list could go on and on....at least those batsman that u named were good enough to keep their place in the team.. the feeling with pakistani batting line up was that they would start with 2 to 3 down back in 2003 or 04..that is how bad the top order of pakistan was..but most of the time they were helped by Inzi..

Moreover, it was gavasker who brought that on himslef.. why Sachin is not treated that way.. He was slow and sloppy at times and Journalist find it easy to target him..

Inzamam is miles ahead of Gavaskar as an ODI batsman. But let's not cloud that when it comes to test matches. Opening is one of the most difficult jobs (look up the averages, you won't find many guys averaging above 50 prior to 2000s opening) in world cricket, and Gavaskar used to do it with elan. That age was different and in tests slow scoring isn't a huge premium to pay for the batting team provided you back it up with a good score.

 

[Sir Alex]

and in different eras...

AWTA, first thought that crossed mymind.

 

[sledger]

Ravi Bopara.

 

[Shri]

The current top 10:

1. Muralitharan
2. Tendulkar
3. Sehwag
4. Sangakkara
5. Jayawardene
6. Dravid
7. Harbhajan
8. Shakib
9. Yousuf
10. Zaheer

 

[sledger]

Aftab Habib.

 

[Faisal1985]

My Asia Test XI will be like this:

Hanif Mohammad
Sunil Gavaskar
Rahul Dravid
Sachin Tendulkar
Javed Miandad
Kumar Sangakkara+
Imran Khan*
Kapil Dev
Wasim Akram
Waqar Younis
Muttiah Muralitharan

My Asia ODI XI will be like this:

Sanath Jayasuriya
Sachin Tendulkar
Zaheer Abbas
Javed Miandad
Inzamam-ul Haq
Mahendra Dhoni+
Kapil Dev
Imran Khan*
Wasim Akram
Waqar Younis
Muttiah Muralitharan

Too good.

 

[Faisal1985]

And Afridi in an all-time Asian XI?

Why? whats wrong with it.

 

[Fusion]

Why? whats wrong with it.

Who would you replace from Weldone’s team (a team you apparently like a lot) for Afridi in either format?

 

[Faisal1985]

Who would you replace from Weldone’s team (a team you apparently like a lot) for Afridi in either format?

For Afridi.............hmmm...anyone. Just saying..

 

[Fusion]

For Afridi.............hmmm...anyone. Just saying..

Well there's no point in further debate in that case.

 

[weldone]

Who would you replace from Weldone’s team (a team you apparently like a lot) for Afridi in either format?

That's easy. Afridi will replace Yuvraj Singh in the Test XI, and Irfan Pathan in the ODI XI

 

[smash84]

When Test and ODIs combined

Imran Khan
Muralidaran
Sachin Tendulkar
Wasim Akram
Waqar Younus
Javed Miandad
Aravinda de Silva
Kapil Dev
Inzamam ul Haq
Kumar Sangakkara

Tough on Dravid, Gavaskar, Jayawardane - but they are n where close to above as ODI batsmen. Kumar is in because he's the best wicket keeper batsman Asia has ever seen and is peerless among Asians. And Azhar ud din just missed the 10.

Pretty much with what I agree. A fantastic team. The only changes I would make is to take out Inzi and Aravinda and get in Dravid and Gavaskar.

My top 3 would be

Imran
Muralitharan
Sachin

Imran ranks number 1 for the most value addition to his team. Except for his fielding (which was quite terrible) he was superb in all other aspects of the game. From 1982 till 1992 when he was captain (test matches) he had a batting average of 52 and a bowling average of 19.9.

Muralitharan comes in at number 2 because I believe that he has been a real match winner. Tendulkar although the best batsman has been relatively less successful as a match winning player.

Sachin. IMO, is miles ahead of the pack as a batsman in all formats but in test matches he gets a run for his money from Gavaskar.

 

[Faisal1985]

Well there's no point in further debate in that case.

Good, you got my point first up.

 

[aussie]

ASIA all-time test XI:

Gavaskar
H Mohammad/Majid Khan/Sehwag
Dravid
Tendulkar
Miandad
Sangakkara
Imran Khan
Wasim Akram
Waqar Younis
Muralitharan
Gupte

Kapil Dev to replace Gupte on seamer/bouncy deck.

 

[Migara]

Asia all time ODI XI

Sanath Jayasuriya
Sachin Tendulkar
Zaheer Abbas
Javed Miandad
Aravinda de Silva
Inzamam-ul-Haq
Mahendra Singh Dhoni+
Imran Khan*
Wasim Akram
Waqar Younis
Muralitharan

Four solid performers in ODIs as bowlers with Jayasuriya as the fifth bowler. De Silva and Tendulkar as back up bowlers. In batting, Sehwag missed out against Jayasuriya and Tendulkar. Anwar is a choice to open, but then team will miss on a middle order batsman, because of the need of the fifth bowler. Dravid is too slow compared to Abbas, de Silva, Miandad and Inzy. Although Yuvraj's, Raina, Yousufs have fantastic averages, they are susceptible against good penetrative bowling while feasting on pie chuckers. Abbas, Aravinda, Javed and Inzamam all can whether a storm, but could be much more dangerous when it comes to late order hitting than modern players.

 

[Athlai]

Reckon that team could probably lose a batsman for another bowling option. Dev?

 

[Migara]

The second Asian ODI XI would be,

Virender Sehwag
Saeed Anwar
Rahul Dravid
Azharuddin
Salim Malik
Kumar Sangakkara+
Kapil Dev / Abdul Razzaq
Chaminda Vaas
Saqlain Mushtaq
Shoaib Akthar
Aaqib Javed

 

[smash84]

Asia all time ODI XI

Sanath Jayasuriya
Sachin Tendulkar
Mohammed Azharuddin
Javed Miandad
Aravinda de Silva
Inzamam-ul-Haq
Mahendra Singh Dhoni+
Imran Khan*
Wasim Akram
Waqar Younis
Muralitharan

Four solid performers in ODIs as bowlers with Jayasuriya as the fifth bowler. De Silva and Tendulkar as back up bowlers. In batting, Sehwag missed out against Jayasuriya and Tendulkar. Anwar is a choice to open, but then team will miss on a middle order batsman, because of the need of the fifth bowler. Dravid is too slow compared to Azhar, de Silva, Miandad and Inzy. Although Yuvraj's, Raina, Yousufs have fantastic averages, they are susceptible against good penetrative bowling while feasting on pie chuckers. Azhar, Aravinda, Javed and Inzamam all can whether a storm, but could be much more dangerous when it comes to late order hitting than modern players.

A very very strong team indeed. Although I would disagree with you on picking Azhar over Dravid. Dravid IMO can weather all storms under all conditions. Probably the most technically sound batsman of the post 1995 era. Also he is one real fighter.

 

[Migara]

Reckon that team could probably lose a batsman for another bowling option. Dev?

May be, but you won't find a better fifth bowler than Jayasuriya, who was "programmed" to bowl darts at the death. De Silva and Sachin underrated with their spin.

If I really needed a fifth bowling option, would go for Razzaq more than Kapil, because of big hitting he brings. If bowling wa more important, would bring in Vaas over Kapil.