CW decides the greatest ODI batsman ever (submit your own top 20 list)

[TheJediBrah]

We've established on here before, that PFK is Kapil Dev

 

[Burgey]

Because I haven't seen him consistently dominating over a long period , despite playing in by far the best team in the world.
Viv , Sachin , top order Lara , Bevan , Dhoni , ABdV and Kohli had phenomenal stats. Ponting numbers never been extra ordinary. No way he can be an all-time top 5.

Plainly not the case. Had a stretch of several years early-mid 2000s where he dominated in and from a dominant team. And, you know, that final.

 

[mr_mister]

Is Ranatunga a little underrated as a bat? I say this because as I go through the lists I see Aravinda featuring on nearly every list yet poor ol Arjuna is found nowhere.

Looking at their careers, Ranatunga had a considerably better WC than Aravinda in '87, '92 and marginally better in '99. In '96 obviously Aravinda takes it but by no means did Ranatunga perform purely, hitting 240 runs at an average of 120 and striking at about 120 too

His overall WC average was 46 to De Silvas 36, and they played 5 each so it's a decent sample size

I know WCs aren't everything, but they do make up a decent reason for Aravindas legacy. His '03 return was decent for an old bugger too after Ranatungas retirement tbf


Stretching it out to their whole careers, Arjuna only got 4 tons but he got a bucketload of 50s and their 50+ scores to matches ratio wasn't too different as De Silva played 40 or so more games


I know Aravinda had a far higher, though far steeper peak, and honestly I'd always considered him and still do to be the better bat, but it's funny one is everywhere and one nowhere in this thread. They played so many games together and would have faced such similar conditions and bowlers so there's not much different era argument you can use. Statistically they appeared to be pretty similar

 

[jimmy101]

Sometimes you need to look beyond statistical measures.

 

[ankitj]

Sometimes you need to look beyond statistical measures.

Yeah, that truly does apply to de Silva. Guy was a very gifted player. Timing was so crisp when he was in the zone and had great mental toughness

 

[ankitj]

But I never realized Ranatunga had higher average than de Silva

 

[TheJediBrah]

Yeah I'm a bit surprised too. never realized Ranatunga was actually a good player. All I remember hearing about him was jokes about his weight, and pretending to be injured calling for runners.

 

[Pap Finn Keighl]

I think , Ranatunga was the best odi batsman statistically , some 5 yrs in late 80s and early 90s.he was avgng 40+ at 80+ SR .

 

[Pap Finn Keighl]

Plainly not the case. Had a stretch of several years early-mid 2000s where he dominated in and from a dominant team. And, you know, that final.

Early - mid 90s Lara
95-99 Bevan , Sachin
2000-04 Sachin
05-09 Dhoni , Hussey
10-14 Abdv , Dhoni , Amla , Kohli

Ponting never had Such Stand out stat stretches , even in 03-07 there were many comparable ..

 

[Bolo]

Ranatunga was every bit as effective as de silva as an odi bat. It's hard to believe for people who watched both of them play. De Silva looked like he should have been competing with Sachin for the best bat of the era. Ranatunga looked like he got subbed in, mid beer, from the spectator stand. But he made it work.

It's a bit like Mark vs Steve Waugh in tests. The former is overrated because of how good he looked. The latter, underrated because he was a boring, stodgy ****. But at the end of the day, it's only output that matters, at least when it comes to rating how good they were, as opposed to who we would like to see bat.

 

[Pap Finn Keighl]

Between 1990-94
Only 2 batsmen avgd above 40 at 80 plus SR

Azhar 42 at 81
Ranatunga 43 at 82

 

[Pap Finn Keighl]

3 batsmen were equal or slightly better in AVG

Sidhu 43 at 70
Jones 44 at 70
Crowe 45 at 70

 

[marc71178]

Early - mid 90s Lara
95-99 Bevan , Sachin
2000-04 Sachin
05-09 Dhoni , Hussey
10-14 Abdv , Dhoni , Amla , Kohli

Ponting never had Such Stand out stat stretches , even in 03-07 there were many comparable ..

So why haven't you put him in those lists then?

FFS you've named 4 people as having stand out stretches at the same time - surely they're all comparable so cancel each other out?

 

[Bolo]

So why haven't you put him in those lists then?

FFS you've named 4 people as having stand out stretches at the same time - surely they're all comparable so cancel each other out?

It's not really worth the time for ranking the moderate downgrades from Dev. A moderate downgrade is a moderate downgrade at the end of the day

 

[h_hurricane]

We've established on here before, that PFK is Kapil Dev

You are failing to recognize people from their user ids here.

 

[Pap Finn Keighl]

So why haven't you put him in those lists then?

FFS you've named 4 people as having stand out stretches at the same time - surely they're all comparable so cancel each other out?

Ok
2010-14 ABDV
2015-19 Kohli

Still , Lara , Sachin , Bevan , Dhoni , Abdv and Kohli managed at least 1 X 5 year stretch of outstanding stats.

Ponting's best 2003-07
Sachin , Dhoni , Symonds , Hussey , Clarke , pieterson... All comparable to ponting.

In fact, between 2003 and 2007 he was not even stand out in his own team. only 16 batsmen averaged more than 40. ( Min 2000 runs)
5 of them were Australian.

Ponting 48 at 85
Symonds 47 at 92
Hayden 45 at 80
Clarke 45 at 83
Martyn 42 at 77

Gilly 38 at 104.

All benefitted from playing for a super dominant team. That's what I think.
(Ponting overall stats 42 at 80 looks ordinary in comparison too)

 

[Burgey]

My dude, where the **** did Kohli go at the WCs in 2015 and 2019? He's had mediocre tourneys at the back end both times. I realise everyone has their own metrics, but no one is going to GAF in 20 years time that he scored X tons in meaningless bilaterals. He's spudded up in consecutive WCs, and if he doesn't fix that next time around, he's going to go down as India's Amla (or 2nd Tendulkar, come to that). God-like in between when it doesn't matter and conspicuously mortal when it does.

 

[Pap Finn Keighl]

My dude, where the **** did Kohli go at the WCs in 2015 and 2019? He's had mediocre tourneys at the back end both times. I realise everyone has their own metrics, but no one is going to GAF in 20 years time that he scored X tons in meaningless bilaterals. He's spudded up in consecutive WCs, and if he doesn't fix that next time around, he's going to go down as India's Amla (or 2nd Tendulkar, come to that). God-like in between when it doesn't matter and conspicuously mortal when it does.

In their defence , they played for normal teams . That makes a difference. ( And Ponting can only dream of Sachin / Abdv overall WC stats. )
Presence of McGrath and Gilly helped other Aussie players to look better than they actually were.

 

[Burgey]

Whoa whoa whoa. India was just about equal favourite for this WC, made the semi finals of the last one and won the 2011 version. In each case, Kohli has been awful in the KO games (hence the "What's your emergency?" moniker - 9-1-1). Does it not occur to you that his ****ing up so badly in the big games is one of the reasons those recent sides will get rated as "normal" teams and not great ones?

 

[marc71178]

Ponting can only dream of Sachin / Abdv overall WC stats.

Oh yes, because overall stats include 3 tons against a very weak WI side or 2 tons against Kenya and one against the mighty Namibia...

All those World Cups won by ABDV as well - bet he can only dream of those.

If you look at World Cup games against the meaningful opposition then suddenly things look a lot different.