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Kumar Sangakkara vs Allan Border

Who was the greater test batsmen?

  • Kumar Sangakkara

    Votes: 32 58.2%

  • Allan Border

    Votes: 23 41.8%
  • Total voters
    55
Flem274*

Flem274*

123/5
honestly this is really hard, and they both had different roles. Allan Border was skipper and #5 battler, Sangakkara was the #3 and kept for a while.

I think Sangakkara was overall the slightly better batsman in terms of pure talent. He batted at #3 which is so valuable and I am likely biased by watching him play some insane overseas knocks personally (Hobart and the two big tons here leap to mind immediately).

I rank players on their era value though and you cannot go past the combination of ATG batsman, better than part time spinner and captaincy of Allan Border. Border was one of only 4 batsmen to average 50 in his era, which honestly puts him in the same relative position of the fab 4 today.

Sangakkara was an insanely good cricketer who proved he was at the top of the batting advance he shared his era with but even so he did play most of his career in an era where ATG batsmen were less valuable because there were so many candidates.
 
sledger

sledger

Spanish_Vicente
I guess it has to be Border. With questions like this it often comes down to the player who played in important teams and matches, and Sanga just...er...didn't.
 
Migara

Migara

Cricketer Of The Year
AB batted in a tough era. His average is exceptional for the era. But similarly, there are not many 55+ averaging batsmen during Sanga's time as well. He was hampered with keeping for 1/3 of his career too, otherwise he would have averaged 60+.

Sangakkara's stats are way ahead even considering the era.
 
The Sean

The Sean

Cricketer Of The Year
Migara said:
AB batted in a tough era. His average is exceptional for the era. But similarly, there are not many 55+ averaging batsmen during Sanga's time as well. He was hampered with keeping for 1/3 of his career too, otherwise he would have averaged 60+.

Sangakkara's stats are way ahead even considering the era.
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Yeah, for sure. Leaving aside comparisons with AB or anyone else for the moment and just appreciating Sangakkara for himself, his record as a specialist batsman when unencumbered by the 'keeping gloves is absolutely ridiculous.
 
The Sean

The Sean

Cricketer Of The Year
As for the question at hand, it'll be a cold day in hell before I vote against AB in a poll, though Sangakkara has such a strong case that for now I've just abstained.

What I would say is (and I may be in a minority of one here), that with all the respect in the world to Graeme Pollock, I wouldn't consider him to be undeniably in third place and clearly ahead of these two.
 
Coronis

Coronis

Cricketer Of The Year
The Sean said:
As for the question at hand, it'll be a cold day in hell before I vote against AB in a poll, though Sangakkara has such a strong case that for now I've just abstained.

What I would say is (and I may be in a minority of one here), that with all the respect in the world to Graeme Pollock, I wouldn't consider him to be undeniably in third place and clearly ahead of these two.
Click to expand...
Nah I definitely agree, I’d put him in the same class probably but due to his truncated international career I don’t think you can say he’s definitely above either.
 
thierry henry

thierry henry

International Coach
Sanga still underrated. Rather than being seen as an elite batsman of his era he should be seen as a very good keeper/batsman for a part of his career and then a ‘comparable to anyone besides Bradman’ for the specialist bat part
 
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