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Strongest Batting combination
- Thread starter Sunil1z
- Start date
Sunil1z
International Regular
Replace him with Martyn ?
Spark
Global Moderator
Yeah that's what I'd do.
capt_Luffy
International Regular
But replacing Gilly with Martyn would make the Australian quartet much weaker....
Spark
Global Moderator
Well yeah but it's then a like for like comparison. Frankly I think including Gilchrist in these things breaks most comparisons, not so much because of how good he was - though he was very very good - but of how much of a cheat code it is to have such a ridiculously good batsman at 7. Vanishingly few teams have had that luxury and makes direct comparisons of this kind somewhat pointless because the answer will always be "the team with the extra bloke averaging 50" - in which case the true measure of the strength of that quartet is, paradoxically, how good the guys not listed in the quartet were.
capt_Luffy
International Regular
I mean, definitely. If you look at that Indian line-up of 2000s and see this 4 alongside Sourav, you would think damn, that's a good line-up, better than the best 4 of Australia. Then you will remember the passengers, the another opener akin to Akash Chopra and a Wicketkeeper like Sameer Dighe or Deep Dasgupta. While Australia had others in Langer, Martyn and Mark Waugh.....
PlayerComparisons
International Debutant
Depends on the conditions
PlayerComparisons
International Debutant
The Indian quarter were probably the best against spin but Sehwag and Dravid were relatively weak against pace so Aus/SA is the best
capt_Luffy
International Regular
Not totally true. Dravid had problems against high bounce, but the best batsman here against lateral movement; and Sehwag had issues when the ball swung, but was a fine player of bounce.
Fuller Pilch
Hall of Fame Member
This but that Indian batting quartet (or quintet with Ganguly) also played with Gambhir opening and Dhoni keeping.
capt_Luffy
International Regular
Yeah, but that was only for a year or two; around 2010 I believe. And that Indian batting mostly performed really well.
capt_Luffy
International Regular
Wasn't BGT 2001 right in the middle of Ponting's peak?? I won't necessarily call his peak to be better than Sachin's.
subshakerz
International Coach
Australia at their peak.
OverratedSanity
Request Your Custom Title Now!
These three all could go either way tbh.
I didn't vote for the Australian combination because it's literally cheating. Gilchrist batted 7, not in the middle order. It should be Martyn or Mark Waugh which would give the Indian lineup the advantage.
shortpitched713
International Captain
Usually don't have time for such complicated hypothetical comparisons, but let's give this one a go.
Assuming that we're only looking at hypothetical lineups where these 4 are the strongest 4 on their teams, and not the actual team lineups they played on, because that skews things, and you have to consider things like Gilly's role, as Spark mentioned, or Kallis' bowling, etc.. So nah, let's just go with these being your top 4 batsmen, and everyone else on the team is a weaker batsman, and not considering any non-batting considerations for any player. Also, not going for longevity in this comparison, just output quality in case you're thinking things don't exactly match the consensus of Tendulkar >>>>> everyone, getting that out of the way.
Given that, I think the 4 Aussies are very clearly the strongest, followed by the Indians, then the South Africans.
Hayden > Sehwag => G. Smith
Ponting < Tendulkar = Kallis
Gilchrist < Dravid > DeVilliers
Waugh >>> Laxman << Amla
Indian 4 could possibly have been competitive or possibly better than Australians, but for me Laxman is very clearly the odd man out in this whole comparison and a step down in quality from any of the others. Clutch at times, but I don't think has anywhere near the consistently excellent career runs that the rest have under their belts. And although India have rarely lacked for quality bats in the last 4 decades or so, during the "Sachin-Dravid-Sehwag" era there really is no 4th who isn't a major step down.
In practical terms there is a caveat to Australia too though. Waugh didn't really play in the other 3s true combined hayday of the mid 2000s, so there's that. Also to note the SA batting lineup was truly dire outside of this "big 4" during their era ( which also didn't exactly neatly line up for all of them, the lynchpin Kallis only played half of his matches with deVilliers, for instance ).
Assuming that we're only looking at hypothetical lineups where these 4 are the strongest 4 on their teams, and not the actual team lineups they played on, because that skews things, and you have to consider things like Gilly's role, as Spark mentioned, or Kallis' bowling, etc.. So nah, let's just go with these being your top 4 batsmen, and everyone else on the team is a weaker batsman, and not considering any non-batting considerations for any player. Also, not going for longevity in this comparison, just output quality in case you're thinking things don't exactly match the consensus of Tendulkar >>>>> everyone, getting that out of the way.
Given that, I think the 4 Aussies are very clearly the strongest, followed by the Indians, then the South Africans.
Hayden > Sehwag => G. Smith
Ponting < Tendulkar = Kallis
Gilchrist < Dravid > DeVilliers
Waugh >>> Laxman << Amla
Indian 4 could possibly have been competitive or possibly better than Australians, but for me Laxman is very clearly the odd man out in this whole comparison and a step down in quality from any of the others. Clutch at times, but I don't think has anywhere near the consistently excellent career runs that the rest have under their belts. And although India have rarely lacked for quality bats in the last 4 decades or so, during the "Sachin-Dravid-Sehwag" era there really is no 4th who isn't a major step down.
In practical terms there is a caveat to Australia too though. Waugh didn't really play in the other 3s true combined hayday of the mid 2000s, so there's that. Also to note the SA batting lineup was truly dire outside of this "big 4" during their era ( which also didn't exactly neatly line up for all of them, the lynchpin Kallis only played half of his matches with deVilliers, for instance ).