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Best Batsman

Which batsman would you choose and why?

  • Lara

    Votes: 22 21.2%
  • Tendulkar

    Votes: 21 20.2%
  • Ponting

    Votes: 30 28.8%
  • Dravid

    Votes: 14 13.5%
  • Kallis

    Votes: 3 2.9%
  • Inzamam ul Haq

    Votes: 7 6.7%
  • Hayden

    Votes: 2 1.9%
  • Other

    Votes: 5 4.8%

  • Total voters
    104

open365

International Vice-Captain
honestbharani said:
Ponting is easily the best post 2000 batsman now. But I just think he still hasn't faced the same quality of bowling as he did pre 2000. I know it is not his fault at all, but it is just one thing that makes me reluctant to call him the best I have ever seen. But he is easily the best batter at the moment. Will be interesting to see how he goes against England in the Ashes later this year. England have this uncanny ability of shutting down the best (and dominating) batters of the opposition. Will be interesting to see if they can do the same to Ponting. Could be the difference between winning and losing the Ashes, I feel. :)
That's a good point, i think it will be the biggest victory for England if they can keep Ponting quite during the ashes. They managed really well last year but he still managed to draw the game at Old Trafford with that magnificent 156.

By next winter, i would be amazed if Ponting can continue his current form so it will be really intresting to see how he goes.
 

Matt79

Global Moderator
interesting - the comparisons that he's clearly better than Tendaulkar or Lara should probably be held off for another couple of years - clearly both T and L are past their prime, albeit they both remain v.v.v.v. good bats, whereas Ponting is in the form of his life.

On the other hand Neil Harvey being willing to admit someone younger than Neil Harvey is good pretty much seals him as the greatest player since The Don :)
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
People are so short-sighted. Ponting is a champion without a doubt, but Lara, Sachin and other greats have been through amazing form patches, but its been proven that a player can't continue this form their whole career. In 98 Sachin was still only 26 years old and everyone tipped him to hold every batting record there was other than the highest average. 8-10 years later he's in decline. I'm not saying its a guarantee that it'll happen to Ponting, but gee its not impossible that he'll have a bad year or two in the near future.
 

oz_fan

International Regular
Jono said:
People are so short-sighted. Ponting is a champion without a doubt, but Lara, Sachin and other greats have been through amazing form patches, but its been proven that a player can't continue this form their whole career. In 98 Sachin was still only 26 years old and everyone tipped him to hold every batting record there was other than the highest average. 8-10 years later he's in decline. I'm not saying its a guarantee that it'll happen to Ponting, but gee its not impossible that he'll have a bad year or two in the near future.
Yep all it would take would be one or two years of bad form and he would be dropped from the Aussie team and never break any of those records. The reason why Lara and Tendulkar should be held higher than Ponting at the moment is because they have already broke those records.
 

marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
Amazing how few people have picked Kallis, even though I can hardly talk.

Also I see that only 13 out the 91 to have voted are not "dunces of the highest order"

We have some major dunces on here!
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
I know not everyone completely agrees with the ICC Player Rankings, but I thought it'd be interesting to point out that the 5 batsman that have pretty much universally been seen as the best since the turn of the century (not including Sachin and Lara anyway), that being Ponting, Kallis, Dravid, Inzy and Hayden are currently the top 5 ranked test batsmen in the world (in that order).

Compared to the kings of the 90s, Lara's done well to still be ranked very highly at 7, and Sachin has fallen to 16.
 

howardj

International Coach
Jono said:
I know not everyone completely agrees with the ICC Player Rankings, but I thought it'd be interesting to point out that the 5 batsman that have pretty much universally been seen as the best since the turn of the century (not including Sachin and Lara anyway), that being Ponting, Kallis, Dravid, Inzy and Hayden are currently the top 5 ranked test batsmen in the world (in that order).

Compared to the kings of the 90s, Lara's done well to still be ranked very highly at 7, and Sachin has fallen to 16.
Couldn't disagree with those five.

In general, I honestly think the rankings system for batsmen is very accurate.

Usually provides a good reflection of the current state of things.
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
Yeah I personally like the rankings. They're unbiased and give a pretty good reflection of who has been dominant for the past 6 months or so. I don't treat it as gospel, but I do pay attention when there are any major changes in them.
 

quick4mindia

School Boy/Girl Captain
Jono said:
Compared to the kings of the 90s, Lara's done well to still be ranked very highly at 7, and Sachin has fallen to 16.
Tendulkar's fall has more to do with the spate of injuries related problems that he is going through. The rankings definitely reflect the reality. He is not performing off late. His average has dropped from 58.2 to 55.79.
 

Hazza

U19 Cricketer
Dravid has not only had an excellent one-day and test series against England, but his career averages and the situations he's helped India out of earn my vote.
 
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FaaipDeOiad

Hall of Fame Member
Jono said:
Yeah I personally like the rankings. They're unbiased and give a pretty good reflection of who has been dominant for the past 6 months or so. I don't treat it as gospel, but I do pay attention when there are any major changes in them.
Agreed. Most people who rubbish them do so because they have pre-concieved notions about particular players that the rankings disagree with (eg: X is a flat track bully), because they are based purely on performance. There is the odd instance where the rankings are way off the mark (like sticking Pathan in the top 10 for test bowlers when he had only ever had success against Zimbabwe), but 95% of the time they are a fair reflection of form.

Also, because they are based purely on form, which is something that is often missed statistically, they are an interesting historical resource. I enjoyed the old PwC ratings page where you could search for any date in history and see what the rankings would have been like for then.
 

oz_fan

International Regular
Yep the ICC rankings give an accurate representation of who the top batsmen are.
» Batsmen
1 Ricky Ponting AUS

2 Jacques Kallis SA

3 Rahul Dravid IND

4 Inzamam-ul-Haq PAK

5 Matthew Hayden AUS

6 Brian Lara WI

I would say that is just about right.
Lara has done remarkably well to mainly remain in the top 10 throughout the 90's and 2000 onwards.
 

open365

International Vice-Captain
I'm allways a bit confused to see Matty Hayden doing so well on these lists, before that barren spell i thought he really was amazing, but after the ashes, i don't thinks he's anywhere near as good.
 

open365

International Vice-Captain
chaminda_00 said:
where is KP?
Right where he should be- not very high- he hasn't scored a 1000 runs yet, i think that's a minnimum to be high in these rankings.
 

FaaipDeOiad

Hall of Fame Member
open365 said:
I'm allways a bit confused to see Matty Hayden doing so well on these lists, before that barren spell i thought he really was amazing, but after the ashes, i don't thinks he's anywhere near as good.
Since the Ashes (including the final test) he's scored 6 centuries and 6 fifties. He certainly wasn't in 5th place before that, he dropped with his poor form.
 

chaminda_00

Hall of Fame Member
open365 said:
Right where he should be- not very high- he hasn't scored a 1000 runs yet, i think that's a minnimum to be high in these rankings.
1000 runs or not his is still the greatest thing since Chaminda Vaas. :@
 

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