ohtani's jacket
State Vice-Captain
I haven't seen a single ball from today's play, but it appears Sangakkara is playing another tricky innings only a few weeks after playing majestically on a whole 'nutha continent.
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Sangakkara -- deserving of his average?
- Thread starter ohtani's jacket
- Start date
NUFAN
Y no Afghanistan flag
Except for the fact that he's not keeping!!
He doesn't need to keep though, he'd make my World XI vs Australia for sure. Actually he'd probably make it as a keeper in my team.
World XI would do very nicely against Australia now I think.
In answer to the original question. Yes he deserves the average. He's made runs in all conditions and is just a very classy batsmen.
Somerset
Cricketer Of The Year
Haha yes had forgotten that.
In that case hes the best 'able to wicket keep when needed-batsman' in world cricket today.
BoyBrumby
Englishman
Not quite so convinced myself. Whilst he's obviously improved as a batsman exponentially, there's a very marked difference in his keeper/batsman and batsman-only figures.
He probably just edges Gilly nowadays, but I still rate Gilchrist's glove work as better by a bit. Don't think Sanga sees himself as a keeper primarily, whereas Gilly certainly seems to.
Jamee999
Hall of Fame Member
Was very tight - for mine it could very very easily have been going over the top.
pasag
RTDAS
If he scored as prolifically and was still the Sri Lankan keeper was my (ambiguously worded) point.
pup11
International Coach
I rate Sanga pretty highly as a batsman and he is all class and he has shown his ability to score runs on different tracks against various sort of attacks and he truly deserves the average he has got (probably the starter of this thread is questioning all the runs he has scored against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, but that doesn't really make a difference), but his average drops dramatically when he plays as a keeper-batsman so Gilly is still is the best keeper-batsman for me.
bond21
Banned
yea thanks for your honesty..
Anyway he cant be classified as a keeper batsman now, at least not at international level because theyve got a better keeper.
chaminda_00
Hall of Fame Member
His average is too low, would have averaged 60 if he never played as keeper and be pushing Ponting as best batsmen in world.
he can still improve on that average (of what is it...56 atm)..and with the way he's going.. its likely he will
Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
Haha, no chance. If that was (correctly) not-out, nothing would ever get given (correctly).
Either way, regardless of the innings of today his form of the last couple of years has been extraordinary even for the flat pitches. Has scored a fair truck against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe obviously, but his record's still superb against Test-class teams.
As I said - I really wish though that his career had been one or the other. I'd not be unhappy if he'd never been given the gloves, even once (not least because he was initially a very poor wicketkeeper). Obviously, it's highly unlikely he'd have averaged 70 throughout his career, but with his performances with the gloves being no more than decent - some of that will be coincidence, some not - there'll always be an "I wonder" over that, which I'd so much prefer it if wasn't there.
Nonetheless, Kaluwitharana and Prasanna Jayawardene's performances with the bat were hardly good enough, so sadly giving him the gloves when he was first given them was virtually the only way to do. I just wish he'd batted five more often when keeping, instead of three.
burr
State Vice-Captain
Mmm, just shows how hard keeping/batting is. Makes Gilly's performances all the more admirable actually and I'm hardly Gilly's biggest fan.
Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
What's most remarkable is that Gilchrist and those others involved have always managed to resist the temptation to play as a specialist bat.
Even Brendon McCullum - who even now despite Gilchrist's considerable decline is still an inferior batsman - has of times been played and been discussed as a specialist bat.
Too many of the best 'keeper-batsmen (Stewart and Sangakkara especially) have too many what-ifs hanging over their careers.
Even Brendon McCullum - who even now despite Gilchrist's considerable decline is still an inferior batsman - has of times been played and been discussed as a specialist bat.
Too many of the best 'keeper-batsmen (Stewart and Sangakkara especially) have too many what-ifs hanging over their careers.
dontcloseyoureyes
BARNES OUT
He's the best batsman to watch in the world.