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Gilchrist named Australia's greatest ever ODI player

vic_orthdox

vic_orthdox

Global Moderator
burr said:
The same could be said for Symonds and Symonds standard of fielding adds a lot more to the team that Gilchrist's wicket-keeping.
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Disagree, especially with the first half of the sentence.
 
BoyBrumby

BoyBrumby

Englishman
I don't think it's the most outrageous call ever, but one factor that hasn't been mentioned is that it was voted for by his peers. One thing that's universally accepted about Gilly is that he's one of nature's good guys, so if he was ever in any marginal calls with others in voters' minds it's natural he'd get the nod over those with more "challenging" personalities.

SRW at 3 was rather more of a surprise, but in his early years at least his bowling at the death was pretty useful, wasn't it?
 
Fiery

Fiery

Banned
BoyBrumby said:
I don't think it's the most outrageous call ever, but one factor that hasn't been mentioned is that it was voted for by his peers. One thing that's universally accepted about Gilly is that he's one of nature's good guys, so if he was ever in any marginal calls with others in voters' minds it's natural he'd get the nod over those with more "challenging" personalities.

SRW at 3 was rather more of a surprise, but in his early years at least his bowling at the death was pretty useful, wasn't it?
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G'day Brumby. How's it going? He wasn't bad at bowling at the death (except in this game). I saw him play some gems with the bat too but still would rate his brother higher in ODIs
 
Ikki

Ikki

Hall of Fame Member
Burgey said:
That is a truly great side. Symonds at 7 in a one day side - it's almost laughable.

On Gilly. A lot of the guys who have played won't look at raw stats though. They'll see that the bloke kept and opened (traditionally seen as a big ask), was explosive, won games off his own bat and that when he scores runs Australia inevitably wins.

Lastly, and we've been through this in an earlier thread, check out his records in big ODIs, like the last 3 WC finals: 3 scores of over 50, including one which was one of the great ODI knocks of all time.

Not sure myself if he is the greatest Aussie ODI player, but imo he certainly belongs in the argument.
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I agree here, great post. Gilchrist is certainly in the loop, but I consider Bevan more than equal in his importance, even though he was completely different in approach. You talk about finals, but what about the games before the final? In some we looked done and dusted until Bevan somehow, someway, managed to keep the runs ticking.
 
Ikki

Ikki

Hall of Fame Member
Actually, I've just been through our WC matches since 1999 and it is amazing in how many of them Gilchrist top-scored for us. I think he probably does have a better case than I originally thought.
 
BoyBrumby

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Fiery said:
G'day Brumby. How's it going? He wasn't bad at bowling at the death (except in this game). I saw him play some gems with the bat too but still would rate his brother higher in ODIs
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Hey. Fiery! Stout fellow. Good to have you back. :)

I'd agree about Junior Waugh being the more effective ODI operator, but I think it's understandable that Steve's rated so highly as he's now an Aussie icon, nay a latterday ocker saint.
 
Fiery

Fiery

Banned
BoyBrumby said:
Hey. Fiery! Stout fellow. Good to have you back. :)

I'd agree about Junior Waugh being the more effective ODI operator, but I think it's understandable that Steve's rated so highly as he's now an Aussie icon, nay a latterday ocker saint.
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Cheers bud. I didn't know you were Israeli. (Assuming that's why you've got the flag in your avatar)
 
Mister Wright

Mister Wright

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Gilchrist certainly has been Australia's greatest ever ODI at the current time, the way he changed the way Australia played, almost overnight was something else. Not my favourite player by any stretch of the imagination, but is definitely the greatest Australian ODI player.

However, I think once Symonds has finished his career he will be rated the greatest, it's almost like the ODI game was invented knowing that Symonds would one day be born.
 
bond21

bond21

Banned
OMG....why does everyone here worship stats seemingly without watching people play.

Bevan was the best finisher in history. I dont know how many games he won, but it was a lot. The batting could collapse and he would have to stay in until the very end of the innings and get us over the line.

As long as Bevan was batting, we always had a chance of victory.

I dont see why people even look at his average. He batted number 6 or around abouts, number 6 does not get to bat a lot in ODIs.

opening batsmen have 50 overs to get a score, number 6 would only have 15 or so.
 
Richard

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Ridiculous for mine.

Bevan is so much better with the bat than Gilchrist it more than cancels-out the wicketkeeping factor. A few other better batsmen from the modern ODI era (ie, excluding Deano) would include...

Mark Waugh, Ponting, Lehmann, Martyn and Hussey.

And as far as bowlers go, McGrath would IMO be a better "contributor" than Gilchrist too.

And yes... there are many batsmen who've done a better job of opening the ODI innings than Gilchrist. Anwar, Ganguly, Mark Waugh and Knight amongst them. Even if they might not have had the "wow, look at that" factor that can deceive so readily.
 
Richard

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
sideshowtim said:
Easily the greatest ODI wicketkeeper in history, and arguably the best ODI opener ever.
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You'd honestly have to be either an extremely biased Australian or seriously over-reliant on wow-factor and under-reliant on productivity to rate Gilchrist even in with a chance of being the best ODI opener ever IMO.
 
Jono

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
sideshowtim said:
Fair call for mine. Easily the greatest ODI wicketkeeper in history, and arguably the best ODI opener ever. You can argue against him because of his statistics or whatever, but the fact is, Adam Gilchrist scares teams like no other player scares them. What he does goes beyond simple statistics. If he's been out there for more than 70 balls, chances are you've already lost the game. A player who can simply take the game away from you so quickly, and perform right when it matters. Truly a magnificent player, and I think he's entirely deserving of such a high honour.
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Sorry but as good as Gilchrist is, as 'best ODI opener ever' he's not even close to Sachin. There's a big difference in many aspects. Consistency, ability to go on with starts, average etc. Gilly has strike rate, which Sachin's is far from poor, and he's performed in WC finals. Just doesn't compare IMO.
sideshowtim said:
Yeah, agree. I have immense respect for Bevan as a player, and indeed think he should be named in our Best ODI XI of all time, but he quite simply didn't scare the opposition the way Gilly did. He couldn't win you a match the way Gilly did. When it came to knocking around 1s and 2s at the end of the innings, there was no finer. However, this didn't scare teams...I doubt many captains woud've been too concerned about it honestly. It doesn't win you matches.
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Hmm, look I rate Gilchrist extremely highly, but I just can't understand how anyone can claim Gilchrist won more matches for Australia than Bevan. I don't necessarily agree that a batsman can often win a match off their own bat, but if anyone did, it was Michael Bevan.

I'll categorically say that as an Indian fan, Michael Bevan scared me more when he played India than Gilchrist.

I think people tend to underrate Gilly in ODIs on this board a little, but he's not better than Bevan.
 
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