Top 5 modern day greats

[Slifer]

I'll choose a best 11 of the last 19 years with the players in bold as my top 5:

Hayden
Sehwag
Ponting
SRT
Lara
Kallis
Gilchrist
Warne
Ambrose
Murali
Mcgrath

 

[0RI0N]

I'll choose a best 11 of the last 19 years with the players in bold as my top 5:

Hayden
Sehwag
Ponting
SRT
Lara
Kallis
Gilchrist
Warne
Ambrose
Murali
Mcgrath

/
Nice XI.Imagine that XI vs Pre 1990 team

 

[haroon510]

Inzi > Ponting, Gilchrist, Sangakkara, Sehwag, Hayden, Dravid?

Not that he was bad, but there's a reason he wasn't included in the original XI for the supertest.

i rate inzi higher than Dravid, Sehwag and Hayden..

and about the rest..it is just a personal choice..

 

[Bonnie Prince C]

The amount of votes Kallis has is very small IMO. Too small for what a great cricketer he is.

 

[Trumpers_Ghost]

This is harder than it seems so i'll need a method
1. pick an 11 man team

Hayden
.......(mmm)
Ponting
Tendulkar
Lara
Kallis
Gilchrist
Akram
Warne
Ambrose
McGrath

(2 things from this is that opening batsman of this class have been in short supply and Murali misses the team)

2. Pick who the most indespensible players in this team would be: damn, still no easier!

Alright I'll just pick my favourites then:

Warne: brilliant, made watching an opposing team bat slowly an enthralling viewing experience.

Lara: Just the best batsman to watch (on the list anyways, was in awe of Viv when I was a kid) almost impossible to dismiss when set, and the only BATSMAN who actually won test matches.

McGrath: The ultimate match winner. The main reason for Aus decade long dominance.

Akram: My fav fast bowler to watch. Had every trick imaginable. Speed, long runup, short runup, around the wicket, nasty swing, endurance, longevity, add big hitting and i'm beggining to drool.

Gilly: As an Aus fan I'm ashamed that I wished bad on many a 5 or 6 batsman for Aus, just cause I was impatient to watch him bat. You knew what to expect: an audacious assualt of big hitting from the very start of his innings. This may make me shallow in the eyes of some stuffy technique types, but hey it was fun to watch.

So there. All others that I mentioned are all gun and I don't begrudge a single one of being voted for or winning. For me personally these 5 gave me the most joy

 

[oldmancraigy]

Warne: brilliant, made watching an opposing team bat slowly an enthralling viewing experience.

Lara: Just the best batsman to watch (on the list anyways, was in awe of Viv when I was a kid) almost impossible to dismiss when set, and the only BATSMAN who actually won test matches.

McGrath: The ultimate match winner. The main reason for Aus decade long dominance.

Akram: My fav fast bowler to watch. Had every trick imaginable. Speed, long runup, short runup, around the wicket, nasty swing, endurance, longevity, add big hitting and i'm beggining to drool.

Gilly: As an Aus fan I'm ashamed that I wished bad on many a 5 or 6 batsman for Aus, just cause I was impatient to watch him bat. You knew what to expect: an audacious assualt of big hitting from the very start of his innings. This may make me shallow in the eyes of some stuffy technique types, but hey it was fun to watch.

I'd mostly agree with your sentiments there - except I'd rate Ponting ahead of Brian Lara for certain. No doubt Ricky wins games as a batsman.

McGrath is extremely underrated - he, along with Warne and Gilchrist, is the reason for Australia's dominance. A 50 average batsman at number 7, and 2 of the best bowlers of all time. Tough to beat...

 

[wfdu_ben91]

01. Shane Warne
02. Sachin Tendulkar
03. Curtly Ambrose
04. Glenn McGrath
05. Wasim Akram

06. Ricky Ponting
07. Brian Lara
08. Steve Waugh
09. Jacques Kallis
10. Muttiah Muralitharan

11. Matthew Hayden
12. Rahul Dravid
13. Allan Donald
14. Shaun Pollock
15. Kevin Pietersen

Gilchrist = Massively Overrated. Although a fine player, his batting mainly benefitted from quality top-order batsman and a formidable lower-order. Langer, Hayden, Ponting, Mark Waugh, Steve Waugh, Damien Martyn and Michael Hussey were/are better batsman then Gilly.

 

[Trumpers_Ghost]

I'd mostly agree with your sentiments there - except I'd rate Ponting ahead of Brian Lara for certain. No doubt Ricky wins games as a batsman.

You know deep down I probably do too, but hey I already had 3 other Aussies, and as I said I found it really difficult to split about 9 blokes, so went for Lara (ahead of Ponting and Sachin) basically cause I really dug his style. My comment about him being only batsman to win games comes mainly to the 2 matches they won in WI (mmm was it about 2000ish) when the rest of his team was rubbish against an awesome Oz team. I've seen nothing to match that. Ponting may have set up many a win, but it was always a team effort and in a strong team its the bowlers who win the matches. (gees I hope that atleast kinda makes sense)

cheers

 

[Uppercut]

Gilchrist = Massively Overrated. Although a fine player, his batting mainly benefitted from quality top-order batsman and a formidable lower-order. Langer, Hayden, Ponting, Mark Waugh, Steve Waugh, Damien Martyn and Michael Hussey were/are better batsman then Gilly.

None of them kept wicket!

 

[King Pietersen]

What about actual current generation players, the ones that are going to still be around in 5-6 years? I reckon in 5 years time the top 5 will be....

Batsmen

1. Kevin Pietersen
2. Graeme Smith
3. Michael Clarke
4. Gautam Gambhir
5. JP Duminy

Bowlers

1. Dale Steyn
2. Mitchell Johnson
3. Stuart Broad
4. Ajantha Mendis
5. Ishant Sharma

 

[wfdu_ben91]

None of them kept wicket!

TBH, I think Gilchrist would've struggled to get a gig in the Australian team had he not been a wicketkeeper.

 

[Uppercut]

And i think Jacques Kallis would have struggled to get in the South African team had he not been a batsman.

 

[0RI0N]

You know deep down I probably do too, but hey I already had 3 other Aussies, and as I said I found it really difficult to split about 9 blokes, so went for Lara (ahead of Ponting and Sachin) basically cause I really dug his style. My comment about him being only batsman to win games comes mainly to the 2 matches they won in WI (mmm was it about 2000ish) when the rest of his team was rubbish against an awesome Oz team. I've seen nothing to match that. Ponting may have set up many a win, but it was always a team effort and in a strong team its the bowlers who win the matches. (gees I hope that atleast kinda makes sense)

cheers

/
I agree with you Trumpers_G.
Lara is just a dream to behold.You can have your Ponting,Tendulkar's,Sehwag's and Gilchrist's,but Lara is on another level.

The 2 matches are ofcourse the 2nd and 3rd tests of the 1999 series.SK Warne and MacGill were treated with utter contempt.Even after a brute of a delivery from McGrath took him on the side of the head,he rose and drove McGrath through the covers.

This innings at Jamaica came after the WI were humiliated in SA,and thrashed at the Queens Park Oval.
Then there's the brilliance at Bridgetown...

Lara,destroyer of bowlers,composer of epics.
A true Legend

 

[wfdu_ben91]

And i think Jacques Kallis would have struggled to get in the South African team had he not been a batsman.

Nah, not really. Kallis was a quality bowler in his earlier days. His bowling gradually deteriorated as his career went on, mainly because of his batting.