IMO only Lara had more great innings than Sanga in his career - and no one had more great innings than Lara by a long shot. Tendulkar is a better example of a player who was consistent throughout without many great Test innings.
I think Kallis > Dravid but they are very close. Ponting is also arguably top 5. Top 3 is Sachin/Sanga/Lara and there's not much between the three.
If this is about tests, then I gotta disagree about the bolded part. Sanga's played more great knocks than anyone in the Tendulkar era except Lara, maybe. Lack of truly memorable knocks is something you can probably dock Kallis for, not Sanga.
Your original post said something like "Lara and Ponting didn't get to make 2000 runs against minnows unlike Kallis, Tendulkar, Sanga. It is as simple as that." It is not very stupid to think 'It is as simple as that' means that seals the comparison in one way. It's good that you clarified your stand in the next post. But without that, there's no way of knowing what was on your mind in the first post.
I think Sanga is clearly in the top 3 with Tendulkar and Lara, with Dravid, Kallis and Ponting in the next bracket. I have Waugh in the tier after that.
The bloke has almost twice as many doubles (11 to 6) than Ponting & Tendulkar. If he hadn't been sawn off in Hobart he would have twice as many - would be equal with the Don. I saw him score back to back centuries on NZ greentops when Shane Bond was at the height of his powers:
Like I said, I think Sangakkara probably suffers because it's hard for me to get excited about Sri Lanka vs New Zealand or Pakistan - and this is coming from someone who loves Sangakkara as a batsman. The Ponting innings that Spark linked is a perfect example - Ashes cricket > all other cricket so Ponting will probably (unfairly) score more kudos with me because that innings came in an Ashes contest, whereas Sangakkara's 192 at Hobart - a great innings - just loses marks because it's just another 2 Test series involving Sri Lanka.
I'd rank Kallis fairly decisively below the others ftr.
This would mean any non-Ashes batsman would have no chance when you rate great innings? Ian Chappell called that 192 the best since Lara's 277 in Australia as I recall.
This is hilarious when you consider that those "roads" were giving SL innings wins in the mid-2000s. Aus and WI has its fair share of roads as well - only SSC counts in SL.
There is no way Ponting being top 5 and Sanga not even top 30 makes sense.
Nup. Still true. Don't be so mad.
I know that the Ashes is prestigious, but as a challenge for Australian batsmen is it really up there? When Ponting faced England he never had to bat against any ATG bowlers (I know the 2005 'attack' was excellent), but who was England's last great bowler? Botham? Willis? Underwood? Snow? Trueman?????Like I said, I think Sangakkara probably suffers because it's hard for me to get excited about Sri Lanka vs New Zealand or Pakistan - and this is coming from someone who loves Sangakkara as a batsman. The Ponting innings that Spark linked is a perfect example - Ashes cricket > all other cricket so Ponting will probably (unfairly) score more kudos with me because that innings came in an Ashes contest, whereas Sangakkara's 192 at Hobart - a great innings - just loses marks because it's just another 2 Test series involving Sri Lanka.
He just falls short of the top 3 IMO but considering who that top 3 is that's still not a bad achievement - and he's the number 3 in my Greatest XI so there's always that consolation
