Top Ten ODI cricketers of All Time

[Red]

Fleming ahead of Turner is laughable in ODIs tbh, saying nothing about the fact that Astle's way ahead of Fleming in ODIs too.

Laughable's a bit OTT isn't it? He was a pretty good batsman as well as being NZ's best captain IMO.

But I have no issue with Turner or Astle or someone else replacing him, my point being their a pretty decent ODI ATG combo.

 

[Red]

India's batting doesn't just shade NZ's though. It is overwhelmingly better. And in ODIs, more often than not, India would be favoured to win. That is not to say the NZ side wouldn't win many games.

It's actually not "overwhelmingly better". Would say that NZ's batsmen are overwhelmingly underrated TBH. A team containing Crowe, Williamson, Taylor, Guptill plus the explosiveness of McCullum is not going to be significantly worse than anyone IMO. Plus the NZ batting goes way dowm, with Cairns, Hadlee, Vettori and possibly Oram in the tail.

 

[Zinzan]

Laughable's a bit OTT isn't it? He was a pretty good batsman as well as being NZ's best captain IMO.

But I have no issue with Turner or Astle or someone else replacing him, my point being their a pretty decent ODI ATG combo.

Fair enough, just frustrating Turner is the forgotten man of early limited overs batting.

 

[srbhkshk]

It's actually not "overwhelmingly better". Would say that NZ's batsmen are overwhelmingly underrated TBH. A team containing Crowe, Williamson, Taylor, Guptill plus the explosiveness of McCullum is not going to be significantly worse than anyone IMO. Plus the NZ batting goes way dowm, with Cairns, Hadlee, Vettori and possibly Oram in the tail.

It is kinda debatable, India are going in with 2 definite ATG World XI locks (Sachin/Kohli) , 1 almost lock (Dhoni - who also happens to be among the best loi captains) , 2 players who aren't making it to the ATG XI just because of lack of true multiple skills, not because they are worse batsmen - (Sehwag / Ganguly) , 1 Guy who I suspect in LOIs is rated as good as Kane / Guptill and yet can be explosive as McCullum at the right moment (Rohit or Yuvraj - take your pick) , a picture perfect seven (Kapil) and 2 very capable batsmen (Ashwin / Jadeja).

I will probably reluctantly give that the difference between Bowling of the two sides is more than that between the Batting, but to say that there is not a significant difference between the two battings would be unfair. I actually don't think any side really is above India in Batting (but most are better teams for obvious reasons). Also note that all 11 Indian players can bowl.

 

[Shri]

Ashwin wouldn't make the all star limited overs side for India over Kumble.

 

[honestbharani]

Which wont really nullify any of his points though...

 

[srbhkshk]

Ashwin wouldn't make the all star limited overs side for India over Kumble.

Replace him with Agarkar then :P

 

[OverratedSanity]

Ashwin hasn't been that good in ODIs so far. Miles behind kumble.

 

[honestbharani]

I would honestly pick Harbhajan over both Ashwin and Kumble for LO cricket. Adds much needed hitting ability down the order as well as more suited to bowling in the short forms of the game. And saying that sounds so funny now given how I felt for the longest time that Ashwin was the one who will be the better LO bowler and will struggle in tests.

 

[ankitj]

Based on all the discussion in this thread, I thought I will try a top 25 list. I'm sure I have missed out someone very good, but here it is anyway:

Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar, Muttiah Muralitharan, Wasim Akram, MS Dhoni.

Michael Bevan, Glenn McGrath, Joel Garner, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers.

Dean Jones, Shaun Pollock, Richard Hadlee, Saqlain Mushtaq, Gordon Greenidge.

Shane Watson, Shane Warne, Curtly Ambrose, Ricky Ponting, Sanath Jayasuriya.

Zaheer Abbas, Lance Klusener, Jacques Kallis, Waqar Younis, Kapil Dev.

Edit: Found place for Hadlee.

 

[honestbharani]

Good that the over rated Symonds is not in the picture now, but I think Gilchrist should be in there, perhaps in the fourth set.

And Richard Hadlee... And Lara, just as an ODI opener. I know he was not much flash in the 2000s but in the 90s, esp. the first 6 or 7 years, he was awesome as they come in ODIs. And Martin Crowe maybe?

 

[CricAddict]

Replace him with Agarkar then :P

This is actually a good point. Agarkar was very good in ODIs for India for a long time before he fell away at the end of his career. He should be there as the 3rd pacer behind Kapil and Srinath while Kumble/Ashwin takes the 11th spot. This is actually not a bad bowling combo.

 

[ankitj]

Wait, I thought I had Hadlee in there. Made amends now.

 

[stephen]

I don't know how it can be argued that Greenidge is more deserving of a place in the 25 than Symonds. Dhoni should not be in the top 5 and Gilchrist should be on the list. Kallis is dramatically overrated and shouldn't be on the list.

AB de Villiers is rated too highly on the list. Not top 10 IMO (the modern era has no less that 2 batsmen who are his equal, just in the Indian side).

 

[stephen]

Oh and Kholi is so overrated it's not funny. Give him a few more years before you consider him deserving of such a high rating.

 

[Zinzan]

Oh and Kholi is so overrated it's not funny. Give him a few more years before you consider him deserving of such a high rating.

Considering I rate AB & Kohli behind Viv as numbers 2 & 3 ODI bats of all-time, I tend to disagree.

 

[a spambot]

AB de Villiers is rated too highly on the list. Not top 10 IMO (the modern era has no less that 2 batsmen who are his equal, just in the Indian side).

and? is it not possible that there are multiple greats playing in the one era or something?

 

[stephen]

and? is it not possible that there are multiple greats playing in the one era or something?

ABDV is a fantastic cricketer. And it is possible for more than one cricketer in the world to be great. But he's not head and shoulders above his contemporaries. The game has changed. Both averages and strike rates are higher all round due to bigger bats and roped in boundaries.

Of the 9 batsmen who average 50 or more in ODI cricket, 6 have played in the last 2 years. The only ones who haven't are Bevan, RTD and Trott.

Bevan is the only player with an average over 50 not to have played since 2010.

Of the 9 players to average between 45 and 50, only 4 did not play in this decade - Greenidge, Richards, Abbas and Turner.

When 2/3 of the batsmen to average over 45 have done so playing the bulk of their careers post 2007, it's easy to conclude that maybe, just maybe their batting is actually overrated.

Bevan did what he did in a time where nobody else was doing it. Which is why he's so much more highly rated than Hussey, despite Hussey being a gun and having similar statistics.

I don't think we're living in some great era where the batsmen are better than in the past. I think it's much more likely that batsmen of this era have inflated stats.

Anyone rating Kholi and Dhoni and Amla and ABDV amongst the top 25 players of all time have the right to do so and you won't look bad doing so, but just know that they really aren't actually as good as their stats make them look.

In a related topic, Starc is quite likely set to become the greatest ODI bowler of all time for much the same reasons why current batsmen are overrated.

 

[OverratedSanity]

AB averages 50+ and has a SR of 100. No one is even close to that. Not even in this era.

 

[Daemon]

ABDV is a fantastic cricketer. And it is possible for more than one cricketer in the world to be great. But he's not head and shoulders above his contemporaries. The game has changed. Both averages and strike rates are higher all round due to bigger bats and roped in boundaries.

Of the 9 batsmen who average 50 or more in ODI cricket, 6 have played in the last 2 years. The only ones who haven't are Bevan, RTD and Trott.

Bevan is the only player with an average over 50 not to have played since 2010.

Of the 9 players to average between 45 and 50, only 4 did not play in this decade - Greenidge, Richards, Abbas and Turner.

When 2/3 of the batsmen to average over 45 have done so playing the bulk of their careers post 2007, it's easy to conclude that maybe, just maybe their batting is actually overrated.

Bevan did what he did in a time where nobody else was doing it. Which is why he's so much more highly rated than Hussey, despite Hussey being a gun and having similar statistics.

I don't think we're living in some great era where the batsmen are better than in the past. I think it's much more likely that batsmen of this era have inflated stats.

Anyone rating Kholi and Dhoni and Amla and ABDV amongst the top 25 players of all time have the right to do so and you won't look bad doing so, but just know that they really aren't actually as good as their stats make them look.

In a related topic, Starc is quite likely set to become the greatest ODI bowler of all time for much the same reasons why current batsmen are overrated.

What's your top 25?