DoG's Top 100 Test Batsmen Countdown Thread

[rtramdas]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion mate, but are you seriously suggesting AB de Villiers is a better test batsman than Gary Sobers, Len Hutton or Steve Smith, to name but three? Or is this more a favourites sort of list (which is cool and all, just trying to find out).

How do Kohli and De Villiers get in this but Smith doesn't? Unless it's a favorite Top 10.

to be frank , it is very difficult to make such a list.Any way when it comes to ABDV , i rate him very highly. This is because of his 'completeness' in his record. He averages only some 50.6 in tests, but his lowest average in any country is some 42.This 'uniformity' in averages carries the most weightage for me. His ODI credentials too is out of the world. The only batsman who can throw a challenge to Kohli in ODI stats of the current era is him. Add his world cup credentials he even surpasses Kohli, I assume.

Smith for all his test exploits is far off in ODIs. An avg: of 41.5 with an even absymal country wise record is not great by current era standard. So even if test carries more weightage(for me it is 4:3) it doesn't allow Smith to enter into TOP 10.

With due respect to Sobers, he has not played ODIs. He might had become a great ODI batsman too, but still batsmen who actually proved rather than 'what if's ' gets my preference.
Kohli with about 7200 runs in tests @ 55 avg more than that of Greg Chappell) has become an eligible candidate as of now for me.

Also on a second thought , I make a small correction in my list. Would move Gavaskar to 10th position because how ever great he was in tests, was comparably a bit off in ODIs(very good in itself though)

1. Don Bradman
2. Viv Richards
3. Sachin Tendulkar
4. A.B. Devilliers
5.Brian Lara
6.Greg Chappel
7.Ricky Ponting
8.Jaques Kallis
9.Virat Kohli
10.Sunil Gavaskar

Kohli has great chance of overtaking a few in the list by the time he retires.

 

[Spark]

If you're gonna combine Tests and ODIs then you should say so. Otherwise everyone is going to assume that it's about Tests only, not least in a thread about the top 100 Test batsmen, and people will quite rightly find the idea of marking a batsman's Test exploits down because they didn't play ODIs rather ridiculous.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Hope kohli becomes the greatest batsman in The Hundred's history to solidify his claim for GOAT status over scrubs like Sachin and ABdV who'd have failed utterly at this incredible new challenge

 

[Spark]

Hope kohli becomes the greatest batsman in The Hundred's history to solidify his claim for GOAT status over scrubs like Sachin and ABdV who'd have failed utterly at this incredible new challenge

"He might average 55 in Tests, but can he hack it in T10 cricket?"

 

[Cabinet96]

I don't think it's crazy to believe de Villiers could've had a better test average if he'd never bothered with one day cricket. Such was his dominance in the shorter formats and the way he was able to develop his game and add new things to it I could easily see him having a similar evolution in test cricket if he focused all his energy into maximising his long format ability. Maybe even become a Smith like figure. Obviously on here people pretty much only care about test exploits, but for him the biggest thing was trying to win a World Cup, and T20 was always going to be where he got most of his money from the sport. There's definitely been chats on here before about whether you should penalise single format players for this kind of allocation of training resources thing. I don't think it's something I'd really factor in to test only rankings, since you can't rate people based on hypotheticals or potential (similar to the Barry Richards and Graeme Pollock stuff). But it definitely has a major impact on my overall view of a cricketer, so I'd be pleasantly surprised if a list like this puts de Villiers higher than I have him in my own head for test only stuff.

 

[Anil]

my top 2-10 greatest test batsmen would be (in no particular order):

sobers
lara
richards
tendulkar
smith
border
chappell
hobbs
hammond

 

[ataraxia]

Kohl's greater than Bradman. Combining his averages makes him worth far more than old-fashioned Bradman.

 

[ataraxia]

Couple changes since earlier prediction, any reasons?

Was trying to remember my old one. Probably this is my current prediction:

Bradman
Smith
Hobbs
Sobers
Hammond
Hutton
Barrington
Sangakkara
Tendulkar
Ponting

 

[Burgey]

I don't think it's crazy to believe de Villiers could've had a better test average if he'd never bothered with one day cricket. Such was his dominance in the shorter formats and the way he was able to develop his game and add new things to it I could easily see him having a similar evolution in test cricket if he focused all his energy into maximising his long format ability. Maybe even become a Smith like figure. Obviously on here people pretty much only care about test exploits, but for him the biggest thing was trying to win a World Cup, and T20 was always going to be where he got most of his money from the sport. There's definitely been chats on here before about whether you should penalise single format players for this kind of allocation of training resources thing. I don't think it's something I'd really factor in to test only rankings, since you can't rate people based on hypotheticals or potential (similar to the Barry Richards and Graeme Pollock stuff). But it definitely has a major impact on my overall view of a cricketer, so I'd be pleasantly surprised if a list like this puts de Villiers higher than I have him in my own head for test only stuff.

Smith might have a better test average if he hadn’t bothered with ODIs (or T20s too. Same with Kohli. Who can say?

 

[Burgey]

my top 2-10 greatest test batsmen would be (in no particular order):

sobers
lara
richards
tendulkar
smith
border
chappell
hobbs
hammond

Anil gets it. Border a few spots too low, but now we are getting somewhere. Wub.

 

[ataraxia]

Anil gets it. Border a few spots too low, but now we are getting somewhere. Wub.

I don't trust any list that says Border and Chappell are greater than Hobbs and Hutton.

 

[Anil]

my top 2-10 greatest test batsmen would be (in no particular order):

sobers
lara
richards
tendulkar
smith
border
chappell
hobbs
hammond

Anil gets it. Border a few spots too low, but now we are getting somewhere. Wub.

see bolded above...for me, border clearly belongs in the top 10...there are a few there who could lay claim to the no: 2 spot though...

 

[Anil]

I don't trust any list that says Border and Chappell are greater than Hobbs and Hutton.

even more shocking, hutton doesn't even make my top 10...

 

[h_hurricane]

My top 10 would be

Bradman
Sobers
Richards
Tendulkar
Lara
Hobbs
Hutton
Hammond
Chappell
Gavaskar

Current players have been excluded. Not saying this is how they will end up in this exercise.

 

[ataraxia]

My actual top 10 is:

Bradman
Hobbs
Hutton
Sobers
Grace
Hammond
Tendulkar
Kallis
Richards
Pollock

Smith slots in at 9 if we're including current players.

 

[Days of Grace]

No.25

Graeme Pollock (South Africa) 809

Quality Points: 787
Career Points: 22

Career/Runs: 1963-1970, 2256 (rank 393)

Overall average/Runs per innings/Strike-rate: 60.35 (60.97) 54.46 (55.02) 65.71 (54.78) (rank 5)
50 Innings Peak Average/Runs per innings/Strike-rate (1963-1970): 60.35 54.46 65.71 (rank 63)
Non-Home Average/Runs per innings/Strike-rate: 50.29 50.29 67.80 (rank 85)
Quality Opposition Average/Runs per innings/Strike-rate: 62.41 56.01 66.04 (rank 3)

Graeme Pollock only played for 7 years and is the lowest ranked of batsmen in this list in terms of career points. But for those 7 years he was outstanding, achieving the 5th best overall stats in the top 100. He also is the 3rd best in terms of record against quality opposition, having played 22 of his 23 matches against Australia and England (he "only" scored 53 runs in his sole match against New Zealand). He was also an attacking, graceful batsman in an era of pragmatism, which shows in the large boost to his strike-rate. In my opinion, Graeme Pollock would have been knocking on the door of the top 10 if he had a chance to play a full career. He played his last match aged 26 and we have but a fragment of what could have been.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlKvulsSebs

 

[Coronis]

Wish Headley and Pollock had ended up ranked together, not unexpected for Pollock to round out the 25. Shame that both only played 20 odd tests.

 

[ataraxia]

No.25

Graeme Pollock (South Africa) 809

Quality Points: 787
Career Points: 22

Career/Runs: 1963-1970, 2256 (rank 393)

Overall average/Runs per innings/Strike-rate: 60.35 (60.97) 54.46 (55.02) 65.71 (54.78) (rank 5)
50 Innings Peak Average/Runs per innings/Strike-rate (1963-1970): 60.35 54.46 65.71 (rank 63)
Non-Home Average/Runs per innings/Strike-rate: 50.29 50.29 67.80 (rank 85)
Quality Opposition Average/Runs per innings/Strike-rate: 62.41 56.01 66.04 (rank 3)

Graeme Pollock only played for 7 years and is the lowest ranked of batsmen in this list in terms of career points. But for those 7 years he was outstanding, achieving the 5th best overall stats in the top 100. He also is the 3rd best in terms of record against quality opposition, having played 22 of his 23 matches against Australia and England (he "only" scored 53 runs in his sole match against New Zealand). He was also an attacking, graceful batsman in an era of pragmatism, which shows in the large boost to his strike-rate. In my opinion, Graeme Pollock would have been knocking on the door of the top 10 if he had a chance to play a full career. He played his last match aged 26 and we have but a fragment of what could have been.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlKvulsSebs

Was to be expected, Pollock and Headley very close together.

 

[Days of Grace]

Just a follow-up on Sehwag:

If he retired after the 2010 home series against New Zealand he would have finished on 849 points, enough to be ranked 14th.

 

[ankitj]

Pollock would have had a legendary career. May have been first to get to 10k runs if his career was not curtailed. I love watching him speak about cricket. One my all time favorite cricketers.