How good is Sanga?

[Teja.]

As I've said before, He's without doubt my favourite batsman to watch in the world by a massive margin.

Absolutely monster batsman too, The only one among the bats whose test careers have started off(meaningfully) in the early 00s who is an ATG, in my opinion. Talking about the likes of Hayden, Sehwag, Jaya and Smith here.

It's pretty tragic how for a period of 3 years he was clearly the best batsman in the world in my reckoning but people kept bringing up, on then current form, clearly inferior names like Kallis and SRT as the best in the world. (Obviously Sach closed in by late 2010)

Will be underrated forever, not in the Tervor Goddard sense of being forgotten completely as a player but in the Shaun Pollock sense of everyone knowing he's ****ing good but failing to bring him up when people talk about great players.

I hope he has 2-3 more exceptional years left in him. Absolutely wub him to bits.

 

[CWB304]

As I've said before, He's without doubt my favourite batsman to watch in the world by a massive margin.

Absolutely monster batsman too, The only one among the bats whose test careers have started off(meaningfully) in the early 00s who is an ATG, in my opinion. Talking about the likes of Hayden, Sehwag, Jaya and Smith here.

It's pretty tragic how for a period of 3 years he was clearly the best batsman in the world in my reckoning but people kept bringing up, on then current form, clearly inferior names like Kallis and SRT as the best in the world. (Obviously Sach closed in by late 2010)

Will be underrated forever, not in the Tervor Goddard sense of being forgotten completely as a player but in the Shaun Pollock sense of everyone knowing he's ****ing good but failing to bring him up when people talk about great players.

I hope he has 2-3 more exceptional years left in him. Absolutely wub him to bits.

Good post.

 

[Cricketismylife]

There is no doubt for me that as a player he's an all-time great, but as a batsman alone I think its not completely clear cut. He's a run machine and has won so many games for Sri Lanka under pressure. He's not as strong in a few countries as mentioned, but even in those he has a few classic knocks, the 119 to save the test in England, the 100 in Durban to set up a test victory against SA. And places like South Africa it's a shame that there was a 9 year gap in which Sri Lanka didn't play a test there, and Sanga came into the first test without a warm up, so it's not easy for him to suddenly adapt. The FTP is to blame for this.

To his credit he has made 2 outstanding hundreds on green pitches in New Zealand, one of them was 100 out of 170 and the other one 156 out of 261, the second one leading to victory. Again he has done well in Australia, but he'l need to do it again to prove it wasn't a fluke over 3 tests.

If he could sort his record out in 2 of the 4 countries where he averages under 40 then I think there's absolutely no doubt that hes an all-time great, but then again it's not like hes played much in somewhere like West Indies, and I really don't believe he lacks the technique to succeed there.

To sum up the guy is a complete and utter run machine, and in the last 5 years has scored as high as anyone else, and has been a fixture at the top or near the top of the rankings. When you add the fact that he's been a keeper in nearly 50 tests, it definitely makes him an all-time great as an overall player. If he can put in a couple more big performances away then he will be without doubt an all-time great batsman.

 

[Spark]

He's frighteningly difficult to get out when set. A few months ago I posted some stats on batsmen's "conversion rates" - how heavily they cash in when they get a start, say 20 or 25+. At the time I was having a look at Clarke/Ponting/Tendulkar and they had what I regarded excellent conversion rates at about 85 runs in innings on average once set (and also to laugh at Watson, for obvious reasons)

But Sanga was just absurd. Miiiles above his contemporaries. Has a Bradmanesque average once set, genuinely (very close to 100). Just no fun to bowl to at all when set, which is the hallmark of a great batsman - get him out early, or you're going to regret it.

(His current run is an extreme example this, either makes a duck or 190-odd atm)

 

[smash84]

I hate him and love him at the same time

as CWB mentioned.....canes Pakistan all the time.....never fails to deliver against us......well finally he got his first duck against us today thanks to Junaid Khan

An ATG without question and probably the best batsman to come out of SL. Would have been rated much higher had he not been from SL

 

[wellAlbidarned]

He's incredibly ****ing good, but in a kind of robotic way. I'm not at all tempted to look up and watch Sangakkarra 100s on Rob's channel like with someone like Lara, put it that way.

 

[Jacknife]

He's incredibly ****ing good, but in a kind of robotic way. I'm not at all tempted to look up and watch Sangakkarra 100s on Rob's channel like with someone like Lara, put it that way.

I know exactly what you mean.

 

[H4G]

He's the greatest batsman ever from Srilanka without any doubts

 

[kyear2]

How well did he do today finally when the bowlers had something to work with?

Great batsman, best from Sri Lanka, just dont think that he is ATG material, ATG means that he is in the top tier elite, ranking with Richards, Tendulkar, Lara, Chappell, Sobers ect. Do we really believe that he has acomplished what they have?

 

[Spark]

He faced three balls, two of which were genuine wicket-takers tbf. That happens, not much you can do about it.

 

[Jono]

He's incredibly ****ing good, but in a kind of robotic way. I'm not at all tempted to look up and watch Sangakkarra 100s on Rob's channel like with someone like Lara, put it that way.

I know exactly what you mean.

This is incredibly surprising to me.

I understand he isn't as exciting as Lara, but he's far more fluent and stylish than some of his other contemporary run making machines, and that probably includes current-day Tendulkar as well.

Each to their own though for sure, but just quite surprised.

 

[Xuhaib]

This is incredibly surprising to me.

I understand he isn't as exciting as Lara, but he's far more fluent and stylish than some of his other contemporary run making machines, and that probably includes current-day Tendulkar as well.

Each to their own though for sure, but just quite surprised.

haha... yeah he's not exciting like Lara has elegance of Mahela or even has the dominance of KP but him and Clarke of current players are two players who combines the right mix of all 3 things.

 

[smash84]

some pretty silly stuff being thrown about him that he isn't ATG

 

[Himannv]

some pretty silly stuff being thrown about him that he isn't ATG

I think it comes down to how people define an ATG player. I'm not exactly a Sanga fan and I think he's being overrated a bit in this thread but he probably makes my list. Having said that, I understand that some people may use stricter criteria when determining who would have ATG status.

 

[smash84]

can you please elaborate on the "stricter criteria". Otherwise I might as well club you together with the silly crowd

 

[Xuhaib]

Sangi is imo among the top 5 to come out of sub cont so surely an ATG for me.

Sachin is # 1 then its Sunny G, Dravid, Miandad and Sanga in no particular order..

 

[Himannv]

can you please elaborate on the "stricter criteria". Otherwise I might as well club you together with the silly crowd

Criteria would defer from person to person, I thought my post already indicated that. Make whatever club you want to, see if I care.

 

[Flem274*]

If he were from a more fashionable/active side he would be worshipped at churches dedicated to him.

As it stands, people barely remember Sri Lanka play cricket.

Easily an all time great. There is nothing he hasn't done numbers wise and the only detractors are those suffering from an intense case of crippling nostalgia. Fortunately, if he people remember Sri Lanka play cricket in twenty years, the nostalgia will work in his favour.

But somehow I doubt it.

As for where he stands amongst the other great batsmen, who cares? Beyond Bradman, no one has ever won an argument ever for the order beyond it. Some people even debate number 1 when he averages 99.94...

 

[Jacknife]

This is incredibly surprising to me.

I understand he isn't as exciting as Lara, but he's far more fluent and stylish than some of his other contemporary run making machines, and that probably includes current-day Tendulkar as well.

Each to their own though for sure, but just quite surprised.

Can see why others do but he's never been a batman that I love watching and I've never gone back to watch his innings over again, like I have say with Viv or KP, like you say each to their own.

 

[Arachnodouche]

An average of 35 or below in India, SA, and Eng hardly catapults him to undisputed ATG status. By weight of runs, sure..but that's a huge gap in his achievements. I don't even find him aesthetically pleasing, much less so than his compatriot run machine.