How would you rate Aravinda De silva

[mono]

He's the best sri lankan batsman that i have seen. Some of the older folks talk about Sidath Wettimuny as being the best, but i've never seen him. Sanga is aesthetically please, but he lacks the magic that mahela has. Aravinda had that magic, the kind of thing that makes batting look easy. Aravinda also lack the frailty that mahela has when it comes to dealing with swing and bounce. One of the last strokes aravinda played in his international career was pulling a 90mph brett lee delivery off of his knees over mid wicket for six. Easily one of the best cricket shots i've ever seen

 

[Himannv]

Would be interested to hear the views of SL supporters as to where he ranks among their batsmen. I imagine he'd be right up there.

I'd say he's one of the best if not the best we've ever had. The stats he ended up with were disappointing and that probably results in him being rated very low. Excluding that, he was an amazing player. If the prize for a series was a car, he would win it by sheer will alone, WAG.

 

[weldone]

Incredibly talented against both top-quality pace and top-quality spin, but lacked consistency for a large part of his career (pre-1996). He was a bit like Vishwanath - both short in stature, both incredibly talented, both played some awesome knocks, among the best in the world at their best, but slightly short of ATG status.

 

[Burgey]

I'd say he's one of the best if not the best we've ever had. The stats he ended up with were disappointing and that probably results in him being rated very low. Excluding that, he was an amazing player. If the prize for a series was a car, he would win it by sheer will alone, WAG.

Yeah I think he had the utmost respect of everyone who played against him out here. Would say he was the prized wicket in his day.

 

[mono]

Yeah I think he had the utmost respect of everyone who played against him out here. Would say he was the prized wicket in his day.

The part about him being prized wicket is correct. But he showed little respect for the opposition, sometimes to our jubilation and sometimes to our dismay. He was an instinctive cricketer.

 

[Migara]

Would be interested to hear the views of SL supporters as to where he ranks among their batsmen. I imagine he'd be right up there.

Sanga is the best test batsman SL had, and Jayasuriya in the ODIs. Aravinda is the second best in both departments. Overall, the finest SL batsman.

 

[Migara]

He's the best sri lankan batsman that i have seen. Some of the older folks talk about Sidath Wettimuny as being the best, but i've never seen him. Sanga is aesthetically please, but he lacks the magic that mahela has. Aravinda had that magic, the kind of thing that makes batting look easy. Aravinda also lack the frailty that mahela has when it comes to dealing with swing and bounce. One of the last strokes aravinda played in his international career was pulling a 90mph brett lee delivery off of his knees over mid wicket for six. Easily one of the best cricket shots i've ever seen

Aravinda was possibly the best player of pull and hook of his generation. He played against Wasim, Waqar, Imran, Shoaib, Ambrose, Walsh, Bishop, Patterson, Donald, Schultz, De Villiers, Lee, McGrath, Gillespie, Huges, McDemott etc. No one was able to intimidate him with short bowling or bowling at his body. He just caned everybody if it was dropped short. These are the bowlers who terrorized batsmen of the era with short pitched bowling.

I would have loved to see him against Windies four prong attack and against Lillee and Thommo deciding to bounce him out. Would have been massive fun.

 

[mono]

Aravinda was probably the best judge of length I've ever seen. He could pick up length in a flash, that's why he was so good at the pull and the hook. He wasn't such a good judge of line, that's he always got out chasing balls outside off

 

[Black_Warrior]

Great great batsman...have a lot of time and respect for him and in my view the greatest Sri Lankan batsman. He brought Sri Lankan cricket on the world map in the 90s..

 

[Satguru]

Great batsman without a doubt, although i do believe he underperformed in away games. Bit like jayawerdene really, was wonderful at home but never really did his ability justice abroad, apart from one fabulous 2 match series in Australia.
Would put him below Sangakkara as the 2nd best Sri Lankan bat ever, with jaya almost level with him. Theres something about Sri Lankan bats,especially these three.. its just so beautiful to watch their batting.

 

[Migara]

Great batsman without a doubt, although i do believe he underperformed in away games. Bit like jayawerdene really, was wonderful at home but never really did his ability justice abroad, apart from one fabulous 2 match series in Australia.
Would put him below Sangakkara as the 2nd best Sri Lankan bat ever, with jaya almost level with him. Theres something about Sri Lankan bats,especially these three.. its just so beautiful to watch their batting.

De Silva actually has a comparable away vs home average. (39 vs 44 IIRC), which is massively different from MJs stats.

 

[Satguru]

De Silva actually has a comparable away vs home average. (39 vs 44 IIRC), which is massively different from MJs stats.

Pretty sure aravinda was 50+ at home and in the 30s abroad just like jaya...
Did play some damn good knocks abroad though...He got a fantastic 167 in australia, outstanding innings
He also had a knack of playing a terrible shot and throwing it away after looking in fantastic touch a bit like what VVS Laxman does, like that test against AUS in which they were 50 odd runs away from victory with 8 wickets left... aravinda played a godawful shot and the whole team promptly collapsed in a heap lost their last 8 wickets for around 20 iirc

 

[Migara]

Pretty sure aravinda was 50+ at home and in the 30s abroad just like jaya...
Did play some damn good knocks abroad though...He got a fantastic 167 in australia, outstanding innings
He also had a knack of playing a terrible shot and throwing it away after looking in fantastic touch a bit like what VVS Laxman does, like that test against AUS in which they were 50 odd runs away from victory with 8 wickets left... aravinda played a godawful shot and the whole team promptly collapsed in a heap lost their last 8 wickets for around 20 iirc

His away stats suffer because being **** on Indian tracks. unlike Mahela Aravinda averages 39 in Aus, 38 in Eng, 46 in Aus, 31 in SAF and 40 in WI. His stats are mighty superior compared to MJ taking in to account the attacks he played against. It contained Imran, two Ws, Ambrose, Walsh and Bishop, Donald, Pollock and Schultz especially.

 

[Subhadeep]

I think he had some flaws in his technique, especially his defence was not top-notch. His front foot play was not as first rate as his back foot play. Still, a wonderful batsman to watch.