Virat Kohli, the greatest ODI bat ever?

[Burgey]

Ceetainly belongs in the argument, and if he dominates the WC as you’d expect he will then it’ll be him and Viv in the GF. imo

 

[trundler]

Ceetainly belongs in the argument, and if he dominates the WC as you’d expect he will then it’ll be him and Viv in the GF. imo

Oh mate, look at the state of this place in your absence. An Indian with no WC final runs of note is being compared to the great Richards!

 

[fredfertang]

Viv Richards worked out how to bat in ODIs long before anyone else did, and before bowlers worked out how to bowl, so had that advantage.

Kohli is a remarkable batsman who impresses me more and more as time passes - if he could just get to grips with Adil Rashid I'd even concede he's better than the other Richards

 

[Burgey]

Oh mate, look at the state of this place in your absence. An Indian with no WC final runs of note is being compared to the great Richards!

I quietly perused the forum during my ban using one of my several Multis, and unsurprisingly the week proved what I have long said: both the quantity but especially the quality is turgid in my absence.

 

[fredfertang]

I quietly perused the forum during my ban using one of my several Multis, and unsurprisingly the week proved what I have long said: both the quantity but especially the quality is turgid in my absence.

What have you done with *****?

 

[Burgey]

Dead, I’m afraid.

 

[fredfertang]

Dead, I’m afraid.

And you only got a seven dayer?

 

[Pap Finn Keighl]

Top 10

Sachin
Viv
Abdv
Kohli
Dhoni
Lara
Ponting
Bevan
Abbas
Jones

If kohli continues in this form for next 2 years , ranking will be
Sachin
Viv
Kohli
Ab devilliers

 

[Pap Finn Keighl]

If you look closely , there is no stand out Batsman in any era.a

Sachin - Viv like stats for the exact length of Viv career and he played 4-5 years more. Plus he played against greater bowlers in a weaker team.

Viv - probably best raw stats ever.

Ab devilliers Vs kohli for the period they played together.

Kohli 57 or so AVG , 90 plus SR
Ab devilliers 61 AVG , close to 110 SR

This is 11 years ,90% of Kohli career and includes Ab devilliers' decline.

Dhoni - only player to excel all the batting positions he played.

Lara - suited to top order just like Sachin , and his top order stats easily matches Sachin's top order, moreover he was ranked number 1 for straight 6 or 7 years.which includes Sachin's peak years.

Bevan - far better AVG than Sachin

Abbas - almost identical stats to Viv.

 

[Pap Finn Keighl]

Century making is much easier now , and it's getting more and more easier every passing day.

Sachin was scoring centuries in every 6 matches in his last years. He was old , just a shadow of peak Sachin , still the ratio was phenomenal , imagine peak Sachin playing in this era.

Ab devilliers , Sachin and Viv are the only 3 members of ultra consistent + ultra aggressive club.

 

[vcs]

Yeah, I agree that century making is easier now for batsmen in the top 3. De Kock, Amla, Rohit etc. all score tons for fun, and Babar Azam in the last couple of years. But no one does it with Kohli's consistency in tough chases.

 

[Pap Finn Keighl]

Ab is clearly a rung below Kohli.

Statistically Ab devilliers is better than Kohli.

They played together for 11 years
Or in other words
More than 90% Kohli career so far.

AVG for the period
Kohli - 57 aprox
ABdV- 61 aprox

SR for the period
Kohli - 92 or so
ABdV - close to 110

That's the difference between Sachin and Anwar .
And it includes ABdV decline , mind you.

 

[Pap Finn Keighl]

Yeah, I agree that century making is easier now for batsmen in the top 3. De Kock, Amla, Rohit etc. all score tons for fun, and Babar Azam in the last couple of years. But no one does it with Kohli's consistency in tough chases.

No one did it with Sachin's consistency, in Sachin's time either.

 

[Pap Finn Keighl]

Zaheer Abbas played for 12 years .
There is no justification for not rating him.

At least it's better than Headley's and G.Pollock's test career.

 

[mr_mister]

Viv batted at 3 and struck at 90. No reason he couldn't have tonned up more

 

[Spark]

Statistically Ab devilliers is better than Kohli.

All further evidence in my burgeoning thesis that ODI stats are worthless.

 

[ankitj]

Zaheer Abbas played for 12 years .
There is no justification for not rating him.

At least it's better than Headley's and G.Pollock's test career.

Yeah, I rate Abbas very highly. His SR for the era was superb. Better than likes of Ponting, Hayden, De Silva etc. And Abbas retried in 1984

 

[stephen]

Tendulkar wasn't the best bat of the 90s (Bevan) or for much of the 00s (Ponting/Dhoni). But he was close enough in both decades to be considered the better overall batsman. Kohli is great, but it's arguable he isn't the best of the 10s (de Villiers has a better average and strike rate). He will of course hold the record (by a huge margin) for the most runs in the decade, since his career pretty much coincides with this decade and he's played way more ODIs than anyone and has a ridiculous average and strike rate for the decade.

To put Kohli's accomplishments this decade into perspective, in the 00s, Tendulkar played in 211 ODIs. Kohli has played exactly that number of ODIs in the 10s and has 1500 more runs than Tendulkar in the same number of games. Kohli is already 10th on the list of AT run scorers in the ODI format and is set to overtake Dravid in the next couple of matches. He's the only player in the top 10 with less than 300 ODIs and he's only played 226. He has a higher average and a higher strike rate than any player ahead of him. He has the third highest career average in history (the two guys ahead of him have 54 ODIs between them).

To put it simply, he's good. Very good. A great even. And should be considered amongst the top 4-5 ODI batsmen of all time (Viv, ABDV, Bevan and Tendulkar are the other 4).

 

[Bolo]

Viv batted at 3 and struck at 90. No reason he couldn't have tonned up more

51 innings at 3, 5 tons. This is already a Tendulkarish ratio. WI opening partnership + bowling would take away a lot of opportunities in chases to ton up. He is 4/24 in setting. Plus general era differences- his 100 is worth a lot more today.

 

[vcs]

I'm wondering what Kohli's decline will look like. AB basically avoided that phase altogether with his motivation issues and early retirement. Watching Dhoni scratch around bunting spinners straight to cover for the past two-three years has definitely hurt his legacy.

I thought Kohli's peak in 2012-2014 was unbelievable, until he went and surpassed it in the 2016-18 period. It was as if Sachin's '98 had been stretched out for 3-4 years.