Who are the top 5 Indian cricketers ever?

[Slifer]

Dev
Gavaskar
Sachin
Dravid
Kohli

 

[h_hurricane]

The top 5 debate is interesting but it essentially boils down to Kapil, Gavaskar and Tendulkar plus two of Kohli, Dravid and Kumble. I personally think Dravid and Kohli (25 centuries in not a lot of tests) edge Kumble but can see all sides of this argument.

Top 10 is even more interesting.

If the top 6 are established, then there are a lot of interesting competitors for the next 4.

Sehwag
Laxman
Ashwin
Bedi
Hazare
Vengsarkar
Vishwanath
Chandrasekar
Pujara
Ganguly

I'd go with Laxman, Sehwag, Hazare, Ashwin for 6-10 but I'm interested in what others think

Mankad and Jadeja clearly belong there in 6-15. Should be there instead of Vengsarkar and 1 out of Bedi and Chandra imho.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Kumble easily deserves a top 5 place. He's won so many important matches for India, and let's not forget his stupendous 10/74. I can't think of any tougher challenge in cricket than facing Kumble in India on the 4th/5th day. Absolute legend.

And also he's broken his jaw during a test match and still came out to bat and bowl.

 

[h_hurricane]

Here is my top 15

Kapil
Sachin
Gavaskar
Dravid
Kohli
Sehwag
Kumble
Laxman
Ashwin
Mankad
Pujara
Jadeja
Dhoni
Vishwanath
Ganguly

A bit sad not to have Merchant and Hazare(due to low sample size) and the spin trio(Bedi,Chandra and Prasanna). I might have missed a couple of others but I am sure they are not glaring omissions.

 

[Burgey]

Good to see Pujara getting some mentions in the slightly extended lists here. Bloke was the difference last summer, one of he great away series batting efforts in Australia.

 

[jimmy101]

Top 5 not based on skill, but rather influence on the game & Indian cricket in general.

1 CK Nayudu
2 Tiger Pataudi
3 Sunil Gavaskar
4 Kapil Dev
5 Sachin Tendulkar

HM: Ranji, Mankad, Kohli

 

[Daemon]

Dravid’s ranking

2001 Dec : 8

2002 Dec : 9

2003 Dec : 4

2004 Dec : 1

2005 Dec : 5

2006 Dec : 3



I am not denying Dravid was one of the best batsmen in the first half of last decade. I am just saying there were others that were just as good. Hayden, Kallis, Ponting, Lara and Sangakkara were just as good back then.

But now, Kohli is clearly the second best Test batsman of this generation. It is not even a debate. It is Smith, Kohli and the rest.

You can't use rankings like that because they take into account prior periods as well. Looking at the 2001/2 or even 2003 ranking has not much significance when trying to assess performances between 2002-2006. Note how he's ranked 1 in 2004 when the rankings basically take his all of his 2002-04 runs into account.

Nonetheless I think a 2000s peak is kinda meh as an achievement compared to other eras because of batting friendliness of it all.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Ftr, Dravid averaged 50 in the 90s (ie) the period where all pitches were greentops and all bowlers were Malcolm Marshall and Sachin supposedly had no help from his teammates.

 

[Daemon]

Yeah basically Kohli has a long way to go to match Dravid in Tests. If we're counting ODIs and giving that much more weightage to the intangibles like captaincy, leadership and all that then maybe he pips him.

 

[jimmy101]

I'd even go as far to say that Kohli is already on track to be a Test ATG purely cause of the fact that he was the first ever Indian captain to win a series in Australia.

Landmark event whichever way you wanna slice it.

 

[Malcolm]

Ftr, Dravid averaged 50 in the 90s (ie) the period where all pitches were greentops and all bowlers were Malcolm Marshall and Sachin supposedly had no help from his teammates.

Ganguly averaged 50 too in the 90s.

 

[jimmy101]

Vinod "Forgot about Vinod" Kambli too.

 

[Shri]

This decade might be comparable to the 90s wrt bowling tbf.

Notable bowlers from the 90s:

Wasim
Waqar
Saqlain
Ambrose
Walsh
Pollock
Donald
McGrath
Gillespie
Warne
Murali
Vaas
Gough
Kumble
Streak

this decade:

Anderson
Broad
Rabada
Steyn
Philander
Mitchell Johnson
Starc
Lyon
Cummins
Holder
Roach
Bumrah
Ishant
Ashwin
Jadeja
Herath
Malinga
Shakib

The bowling has arguably been better so I'd consider rating the current crop of best batsmen on par with the great ones of the 90s.

 

[Daemon]

You left out the NZers

 

[Shri]

everyone does

not like they had anyone good emerge in the 90s

 

[jimmy101]

Hate to disagree, but I feel the 90's bowlers are a cut above the current day crop.

 

[Burgey]

Bishop and McDermott are two others from the 90s who were very good bowlers as well.

 

[jimmy101]

Add Fanie de Villiers, Brett Schultz, Paul Reiffel, Winston & Kenny Benjamin to that list as well.

And throw Ryan Harris into the 2010s list!

 

[trundler]

Fast bowling standards have been reasonably high throughput the decade though. In the last couple of years pitches have been spicy too. So Smith and Kohli deserve lots of respect. Their averages shouldn't have an asterisk next to them like say, Samaraweera.

 

[_00_deathscar]

This decade might be comparable to the 90s wrt bowling tbf.

Notable bowlers from the 90s:

Wasim
Waqar
Saqlain
Ambrose
Walsh
Pollock
Donald
McGrath
Gillespie
Warne
Murali
Vaas
Gough
Kumble
Streak

this decade:

Anderson
Broad
Rabada
Steyn
Philander
Mitchell Johnson
Starc
Lyon
Cummins
Holder
Roach
Bumrah
Ishant
Ashwin
Jadeja
Herath
Malinga
Shakib

The bowling has arguably been better so I'd consider rating the current crop of best batsmen on par with the great ones of the 90s.

Missing Ian Bishop from the 90s decade list.

1990s: 14 bowlers averaging <25 (8 <23)
2000s: 12 bowlers averaging <25 (but only 6 <23 - many more are closer to the 25 mark than to the 20 mark)
2010s: 10 bowlers averaging <25 (7 <23)