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Wisden's Greatest ODI Players of each decade

bagapath

International Captain
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan writes:

Now fuse Gilchrist's murderousness, Dhoni's cool, Tendulkar's technique, Jayasuriya's power, Lloyd's big-game temperament, Jones' athleticism, Greg Chappell's grace and Miandad's chutzpah. Make sure this composite cricketer scores at an unheard of strike rate. Get him to smash a century every 15 ODI innings, at a time when middle-order batsmen score one in 62. He should be a master at milking the bowling, gathering speed towards the finish; if his team is in early trouble, he should counterattack with a vengeance. He should dominate under gloomy skies or in the furnaces of the subcontinent. He should annihilate bowlers both in the day and at night. Get him to bowl offspin. And make him a great captain. Ensure he wins two World Cup finals - one with his fielding, another with the bat. And while you're at it, let him pilot his side to a third World Cup final. Through it all, see that he never wears a helmet. Give him oodles of swagger. And, to add to the aura, let him chew gum.

What are you left with? The greatest one-day cricketer of all. And perhaps the greatest there will ever be.

 

harsh.ag

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan writes:

Now fuse Gilchrist's murderousness, Dhoni's cool, Tendulkar's technique, Jayasuriya's power, Lloyd's big-game temperament, Jones' athleticism, Greg Chappell's grace and Miandad's chutzpah. Make sure this composite cricketer scores at an unheard of strike rate. Get him to smash a century every 15 ODI innings, at a time when middle-order batsmen score one in 62. He should be a master at milking the bowling, gathering speed towards the finish; if his team is in early trouble, he should counterattack with a vengeance. He should dominate under gloomy skies or in the furnaces of the subcontinent. He should annihilate bowlers both in the day and at night. Get him to bowl offspin. And make him a great captain. Ensure he wins two World Cup finals - one with his fielding, another with the bat. And while you're at it, let him pilot his side to a third World Cup final. Through it all, see that he never wears a helmet. Give him oodles of swagger. And, to add to the aura, let him chew gum.

What are you left with? The greatest one-day cricketer of all. And perhaps the greatest there will ever be.

He doesn't mention Bevan's average?? WAC
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
It is a stupid argument to say Bevan > Dhoni coz he played a good knock in the 1996 WC semi when MSD hardly got 4 games in the 2007 WC coz the whole team sucked.

MSD > Bevan by a small yet clear margin.
 

Gob

International Coach
The real difference between Dhoni and Bevan is that Dhoni had the 6th gear to bring the buffer down. Bevan has shown he has it too (ie Asia xi game) but not as often but that may down to the era he played. I'd personally back Bevan to come good more often while chasing small totals against better bowlers/helpful conditions though

Anyway when it comes to GOAT team, I always felt it comes down to some opener + Dhoni vs Gilchrist + Bevan. As much as I like the latter, former seems to give you a better balance
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
The real difference between Dhoni and Bevan is that Dhoni had the 6th gear to bring the buffer down. Bevan has shown he has it too (ie Asia xi game) but not as often but that may down to the era he played. I'd personally back Bevan to come good more often while chasing small totals against better bowlers/helpful conditions though

Anyway when it comes to GOAT team, I always felt it comes down to some opener + Dhoni vs Gilchrist + Bevan. As much as I like the latter, former seems to give you a better balance
Jayasuriya as opener works so well coz of the bowling balance he adds too. Sachin and Sanath at the top is just all sorts of awesome.
 

Gob

International Coach
Jayasuriya as opener works so well coz of the bowling balance he adds too. Sachin and Sanath at the top is just all sorts of awesome.
Is he consistent enough with the bat though?

I don't rate his bowling any thing other than part time and certainly you don't want to resort to his bowling in an all time xi. Shane Watson actually makes much more sense but personally I'd like to pick a proper bowling all rounder at #7 (Kapil, Flintoff, NotChrisHarris etc) to bowl his quota of overs and pick a specialist opener to partner Sachin. Big Matt Hayden from 07 is someone I prefer more often but Rohit is forging a strong case for himself
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
Is he consistent enough with the bat though?

I don't rate his bowling any thing other than part time and certainly you don't want to resort to his bowling in an all time xi. Shane Watson actually makes much more sense but personally I'd like to pick a proper bowling all rounder at #7 (Kapil, Flintoff, NotChrisHarris etc) to bowl his quota of overs and pick a specialist opener to partner Sachin. Big Matt Hayden from 07 is someone I prefer more often but Rohit is forging a strong case for himself
I think playing any form of LO cricket with only 5 proper bowling options is usually asking for trouble. But then again, I have an allrounder bias. :)
 

Gob

International Coach
I think playing any form of LO cricket with only 5 proper bowling options is usually asking for trouble. But then again, I have an allrounder bias. :)
You have Viv to roll his arm over tbh and even Sachin if needed. I don't think Sanath was much of an upgrade from those two

I've been wondering about the ideal bowling attack and the key is to pick the attack which covers all the basis and not necessarily the three best bowlers so after much consideration I decided on

Wasim
McGrath
Malinga
Murali
Flintoff/Kapil

Wasim and McGrath were as good as it gets with the new ball. McGrath will bowl big chunk of his overs upfront. Wasim will be replaced by Kapil/Flintoff as first change and both are very good bowlers and Malinga will predominantly bowl the death overs as the death over specialist.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
You have Viv to roll his arm over tbh and even Sachin if needed. I don't think Sanath was much of an upgrade from those two

I've been wondering about the ideal bowling attack and the key is to pick the attack which covers all the basis and not necessarily the three best bowlers so after much consideration I decided on

Wasim
McGrath
Malinga
Murali
Flintoff/Kapil

Wasim and McGrath were as good as it gets with the new ball. McGrath will bowl big chunk of his overs upfront. Wasim will be replaced by Kapil/Flintoff as first change and both are very good bowlers and Malinga will predominantly bowl the death overs as the death over specialist.
Its good but like I said earlier, I have become a fan of having allrounders or at least batsmen who can bowl and bowlers who can bat especially in LO formats. A 9-11 of #11s scares me with the 3 Ms there. Maybe one of them can be replaced by Pollock.
 

Migara

International Coach
You have Viv to roll his arm over tbh and even Sachin if needed. I don't think Sanath was much of an upgrade from those two
Sanath was way better bowler than Viv or Tendulkar. He was the first spinner to bowl in death overs. By turn of millennium he ha a shoulder trouble and lost the ability to fire 105-110k darts when it was needed. he slowly settled in to middle overs. Emergence of Malinga accelerated the process.
 

Migara

International Coach
Viv and Sanath looks pretty similar to me

He maybe better but my point was to pick a better opening batsman regardless they bowl or not and pick a genuine bowling all rounder at 7. If Sanath is to be picked it should entirely based on his batting his bowling may come handy afterwards but it shouldn't be a major deciding factor
I agree with the school of thought you have. I look for the sum of the team, rather than individual performers. Sanath at his bowling pomp is an excellent death bowler (as in WC 96). And that usually don't come with #7 packages.

(Oh Viv has rating over 500 for about 100 games while Sanath maintains for it over 350 games)
 

Pap Finn Keighl

International Debutant
When i checked few months back, Kapil's bowling ranking graph was better or similar to legends like Warne, Waqar or Donald and his Batting ranking comparable to Ajay Jadeja, Ijaz, Gambhir.. Etc can someone check?
 

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