Your favorite batsman to watch bat!!!

[Shri]

Would you rate him better if he batted with a protractor instead of a bat

 

[honestbharani]

TJB likes 360 degree players.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Would you rate him better if he batted with a protractor instead of a bat

I guess but would awkward af when he faces Murali and replays show the horrendous chuckage

 

[h_hurricane]

It is interesting to note that Harper (involved in that famous incident) had a striking affinity towards number 4.

Year of his international debut : 1994
Tests he umpired : 94
ODIs he umpired : 174
FCs he umpired : 164
LA he umpired : 214

In all likelihood, he left behind 4 sense organs every time he walked on to a cricket field.

 

[thierry henry]

And sometimes you have super elegant guys like Carl Hooper averaging in the 30s.

Meanwhile, you look at the 10,000 run club, and they're mostly not that aesthetically pleasing. Shiv, Gavaskar, Cook, Dravid, Kallis, Waugh....over two third's of that list is pure uggos.

To me, Kallis and Dravid were two of the best players to watch. Slow-ish scorers, but everything in the right place, very co-ordinated, very pure swings of the bat.

I'd say it's often the more "exciting" players who actually are aesthetically underwhelming or sloppy but make up for it via pure strike rate.

 

[Beamer]

Parochially, I used to love watching Sarwan bat more than any other Windies player. It was those pleasing cover drives and fierce cut shots. Most things he did were elegant and he played spin so superbly.

Globally I always loved watching Dravid for technical perfection and Michael Vaughan for his cover driving and pull shots.

 

[Arachnodouche]

Azhar on song was some sight. Other than Lara, can't think of another batsman with a flourish like his, especially on the off-side. A conductor of symphonies.

There's also a classical late cut thrown into that Cape Town knock, wrists in full glorious rotation. Just don't see that shot anymore.

 

[h_hurricane]

Sometimes I wonder how Azhar would have been rated had it not been for match fixing. When he was batting like a maniac, at times, was close to be the best batsman in the world. That 62 ball hundred against NZ was the fastest ODI hundred for a very long time. Then came all those majestic hundreds in 1990 against NZ and England where he could go on at top gear for like ever. 182 at Eden Gardens against England in 1992-93 was brilliant. In 1996-97, he scored breath taking hundreds against SA. In between, though, he had utterly forgettable series like 1996 against Eng and 1996-97 against WI. Such an unpredictable and exciting player.

 

[honestbharani]

His knock in 1998 at the Eden against Australia is under rated too. It was Sachin's series but that knock was the best of the series IMO.

 

[Arachnodouche]

I don't think his batting has been or ought to be retrospectively adjusted on account of his ethical trespasses. He was always mercurial and had some serious shortcomings against quick bowling; that he achieved as much as he did despite those weaknesses and in such imperious fashion makes his case all the more fascinating. We've had such a string of fine batsmen these last twenty-five years that it's easy to forget just what a cricketing hero he was for anyone growing up in the 80s and 90s, dare I say as big as Tendulkar till a certain point.

 

[Neptune]

Rory Burns and Dom Sibley

 

[Gob]

Marto