The greatest men's international cricketers of the century

[deathmonger]

Cricinfo is running this. Currently done 11-25.

 

25. R Ashwin

24. Stuart Broad

23. Kevin Pietersen

22. Virender Sehwag

21. Mahela Jayawardene

20. Pat Cummins

19. Ben Stokes

18. Chris Gayle

17. Mitchell Starc

16. Kane Williamson

15. Jasprit Bumrah

14. MS Dhoni

13. James Anderson

12. Rahul Dravid

11. Adam Gilchrist

 

Top 10 guesses?

 

Sanga, Murali, Kohli, Sachin, Ponting, Steve Smith, Joe Root, Kallis, ABDV, Steyn

Edited May 22 by deathmonger

[Gollum]

They can't leave out Younis, Cook, Amla, Jadeja, Clarke, Hussey etc. 

[Tillu]

Are they taking all formats into consideration or only Test cricket.

 

If it is only Tests and they put Kohli in the top 10 then it will be a huge dis service to so many other great cricketers.

 

Edit: Just checked Cricinfo and these rankings are based on all formats.

Edited May 22 by Tillu

[Lone Wolf]

Kallis should be in Top 2/3 easily 

[Tillu]

 

Shane Bond on Jasprit Bumrah: Why Bumrah is one of the best players going around in the world is a combination of things. An action that is different and that makes the ball come out differently makes him difficult to pick up as a batter, but he also combines that action with the skill to move the ball both ways and still execute an outstanding slower ball. He is a competitor who loves being in that pressure moment. His work ethic is really strong, not only in the nets, where he's always well-planned to execute his skills, but also off the field, in terms of his preparation and scouting of opposition players. So it is the perfect combination of on- and off-field preparation. Once you combine all of that, you have one of the greatest bowlers in the world.

 

I distinctly remember a Super Over in 2017 in the IPL, when he was bowling to Brendon McCullum and Aaron Finch. Mumbai Indians were defending eight or nine, and even after starting with a no-ball, Bumrah could adapt to the conditions and successfully defend the score.

 

[Gollum]

Herath, Warner too may miss out.

[Tillu]

Here's the list

 

https://www.espncricinfo.com/genre/the-greatest-international-cricketers-2000-2025-766

[deathmonger]

47 minutes ago, Tillu said:

Are they taking all formats into consideration or only Test cricket.

 

If it is only Tests and they put Kohli in the top 10 then it will be a huge dis service to so many other great cricketers.

 

Edit: Just checked Cricinfo and these rankings are based on all formats.

All formats

[deathmonger]

1 hour ago, Gollum said:

They can't leave out Younis, Cook, Amla, Jadeja, Clarke, Hussey etc. 

Younis great in tests but poor in white ball. Dravid is already there and Younis is slightly inferior in tests and vastly in white ball so he is not making it.

 

Jadeja is a test great but relatively mediocre in white ball.

 

Others are very good in both formats but not great.

 

Don't think anyone is surpassing these 10 in all format excellence:

 

Sanga, Murali, Kohli, Sachin, Ponting, Steve Smith, Joe Root, Kallis, ABDV, Steyn

 

Edited May 22 by deathmonger

[deathmonger]

8 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Herath, Warner too may miss out.

Herath good in tests - no white ball

 

Warner - consistently good in all formats but not an ATG in any.

[bsriharsha]

Warne played a chunk in the 2000s as well

[deathmonger]

22 minutes ago, bsriharsha said:

Warne played a chunk in the 2000s as well

I checked. Stopped playing white ball completely and had that red ball gap of a year. Good figures (like McGrath and Lara) but smaller sample size.

 

Tests - 357 @ 25.17

ODIs - 81 @ 29.55

 

Murali

 

Tests - 573 @ 21.01

ODIs - 357@ 20.92

 

[bsriharsha]

He was banned in the 2007 world cup. He would have been a sure shot pick there otherwise 

[deathmonger]

Just now, bsriharsha said:

He was banned in the 2007 world cup. He would have been a sure shot pick there otherwise 

03.

[bsriharsha]

My bad. Keep mixing them up. 

 

Either way , he's played the greater part of 2000-2010. 

 

Bit of a recency bias to exclude the likes of him , McGrath, Lara. 

 

T20 exploits shouldn't be given the same weightage as test match exploits and to a lesser extent , odi exploits. 

[deathmonger]

21 minutes ago, bsriharsha said:

My bad. Keep mixing them up. 

 

Either way , he's played the greater part of 2000-2010. 

 

Bit of a recency bias to exclude the likes of him , McGrath, Lara. 

 

T20 exploits shouldn't be given the same weightage as test match exploits and to a lesser extent , odi exploits. 

It's 2000-2026 though.

 

And for better or worse, T20 has catchet nowadays.

[cricspirit]

10 out of the following

-------------------------

Rohit Sharma ( Less chances)

Shakib al Hasan (Less chances)

Sangakara

Murali

Jadeja

Steyn

Tendulkar

Cook 

Ponting

Joe Root

Kallis

Steve Smith

ABDV

Kohli 

 

I wont be surprised if Kohli is No.1 

 

Not sure who misses out of the top 12 I have. They already selected lesser impact in 25 to 11. 

 

 

[Gollum]

4 hours ago, deathmonger said:

Younis great in tests but poor in white ball. Dravid is already there and Younis is slightly inferior in tests and vastly in white ball so he is not making it.

 

Jadeja is a test great but relatively mediocre in white ball.

 

Others are very good in both formats but not great.

 

Don't think anyone is surpassing these 10 in all format excellence:

 

Sanga, Murali, Kohli, Sachin, Ponting, Steve Smith, Joe Root, Kallis, ABDV, Steyn

 

For me, Younis is better than Mahela, any day. ATG in tests, ok in white ball, led his side to a T20 WC. 

 

If Broad, Mahela can be there, so should Jaddu. He played a big part in 2013 CT win, and a few good performances in ICC events, latest being 2023 WC. 

4 hours ago, deathmonger said:

Herath good in tests - no white ball

 

Warner - consistently good in all formats but not an ATG in any.

Warner part of 2 ODI WC wins, 1 T20 WC, 1 WTC, and he had great performances in some of these triumphs.Then you factor in his IPL record. Overall a modern day legend. 

 

Anyway, not a fan of these subjective rankings. Dhoni isn't above Bumrah, sorry. 

[Gollum]

@deathmonger when they do a similar list for 2026-2050 period, reckon we should have 15 Indians in the top 25. With India's stature being like USA's in basketball. 

[deathmonger]

1 hour ago, Gollum said:

@deathmonger when they do a similar list for 2026-2050 period, reckon we should have 15 Indians in the top 25. With India's stature being like USA's in basketball. 

Yeah, few of these depending on how the rest of their careers pan out:

 

Gill

Jaiswal

Pant

Sooryavanshi

Sundar

Kuldeep

NKR

 

Also a few single format ATGs maybe:

 

Abhishek

Ishan

Tilak

 

All of these guys are relatively young and already have decent CVs/potential and are still not yet in (or just in) the traditional peak period of late 20s-mid 30s. 

Edited May 22 by deathmonger