Top 10 ODI batsman of INDIA ?All time

[don_corleone840]

1 sachin tendulkar 2 M.s dhoni 3 Sourav ganguly 4 Virendra sehwag 5 Yuvraj singh 6 Gautam gambhir 7 Rahul dravid 8 DB Vengsarkar 9 Virat kohli 10 Ajay jadeja

[Ram]

Even I was a bit torn between Ganguly and Yuvraj at No.3, but finally I decided on Ganguly at 3 because (I'm going by memory here) I think Ganguly has been more consistent than Yuvraj throughout his career. Regarding the No.5 spot, Dravid may have piled up more runs than Gambhir, but I still look up to Gambhir as more of an impact player. I also admire him for the way he made his final comeback in 2007 after being dropped 'n' number of times. You're spot on regarding Kohli; the way he's going he'll surely grab the No.1/No.2 position in a few years from now.

Dont get me wrong, Saurav is a once-in-a-generation ODI player. He had 3 mind-boggling years between 1999-2002 (he tallied in excess of a 1000 ODI runs in each of those 3 years), but the fact of the matter is, we still were not winning. A classic case in point was the 99 WC. Among the top 5 run scorers in that tournament were Saurav and Rahul, yet we couldnt get pas Zimbabwe. Why? We lacked finishers in the death. Our best lower-middle order hope back then was Robin Singh, which tells a story by itself. To me, Yuvraj changed the face of Indian ODI performances (much like the transformational effect Viru has had on our test record). You can literally divide our ODI record into two phases - Pre Natwest trophy final and post Natwest Trophy final. If Sachin was the concrete of our ODI side from 1994 to 2002, Yuvraj Singh was the steel backbone that came in after that. We were a reasonably formidable side even back then, but without a fearless finisher like Yuvraj, no amount of top order runs could win substantial cups. Everything changed after 2002. Of course, you can make a genuine case that the real inflection point in Indian ODI form came in during Greg Chappel's tenure, when Dravid was our keeper batsmen and Irfan was the surprise no.3 batting star and attacking seam option. But what really kick-started the juggernaut that is the Indian ODI side was Yuvraj. From 2002 to his peak in 2008, Yuvraj was demolishing ODI attacks like it was fun and games. Of course, I would be foolish not to mention the word Dhoni in this conversation. For the record, I believe Dhoni's ODI legacy is now stronger than Yuvraj's. Reg. Gambhir and Dravid - Gambhir may have had a hand in several recent Indian wins, but come on man, 10,000 ODI runs aint coming that easy. You have to be a special player to cross that milestone. As it stands today, I'd still rate Dravid ahead of Gautam.

[adi B]

Sachin Dhoni Ganguly Dravid Yuvraj Gambhir Sehwag Kohli Azhar Raina

+1

[Crookbond]

Dont get me wrong, Saurav is a once-in-a-generation ODI player. He had 3 mind-boggling years between 1999-2002 (he tallied in excess of a 1000 ODI runs in each of those 3 years), but the fact of the matter is, we still were not winning. A classic case in point was the 99 WC. Among the top 5 run scorers in that tournament were Saurav and Rahul, yet we couldnt get pas Zimbabwe. Why? We lacked finishers in the death. Our best lower-middle order hope back then was Robin Singh, which tells a story by itself. To me, Yuvraj changed the face of Indian ODI performances (much like the transformational effect Viru has had on our test record). You can literally divide our ODI record into two phases - Pre Natwest trophy final and post Natwest Trophy final. If Sachin was the concrete of our ODI side from 1994 to 2002, Yuvraj Singh was the steel backbone that came in after that. We were a reasonably formidable side even back then, but without a fearless finisher like Yuvraj, no amount of top order runs could win substantial cups. Everything changed after 2002. Of course, you can make a genuine case that the real inflection point in Indian ODI form came in during Greg Chappel's tenure, when Dravid was our keeper batsmen and Irfan was the surprise no.3 batting star and attacking seam option. But what really kick-started the juggernaut that is the Indian ODI side was Yuvraj. From 2002 to his peak in 2008, Yuvraj was demolishing ODI attacks like it was fun and games. Of course, I would be foolish not to mention the word Dhoni in this conversation. For the record, I believe Dhoni's ODI legacy is now stronger than Yuvraj's. Reg. Gambhir and Dravid - Gambhir may have had a hand in several recent Indian wins, but come on man, 10,000 ODI runs aint coming that easy. You have to be a special player to cross that milestone. As it stands today, I'd still rate Dravid ahead of Gautam.

I am not sure that happened during Chappell's tenure.