We may have read hundreds of articles about who are the best batsmen in the world. Some of the articles have been written upon one particular batman’s average or the number of years he has played for his country. Here we will provide you the list not only depending upon the above measurements, also the contribution and the consistency of a batsman. Although it is quite hard to exactly list the famous batsmen as per the ranking, but these 10 below mentioned batsmen are the best of all time till date.
- Virat Kohli:-
Virat Kohli is probably the best batsman of the modern cricket generation. He was born in the capital of India, Delhi to a Punjabi family. Being from the mediocre family Kohli had always a dream to play for his country and his main motivation to come into cricket was the greatest Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar. It is still under debate that how come Virat can be the best batsman in modern time!! It is clearly because of his technique, dedication towards cricket and a consistent performance. There are plenty of good cricketers from the entire cricket playing nations but Virat Kohli is obviously someone special, no doubt. Kohli bats at number 3 in almost all cricketing formats and sometimes open in the T20s. If we stare at Kohli’s record, then it is something totally phenomenal. Being a top ordered batsman having an average of 52 in ODIs and 45 in tests is not an easy task to achieve for any cricketer. How can one be unspoken about Kohli’s T20 performance? If we see his overall record in T20 cricket, then his average is somewhere around 50, but in the recent time his batting average is close to 100. Isn’t it something special? Kohli did that with ease and by his brilliant performance. That’s why he is in the list of top 10 best batsmen in the world.
- AB De Villiers:-
AB De Villiers is the most devastating South African batsman. No matter you are from whichever part of the world, if anyone purely loves cricket then he/she will definitely like AB De Villiers and his phenomenal batting techniques. AB was born in Pretoria, South Africa. He is a kind of a player who can change the gear of his game as per the situation. De Villiers can play shots in every direction, that’s why he is the complete player who can turn 360 degrees to play a shot that we can’t imagine. In fact he is called by that name Mr. 360. AB has made his debut under the captaincy of Graeme Smith, a former South African batsman. The full name of AB De Villiers is Abraham Benjamin De Villiers and he currently holds the record of fastest hundred in one day international cricket, he did it in 31 balls against West Indies at Johannesburg. He is popular in every country. In this modern cricket Era De Villiers has won hearts of billion of people. One will dare to bowl AB De Villiers in T20 cricket. You can’t even imagine the stamina of this brilliant cricketer. Not only cricket, AB De Villiers knows almost every other game than cricket, but preferred to come in the cricket professionally.
- Sir Vivian Richards:-
Sir Vivian Richards, the former West Indian stylish batsman was popular for his batting techniques. He was born in St. John, at the bay of Caribbean range. Sir Richards made his ODI debut in the year 1975 against Sri Lanka and his test debut was against India in 1974. Sir Vivian was the best ever West Indian batsman once, and then Brian Lara got this honor. Although Brian Lara is far ahead than Vivian Richards in terms of number of runs and the centuries but Vivian Richards will always be special for his staggering batting practice. In the 1980-90 he was even so popular among Indians too. Sir Richards retired from cricket in 1991. Sir, Richards is obviously is one of the greatest who deserves to be in this list of Top 10 best batsmen in the world.
- Sunil Gavaskar:-
Sunil Manohar Gavaskar is a former Indian cricket hero and a legendary opening batsman. He was known for his special batting technique against the mighty fast bowlers at that time during 1971 to 1987. At the time of his cricketing career West Indies was the strongest team in all aspects whether it is bowling, batting or fielding. People still talk about Gavaskar and admire him for his techniques. Sunil Gavaskar was the first player in the cricket history to reach 10000 runs. He has played 125 test matches and with an average of over 51 achieved that milestone. Gavaskar has scored 34 centuries in his test career and for long he used to hold the record until Sachin breaks it. Records may not speak always all the truth but Mr. Gavaskar was one of the best batsmen ever to play the game. The Government of India has awarded him with the Padma Shri and Padma Bhusan awards to show respect and his contribution in Indian cricket.
- Brian Lara:-
The famous West Indian batsman Brian Lara was considered as the most stylish batsman of his era of cricket. He batted left handed. Lara was the fastest batsman to reach 10000 runs in test cricket. Brian Lara once broke the record of highest individual run in test cricket by Sir Garfield Sobers 365* and scored 375 in Antigua. But after a decade that record was broken by the Australian opening batsman Matthew Hayden, but soon later Lara regain his spot and scored a mammoth 400* in a single innings of a test match. It’s something spectacular to achieve. He is the best West Indian batsman after Sir Vivian Richards and one of the top ten best batsmen in the planet till date. Brian Lara played 131 test matches and 299 ODI for his country and made his mark, he is also having a total of 53 international hundred. Lara was so fond of cricket and his favorite cricket stadium is Sydney, Australia. He named her daughter Sydney.
- Jacques Kallis:-
When I sat down to write the post about the top 10 best batsmen in the world, then how can I forget Jacques Kallis!! Till date, the world has not seen a complete cricketer like the former South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis. Kallis has made his international career debut at the age of 20 against England both in ODI as well as in test cricket. Jacques Kallis is better known for his batting technique and the best number 3 position batsman in test and ODIs. Kallis has scored 45 test centuries (2nd highest) in test cricket in 166 test matches and he is the 3rd leading test runs scorer of all time. Kallis was also a medium pace bowler and have near about 600 international wickets. So Kallis was a gem for his team, as these types of players are priceless to get. Even Jacques Kallis considered as the greatest all rounder only after the great Sir Garfield Sobers, although Sobers has played only test cricket.
- Kumara Sangakkara:-
Kumara Sangakkara perhaps the most successful Sri-Lankan batsman in any form of cricket. A sober personality and a calm gesture make him more adorable. He is the only player in history of test cricket after Sir Donald Bradman to score 11 double hundreds. His records and batting style say it all. Sangakkara bats left handed. He was born in Matale, Sri Lanka. Sangakkara was the captain of Sri Lankan national cricket team when they were playing the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. Later that year he resigned from his position. Kumara Sangakkara is the 2nd leading run scorer in ODI cricket and 5th leading run scorer in test cricket history. As a cricketer this is a fabulous achievement. He holds the pride to become one of the top 10 batsmen in the world of all time.
- Ricky Ponting:-
After the legendary Australian test batsman Sir Donald Bradman, the former Australian batsman Ricky Ponting is considered as one of the best batsman till date, although there are plenty batsmen in Australian team who are very best at their stuffs, but Ponting surpasses all. Records say he is the greatest ODI captain ever and the best successor of Steve Waugh, another Aussie legendary captain. Ricky Ponting is the second batsman in the list of batsmen with most number of centuries in both the formats, only Sachin Tendulkar is above him. Ponting’s average in ODI is 42 and in tests it is around 52. Ricky was born in Tasmania, Australia, he has won the ICC cricketer of the year for two consecutive years; at that time he was the batsman who is completely unstoppable. Ricky Ponting is the only cricketer in the planet who was involved in 100 test win as well as 262 ODI win, both these figures are maximum. After being retired from cricket Ponting has been appointed as a coach of Mumbai Indians, one of the IPL teams.
- Sachin Tendulkar:-
Yeah, it’s an obvious thing to include the great Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, the cricketing legend in our list of top 10 best batsmen in the world. Discussing any fabulous topic of cricket will be incomplete without mentioning the name of the great Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin is a former Indian top ordered (Opener in ODI) batsmen, have played in all 3 formats of cricket. He currently holds all the record that a batsman could achieve in the game of cricket. Most individual runs in ODI and tests, most number of matches played in both the format, most number of world cups played, most number of centuries scored- What more you are expecting? These stats are almost out of reach for any cricketer unless he is extremely determined, technically sound, consistent performer and have dedication towards this game of 22 young mates. Sachin is best known for his technique, temperament. Once in the Indian team Sachin was everything, even people only watched cricket only because of him. If Sachin gets out, most of the Indians prefer to switch off the television as they believe India team means only Sachin, but we should not have been that much emotional as cricket is a team game. Nevertheless, this cricketing genius will always be remembered by the people who loves cricket not their team only. Sachin is the first batsman in the planet to score the double hundred in ODI and he has scored total of 100 centuries including tests and ODIs, nobody even nearer this milestone. Sachin’s ODI average was around 45 and test average was around 54.
- Sir Donald Bradman:-
The game of cricket has begun from the year 1877 in Melbourne, so till now in the 139 years of cricket history, Sir Donald Bradman is considered as the best batsman of all time and experts say may be forever as he has achieved something that no one can even imagine. Sir Bradman was an Australian cricketer and has played during the year 1928-1948. At that time, there were only two cricketing giants Australia and England, although the other countries just started to make their mark. Sir Donald was really the cricketing maestro and the batsman of that millennium. He still now holds the record of the best batting average in test cricket, 99.94; it’s totally out of our range to visualize. He has just played 52 tests and scored 29 hundreds with the highest score of 334. Many people and cricketing experts even some cricket players compare Sir Donald Bradman with Sachin Tendulkar, but there are no way to compare between these two players as the pattern and the phase of cricket before 1950 was completely different than that of 1990 and later.
That’s all for this topic, hope the list is as per the proper cricketing logic, although various thoughts on it would be highly appreciated.
