All-time best ODI run getters: Stags, Class, Bombs and Stars

Our expert makes an interesting analysis of the ODI performances of some phenomenal batsmen over the years. Are your favourites in there?

Our expert makes an interesting analysis of the ODI performances of some phenomenal batsmen over the years. Are your favourites in there?

A month ago I had written about the greatest ODI bowlers of all time. A similar analysis has now been done for batsmen. Not surprisingly, there are quite a few Indians in this list and the current crop of youngsters has some big shoes to fill. 

Similar to the previous article, a bubble chart was created with the size of the bubble indicating the aggregate runs compiled in one’s career. Only the top 20 ODI run-getters have been compared for now, more on this a little later. 

In the graph above, the more top-right a batsman the better he is. You may ask what the lines in the middle of the chart are - well what’s the point of creating such a chart without a 2x2 matrix!

Each quadrant of the graph represents a particular breed of batsmen, with the best of the best on the top right. Here’s how the players can be broken down in four groups :

(Side note: after spending way too much time thinking through catchy names, these are the best four acronyms I could come up with)

Group 1: The STAGS (Skilled Tenacious Almost Greats)

This is the bottom left section of the graph comprising Jayawardene, Sangakkara, Azhar and Atapattu. Four fantastic batsmen who often delivered when the chips were down and fought till the very end. However, their averages and strike-rates are not quite enough to make them the best of all time.

Group 2: CLASS batsmen (Consistent Long-lasters Although Sometimes Slow)

Ok, I was pushing the acronym a bit but I think it’s fitting to call Kallis, Yousuf, Mark Waugh, Ganguly, Chanderpaul, Dravid, Haynes and Inzamam class batsmen. These guys are the pretty stroke-makers who put emphasis on style and managed to play long innings. In fact, after India’s recent thrashing against Sri Lanka, a friend of mine joked that India should bring Dravid and Ganguly back into the ODI side - at least then the team would last 50 overs! But that’s the hallmark of class batsmen; they consistently stick around for a long time at the crease leading to healthy averages in the 40s. They can however be guilty of not scoring quick enough at times. The same can’t be said for our next group.

Group 3: The BOMBS (Break-it Or Make-it Blitzkriegs)

Five batsmen in this group- Jayasuirya, Gilchrist, Gibbs, DeSilva and Anwar. All with strike-rates in excess of 80, Gilchrist up at 96.94! No real explanation needed for the BOMBs, destructive batsmen at their best but they provide chances for the opposition to defuse them early.

Group 4: STARS (Supremely Talented All-round Run-machines)

Lara, Ponting and Tendulkar- your all-time ODI greats. These three are complete batsmen, with the ability to score quickly and consistently. Tendulkar leads the pack with an average of 45.12, a strike-rate of 86.26 and a career aggregate of 17,598 runs (and counting!) 

A caveat to the above analysis - in picking the top 20 ODI run-scorers of all time, some of the more recent prolific ODI run getters like Dhoni, Pietersen, Symonds and Hussey were left out. A couple of retired ODI greats, Michael Bevan and Viv Richards also don’t make the cut and we’ll consider them in a later article. For now, this is just a comparison of the top 20 ODI run-getters and since most of them, with the exception of Haynes, played in roundabout the same era; we do not have to make any significant adjustments on averages or strike-rates to account for the era one played in.

The classification of batsmen in a 2x2 matrix gives us a way of placing new batsmen in particular groups when trying to assess their potential. What kind of a batsman will Virender Sehwag be by the time his career winds up? He’ll probably end up in the bomb category. What about Raina? He may end up being a class batsman. Pietersen and Dhoni are likely to be stars. The next time you’re figuring out the potential of an up and coming cricketer, you could try and see where he fits on the matrix - a class batsman, a stag, a bomb or a star.