Disclaimer: All the players chosen in this article are based on the author’s opinions. It is not representing SportsWhy’s views.
The period of the 1990s and 2000s was an age in cricketing history. A period of sheer enormity that overwhelmed the cricketing scene as a result of the ascent of numerous future legends. It was likewise a period when the game turned out to be exceptionally proficient. The matches and the arrangement were coordinated appropriately and the players were paid well as well. After the attack of T20 cricket in the mid-2000s, the entire game went into another zone through and through.
“Test cricket will be cricket’s hardest arrangement. It is the place one’s expertise, strategy, quality, and perseverance are tried. One can’t be proclaimed as an extraordinary cricketer except if and until he has demonstrated his determination in Test matches.”
The underlying foundations of the game were overlooked and the qualities were covered underneath. Yet, the year 2018 was an incredible “rebound” year for test cricket in light of the fact that the ball overwhelmed the bat constantly. Increasingly five-wicket pulls were taken in 2018 than at whatever year as of late. Ideally, this pattern of the ball inequality with the bat will keep on keeping Test cricket alive. In this portion, let us amass an elegant lineup containing 11 famous players who changed the game totally with their heavenly exhibitions over the most recent 25 years.
#1 Mathew Hayden
The tall, huge, solid chap from Australia was very notable around the globe for his forceful style of play. Prevalently known as ‘Haydos’ in the cricketing circuit, Matthew Hayden was probably the hardest hitter of a cricket ball. He treated the restriction bowling assault with complete hatred pursuing the track constantly. His style of play was a splendid blend of intensity and cricketing mind. His splendid test career went on for 103 matches in which he scored 8625 runs at a normal of 50.74, and for an opener to have kept up such a normal for so long was a fabulous accomplishment. Hayden scored 30 centuries and 29 half-Centuries in his whole career. He holds the astounding record of scoring the second-highest individual scorer in Test history (380 against Zimbabwe). He was a significant part of that “golden generation” in Australian cricket where they won 16 Test matches in succession.
RECORD: Matches:103 Innings:184 Runs:8625 Avg:50.73 100’s:30 50’s:29 S/R:82.23
#2 Virender Sehwag
Looking at the other opener in this “Elite list”. There are many players who are perfect for this spot with colossal of runs in his arsenal. But I think it will be Unfair if we go after this legend. The only batsman in test cricket history to have two triple century in his arsenal and 3 one was almost completed when he got out on 293. The Man who was criticized for his batting style early in his Test Innings. But he answered the critics with his aggressive style of batting in the era of deadly pacers like Brett Lee, Akhtar, Allan Donald, Curtly Ambrose. It is not easy to score runs when you have to open the innings. As Delhi players are aggressive by nature the same was Virender Sehwag. Quoted By Brett Lee “ No matter how good you are he will kill your attitude”.
“See the ball. Hit the ball”
This was his straightforward mantra and his way to deal with batting. It may be the primary chunk of the match or the last wad of the day. He may be approaching an achievement or he may have recently crossed one. Yet, on the off chance that the ball was there to be hit, at that point he would send it colliding with the limit. Virender Sehwag was a man who gave a new way to deal with batting. A standard way of thinking would advise a batsman to give the main hour to the bowler, however at that point, Sehwag was unique. His expectation was to command. He didn’t hold back to get his ‘eye in’. He was of an alternate variety. Sehwag was not the most talented batsman regarding the method, yet he made up for it with his hand-eye co-appointment and his disposition to batting.
Numerous who saw him without precedent for the worldwide field path in 2001 may have been persuaded that Sehwag was a one arrangement wonder. Many would have imagined that his absence of footwork would end up being his demise. However, at that point, in a lifelong that kept going over 10 years, he built up himself as perhaps the best opener that India has ever created. What’s more, he has the numbers to back the case. He played 104 Tests for India, and scored 8586 runs, and he did it at an astounding strike pace of 82.33. Continuously in excess of a run-a-ball.
There are a few Sehwag innings’ that stick out and will be scratched in the chronicles of time. His 195 at Melbourne was an exemplary that will be enjoyed for quite a while. In an exemplary showcase of riveting batsman transport, Sehwag took the assault to the strong Australians at the notorious MCG. His triple century against most despised adversaries Pakistan at Multan as a turning point in Indian cricket. No Indian batsman had penetrated the 300 run mark in Tests previously, and Sehwag did it in style, by lifting Saqlain Mushtaq for a six over profound midwicket. Indian cricket can never create another virtuoso like Tendulkar, they can never deliver another craftsman-like Laxman, they can never deliver another engineer like Dravid. On similar lines, they can never create another batsman who had the unconcerned swagger like Sehwag. He retired from the game in the year 2015, as infringing age had at last found him, and his reflexes were on the wind-down.
He was unable to cross the fifty run mark in his last 9 innings in Test cricket and was dropped from the side. Five years have gone since his retirement, yet his heritage lives on. Sehwag was a man of a different breed, and he did things no one but he could. For the did it in the ‘Sehwag’ way, a way that was available just to him.
RECORD: Matches:104 Innings:180 Runs:8586 Avg:49.34 100’s:23 50’s:32 S/R:82.23
#3 Rahul Dravid
Without a doubt the best number 3 batsmen of his age, Rahul Dravid is actually the most perfect batsman to have strolled the cricketing scene. He was an encapsulation of coarseness, focus, difficult work, earnestness, promptness, and respectfulness. Dravid was known as ‘The Wall’ for his unfaltering responsibility and assurance to the Indian team prosperity, particularly in abroad conditions. Between 2002-2006 Dravid was the most productive batsmen in the Indian team scoring 4,697 runs for India in 48 Tests at a surprising average of 70.10.
Rahul Dravid played an aggregate of 164 test games in which he scored 13,288 runs at a splendid average of 52.88 decorated with 36 centuries and 63 half-centuries. He scored 5 double hundreds out of which 3 came in abroad conditions. Dravid was constantly a significant piece of India’s abroad triumphs. Regardless of whether his count of 602 runs in the 2002 England tour or 619 runs during the 2003/04 tour to Australia. His 270 in Rawalpindi is scratched in fans’ recollections. He scored 180 runs batting close by Laxman(281) in the third innings at Kolkata which brought about perhaps the best rebound in Test history.
RECORD: Matches:164 Innings:286 Runs:13288 Avg:52.31 100’s:36 50’s:63 S/R:42.51
#4 Brian Lara
There are many greats of this game. But as of matter of fact, he is at the top of the spot. On the off chance that there ever existed a painter with the bat, at that point, it was Brian Charles Lara. Prominently known as. ‘The Prince’ of Trinidad and Tobago, Lara is without a doubt the best left-handed batsmen ever. Lara was a painter and the whole pitch was his canvas. He moved his body like a paintbrush. His brisk feet development, his presumptuous wrists, and his high backlift were all the qualities that made him the entertainer that he was. Life span and Lara are to some degree equivalent words in a cricketing word reference.
Lara once scored 8 consecutive hundreds in the English country cricket in a solitary season. Furthermore, in a similar season at that point scored the inconceivable 501*. It was the beginning of the batting virtuoso called Lara. Lara outperformed unbelievable West Indian Garry Sobers’ reality record of 365* in 1994 when he scored 375 against England in Antigua. What’s more, after 10 years when the record was in the hands of Matthew Hayden, Lara by and by grabbed the record to his name when demonstrated his capacity to score huge by and by. Be that as it may, this time it was an epic, a memorable 400*.
Lara conveyed his team without any help all through his career however later he was loaned some assistance by Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Lara scored over 26% of his team runs all through his vocation. His all-out count of 11953 runs at a brilliant average of 52.89 and it included 34 centuries and 48 half-centuries are a demonstration of his batting capacities.
RECORD: Matches:131 Innings:232 Runs:11953 Avg:52.89 100’s:34 50’s:48 S/R:60.51
#5 Kumar Sangakkara
I would prefer more left-handed batsman in the team then over right-handed batsman. The left-handed batsman has more advantages over right-handed batsman. Sangakkara is generally viewed as one of the most cleaned stroke makers in the modern game. His paramount knock of 192 against Australia in Hobart in 2007 affirmed his notoriety for being the pillar of Sri Lanka’s batting line up and he proceeded to accomplish the number 1 positioning in Test cricket soon thereafter. Kumar Sangakkara is widely viewed as one of the world’s most powerful cricketers and one of the best batsmen ever.
He was the undisputed number, one Test batsman, in the ICC Test Rankings from 2005 to 2015 and has made records with the Wicket-Keeping gloves as well. It’s not possible for anyone to ever overlook the amazing 624 runs remain among him and Mahela Jayawardene, which made the South African bowlers look dormant. He has scored in excess of 12,000 runs in Test cricket and has 11 Double Centuries to his name, being second just to Sir Donald Bradman, who has 12 Double Centuries. Being the fifth most elevated run-scorer in Test Cricket history, and somebody who made remarkable progress as a Test Batsman himself, Sangakkara’s preferred Test XI ever ought to be energizing.
RECORD: Matches:134 Innings:233 Runs:12400 Avg:57.14 100’s:38 50’s:52 S/R:54.19
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