With such a great tradition of cricketers, who is the best the country has ever produced?
When the phrase Indian batsman comes to mind the words, elegant, stroke-play and aggressive are never too far behind.
With the country producing some of the best all round players in the past 60 years, it is also only fair they have produced some of the best batsmen of the modern era.
fanatix counts down from number 10 to the top place of the best to have wielded the willow for their country.
10. Virender Sehwag
Profile
Born: October 20, 1978, Delhi
Current age: 35 years 39 days
Major teams: India, Asia XI, Delhi, Delhi Daredevils, ICC World XI, India Blue, Leicestershire, Rajasthan Cricket Association President’s XI
Playing role: Top-order batsman
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm offbreak
The brutal style of Virender Sehwag is typical of the modern-day approach to cricket – score as many runs as quickly as possibly and give your side every chance of victory.
His amazing record has seen him average 49.34 in Tests and 35.05 in ODI’s at a strike-rate of 82 and 104 respectively, testament to his nature when at the crease.
His lack of footwork and “classic” textbook technique has seen him fall down the list compared to his contemporaries, however, his amazing eye to pick up the line-and-length means he he able to play his shot to great affect despite not always getting to the pitch of the ball.
Check out one of his amazing knocks below.
9. Vijay Hazare
Born: March 11, 1915, Sangli, Maharashtra
Died: December 18, 2004, Baroda (aged 89 years 282 days)
Major teams: India, Baroda, Central India, Maharashtra
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm medium
While his Test match career last just 30 games in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, Vijay Hazare managed to accumulate 2192 runs at 47.65 with a highest score of 216 not out, with seven centuries all up.
Hazare captained his country for 14 Test in his career, which was shortened by the outbreak of World War II, with the right-hander credited for keeping the game alive in his country when international sport ground to a halt thanks to the global conflict.
Hazare, who with Vijay Merchant took part in run-scoring duels that drew crowds of 20-30,000 to Bombay’s Brabourne Stadium. Hazare’s most productive domestic season was in 1943-44 when he scored 1,423 runs. He made scores of 248, 59, 309, 101, 223 and 87, reaching 1,000 runs in only four matches.
While not possessing what was considered a proper technique, with his hands too far apart on the bat, designed to generate as much power from every shot, Hazare was a pioneer of the game in India for more than just his play.
8. Dilip Vengsarkar
Profile
Born: April 6, 1956, Rajapur, Maharashtra
Current: age 57 years 236 days
Major teams: India, Mumbai, Staffordshire
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm medium
Promising much from even his teenage years, Dilip Vengsarkar made his home at the number three spot in the Indian top-order for what turned out to be a long and successful career at the top of the game.
He solidified his place in the Indian side during the 1977-78 tour of Australia where he showcased his tall and slimly built frame which was capable of elegant strokeplay but on his day – which was often – he could be a tormentor of even the strongest attacks.
Vengsarkar went through a classic period late in his career when he scored eight hundreds in just 16 Test matches, and he also earned the rare honour of being the first player to score three tons against England at Lords.
7. Mohammad Azharuddin
Profile
Born: February 8, 1963, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh
Current age: 50 years 293 days
Major teams: India, Derbyshire, Hyderabad (India)
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm medium
One of the best leg-side players Indian has produced in the modern era, a leg-glance or a punch through midwicket from Mohammad Azharuddin was worth the price of admission alone.
Personifying the kind of wrist-play that became the trademark of players from the sub-continent, Azharuddin expanded his range of shots to the off-side later in his career.
Azharuddin burst onto the world scene on the summer of 1984-85 where scored three tons against England in as many Tests.
But then allegations of match-fixing provided an emphatic full stop. That he finished his career with 99 Tests is perhaps appropriate for one who came within a whisker of batting immortality – only to throw it all away at close of play. He appealed against the life ban in the courts but the verdict is still awaited.
Check out Azharuddin’s 163 against Australia in 1998.
6. Kapil Dev
Born: January 6, 1959, Chandigarh
Current age: 54 years 326 days
Major teams: India, Haryana, Northamptonshire, Worcestershire
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm fast-medium
Kapil Dev was the greatest pace bowler India has produced, and their greatest fast-bowling allrounder.
If he had played at any other time – not when Imran Khan, Ian Botham and Richard Hadlee were contemporaries – he would surely have been recognised as the best all-rounder in the world.
In any case he did enough to be voted India’s Cricketer of the Century during 2002, ahead of Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar.
While he came in much lower down the order when compared to many other players on this list, Dev still managed to score 5248 runs at 31.05 in his 131 Test matches with eight centuries and 27 50s coming in his glittering career.
Check out Dev scoring 89 off 55 balls against England in 1982.
5. Sourav Ganguly
Profile
Born: July 8, 1972, Calcutta (now Kolkata), Bengal
Current: age 41 years 143 days
Major teams: India, Asia XI, Bengal, East Zone, Glamorgan, India Under-19s, Kolkata Knight Riders, Lancashire, Marylebone Cricket Club, Northamptonshire, Pune Warriors
Batting style: Left-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm medium
Height: 5 ft 11 in
Education: St Xavier’s College
Despite being one of the biggest polarising figures in recent Indian cricket history, few can doubt Sourav Ganguly’s ability to lead a side, as he went on to forge one of the most successful periods for the country at Test and ODI level.
Despite being a batsman who combined grace with surgical precision in his strokeplay he could be troubled by the short ball.
Thanks to several factors on and off the field his career had spluttered to a standstill before being resurrected by a scintillating hundred on debut at Lord’s in 1996.
Victory in in Pakistan turned him into a cult figure in 2003 but instead of being a springboard for greater things, it was the peak of a slippery slope, as he fell out with coaches and a loss of form saw his career end.
Watch Ganguly score 183 against Sir Lanka at the 1999 World Cup.
4. VVS Laxman
Profile
Full name: Vangipurappu Venkata Sai Laxman
Born: November 1, 1974, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh
Current age: 39 years 27 days
Major teams: India, Deccan Chargers, Hyderabad (India),Kochi Tuskers Kerala, Lancashire
Nickname: Very Very Special
Playing role: Top-order batsman
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm offbreak
Education: Little Flower High School, St. John’s School
His nickname should tell you all you need to know about fanatix’s number four pick for the top 10 Indian batsmen of all time.
At his sublime best, VVS Laxman is a sight for the gods. Wristy, willowy and sinuous, he can match – sometimes even better – Tendulkar for strokeplay.
His on-side game is comparable to his idol Azharuddin’s, yet he is decidedly more assured on the off side and has the rare gift of being able to hit the same ball to either side.
The Australians, who have suffered more than most, paid the highest compliment after India’s 2003-04 tour Down Under by admitting they did not know where to bowl to him.
Laxman, a one-time medical student, finally showed signs of coming to terms with his considerable gifts in March 2001, as he tormented Steve Waugh’s thought-to-be-invincible Australians with a majestic 281 to stand the Kolkata Test on its head.
But even though he had another wonderful series against the Australians in 2003-04 with two centuries, one of them involving a back-from-the-dead, match-winning, 300-plus partnership with Kolkata ally Rahul Dravid at Adelaide, he hasn’t quite managed the consistency that could have turned him into a batting great.
Watch VVS Laxman score 281 against Australia in 2001.
3. Raul Dravid
Profile
Born: January 11, 1973, Indore, Madhya Pradesh
Current age: 40 years 321 days
Major teams: India, Scotland, Asia XI, Canterbury, ICC World XI, Karnataka, Kent, Marylebone Cricket Club, Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore
Nickname: The Wall
Playing role: Top-order batsman
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm offbreak
Fielding position: Occasional wicketkeeper
Education: St. Joseph’s Boys’ High School
Rahul Dravid was probably one of the last classical Test match batsmen. His progress into the national side may have been steady and methodical rather than meteoric, but once there, Dravid established himself at the vanguard of a new, defiant generation that were no longer easybeats away from home.
Armed with an orthodox technique drilled into him by Keki Tarapore, he became the cement that held the foundations firm while the flair players expressed themselves. Yet, for a man quickly stereotyped as one-paced and one-dimensional, he too could stroke the ball around when the mood struck him.
Check out Raul Dravid and VVS Laxman’s 303-run partnership against Australia in 2003.
2. Sunil Gavaskar
Profile
Full name: Sunil Manohar Gavaskar
Born: July 10, 1949, Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra
Current age: 64 years 141 days
Major teams: India, Mumbai, Somerset
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm medium, Right-arm offbreak
Height: 5 ft 5 in
Education: St Xavier’s College; Bombay University
Sunil Gavaskar was the first to get 10,000 Test runs and 30 centuries. India’s lynchpin of the 70s and 80s, and arguably their first great batsman, he was known for his immaculate defence but was equally at ease hooking and pulling the most fearsome bowlers of all time.
Gavaskar was one of the greatest opening batsmen of all time, and certainly the most successful. His game was built around a near-perfect technique and enormous powers of concentration.
It is hard to visualise a more beautiful defence: virtually unbreachable, it made his wicket among the hardest to earn.
He played with equal felicity off both front and back feet, had excellent judgement of length and line, and was beautifully balanced.
Watch Sunil Gavaskar make 172 against Australia at the SCG in 1985-86.
1. Sachin Tendulkar
Profile
Born: April 24, 1973, Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra
Current: age 40 years 218 days
Major teams: India, Asia XI, Mumbai, Mumbai Indians, Yorkshire
Nickname: Tendlya, Little Master
Playing role: Top-order batsman
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm offbreak, Legbreak googly
Height: 5 ft 5 in
Education: Sharadashram Vidyamandir School
Quite simply the best player, let alone batsman, the country has ever produced.
Perhaps the most complete batsman and the most worshipped cricketer in the world, Tendulkar holds just about every batting record worth owning in the game, including those for most runs and hundreds in Tests and ODIs, and most international runs.
If he didn’t have a signature stroke – the upright, back-foot punch comes close – it’s because he was equally proficient at each of the full range of orthodox shots (and plenty of improvised ones as well) and can pull them out at will.
There were no apparent weaknesses in Tendulkar’s game.
He could score all around the wicket, off both front foot and back, could tune his technique to suit every condition, temper his game to suit every situation, and made runs in all parts of the world in all conditions.
Some of his finest performances came against Australia, the overwhelmingly dominant team of his era.
His century as a 19-year-old on a lightning-fast pitch at the WACA is considered one of the best innings ever to have been played in Australia.
A few years later he received the ultimate compliment from the ultimate batsman: Don Bradman confided to his wife that Tendulkar reminded him of himself.
Click here to watch Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement speech after his 200th career Test match
