Well January is back, and so is the third edition of Vineet’s Cricket Rankings (check out the ODI Batsmen Rankings 2007 here)! And though there are some surprises, the top of the heap is captured by none other than one of the most explosive cricketers of 21st century - Virender Sehwag!! He is followed by - hold your breath - Younis Khan of Pakistan.
Virender Sehwag scored 893 runs in just 18 matches (he was out of the team for a major part of 2008) at a nice average of 49.61 at an extra-ordinary strike rate of 120.02!! He smashed 1 century and 8 half-centuries on the way to achieving this. Not to be left behind, Younis Khan of Pakistan scored 865 runs in 18 matches at a very high average of 54.06 at a good strike rate of 97.19!! He smashed 3 centuries and 6 half-centuries on the way to achieving this.
Brendon McCullum (AVE 47.53 SR 110.16), Nasir Jamshed (AVE 49.0 SR 103.62) and Chris Gayle (AVE 52.66 SR 91.19) follow at 3,4 and 5. So the year 2008 was heavily dominated by Indian and Pakistani Batsmen, and the Australian Team seems to have lost their monkey. So, is the Aussie story over? Not yet, you’ll notice that 5 Aussies just got their toe in between positions 19-28, and apart from the now retired Gilchrist all others can be termed as young blood. So they are expected to wager a fight in 2009. They are led by the IPL surprises Shane Watson and Shaun Marsh and followed by Hussey brothers. But then who are the teams of 2008? Well Pakistan is right there at the top winning 18 out of 21 matches. And next are Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. And India? It is at 5th position. Pakistan has 6 batsmen in top 18 and India has 6 batsmen in top 21. ANd the aggregate points of both Indian and Pakistani batsmen comes to 237-238. Well, then where’s the difference.. it’s in results baby! and also there are more Top 30 lists than just Batsmen!!
This year the whole list got revamped to a certain extent. The non-test playing nations went out of the list since they didn’t get to play the minimum matches that were required to make this list. Well, now for some surprises, Gautam Gambhir (AVE 46.62 SR 90.53) stormed into the list with a consistent performance so did Salman Butt (AVE 50.64 SR 84.5), Hashim Amla (AVE 52.57 SR 93.4) and hold your breath Suresh Raina (AVE 45.33 SR 94.83). Do I hear breast beating down-under? - well Greg can go and beat his chest, since he had high recommendation for Suresh Raina.
Now some of you sceptics would ask, where is Ten Doeschate whom I refer to as the best ODI player. Well that is the irony of the non-playing nations. There was no world cup and so the poor guy got to play on 2 matches in the entire year!! And he scored 0 and 47 in those matches, at a strike rate of 100! And he got a total of 5 wickets in 2 matches and one Man-of-the-Match! (thanks for not letting me down, I believe you are one of the cricketing greats and wish that IPL or ICL is reading this). And ICC noticed my ratings and Doeschate was declared “Associate Player of the Year” by ICC.
Surprise omissions? Well Sangkarra score 4 centuries and notched 1251 runs but could not figure in top30. Something wrong with the algo? Well no, something wrong with his batting style - someone averaging 39 and with a strike rate of 75 should carry the drinks as per me.. this is what onedayers.com is all about.. We set a new ranking system and the new world order is moving as per that..
| No. | Name | Runs | Ave | SR | VRK |
| 1 | V Sehwag (India) | 893 | 49.61 | 120.02 | 57.9 |
| 2 | Younis Khan (Pak) | 865 | 54.06 | 97.19 | 47.8 |
| 3 | BB McCullum (NZ) | 618 | 47.53 | 110.16 | 44.7 |
| 4 | Nasir Jamshed (Pak) | 343 | 49 | 103.62 | 43.9 |
| 5 | CH Gayle (WI) | 632 | 52.66 | 91.19 | 42.2 |
| 6 | GC Smith (SA) | 492 | 54.66 | 85.12 | 40.5 |
| 7 | Salman Butt (Pak) | 861 | 50.64 | 85.5 | 39.7 |
| 8 | G Gambhir (India) | 1119 | 46.62 | 90.53 | 39.3 |
| 9 | HM Amla (SA) | 368 | 52.57 | 93.4 | 38.2 |
| 10 | Mohammad Yousuf (Pak) | 592 | 59.2 | 90.51 | 37.1 |
| 11 | SK Raina (India) | 680 | 45.33 | 94.83 | 37.0 |
| 12 | JH Kallis (SA) | 557 | 55.7 | 81.43 | 36.4 |
| 13 | Yuvraj Singh (India) | 893 | 38.82 | 100.22 | 36.1 |
| 14 | S Chanderpaul (WI) | 578 | 64.22 | 74.96 | 35.8 |
| 15 | Misbah-ul-Haq (Pak) | 646 | 53.83 | 98.92 | 35.2 |
| 16 | MS Dhoni (India) | 1097 | 57.73 | 82.29 | 34.5 |
| 17 | ST Jayasuriya (SL) | 578 | 34 | 106.64 | 34.1 |
| 18 | Shoaib Malik (Pak) | 681 | 48.64 | 92.02 | 34.1 |
| 19 | SR Watson (Aus) | 262 | 37.42 | 90.03 | 33.3 |
| 20 | A Flintoff (Eng) | 301 | 50.16 | 109.05 | 33.3 |
| 21 | SR Tendulkar (India) | 460 | 41.81 | 84.24 | 32.8 |
| 22 | AC Gilchrist (Aus) | 322 | 32.2 | 98.17 | 31.6 |
| 23 | SE Marsh (Aus) | 333 | 47.57 | 76.2 | 31.1 |
| 24 | DJ Hussey (Aus) | 137 | 34.25 | 113.22 | 30.6 |
| 25 | LRPL Taylor (NZ) | 465 | 46.5 | 85.47 | 29.1 |
| 26 | KP Pietersen (Eng) | 658 | 43.86 | 85.12 | 28.7 |
| 27 | MN Samuels (WI) | 172 | 34.4 | 93.98 | 28.7 |
| 28 | MEK Hussey (Aus) | 622 | 56.54 | 74.4 | 28.2 |
| 29 | AM Samad (Can) | 214 | 35.66 | 81.99 | 27.8 |
| 30 | OA Shah (Eng) | 586 | 39.06 | 90.29 | 27.8 |
Where are the top 5 batsmen of the year 2007?
Ponting had an OK year, and Hayden and Symmonds slipped, and all 3 were out of the Top 30. Grame Smith just slipped 3 places to No. 6 and Sachin Tendulkar slipped 16 positions to No. 21. All, in all it was a total washout for stars..
131 RT Ponting (Aus) (1)
48 ML Hayden (Aus) (2)
6 GC Smith (SA) (3)
60 A Symonds (Aus) (4)
21 SR Tendulkar (India) (5)
*These rankings are based on Players who’ve played 5 matches or more. These rankings are prepared solely by myself based on owned algorithms. These have no relation with ICC or any other rankings calculated elsewhere in the world.
![[Post to Twitter]](http://www.onedayers.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}