The best Indian cricketers of all time
It’s not tooting our own horn to say that India have produced some absolutely first draw cricketers over the years. Who though is the best Indian cricketer of all time?
Here we count down the top five.
Number 5. Vijay Hazare
For the younger readers out there, it’s quite feasible that Vijay Hazare predates even stories from your parents. If that’s the case, let us tell you why he deserves his spot in a list of the best Indian cricketers of all time.
Rewind to the early 1950’s and India were nothing on the map of world cricket having gone near on 20 years without a test win. Hazare produced the goods with the bat to help us to our first ever triumph; it was a dominant and deserved victory over England.
Number 4. Sunil Manohar
Forget defensive players, when Manohar stepped to the crease he was there for one thing only – to score runs. He was damn good at it to. The opening batter was a dominant force in the seventies and eighties, particularly against fast bowlers, and retired with more test runs and centuries than any other player.
The man sat in number one on our list has since broken both but don’t let that take anything away from how incredible Manohar was.
Number 3. Rahul Dravid
When you sit fourth on the list of all time test run scorers, you know you’ve had a more than solid career. Dravid, who starred between 1996 and 2012, amassed a total of 13,288 runs. It means he falls one run short of third place on that list with Jacques Henry Kallis of South Africa pipping him to the ‘bronze medal’.
Still, a career average of over 52 runs per match and 36 centuries and 63 half centuries can’t be bad. It wasn’t just with a bat where Dravid excelled though. Another list of all time test cricket records exists, and the all-rounder sits top.
What is it? The most catches taken by non-wicketkeepers; in 301 innings Dravid took an impressive 210.
Number 2. Kapil Dev
The Harayana Hurricane was once a world record holder in cricket courtesy of the all-rounders lethal bowling skills that saw him take more wickets (434) than any other man that had gone before him. The record has since been eclipsed but Dev’s status will live on forever in the history books.
In addition to his bowling, the 2013 Hall of Fame inductee was also pretty decent with the bat too; he racked up over 5,000 test runs. His crowning achievement though was unquestionably leading India to World Cup success in 1983.
Number 1. Sachin Tendulkar
With a nickname like ‘God’, Tendulkar was hardly going to rank anywhere but in first place, was he? When he made his debut for India he was still some 160 days short of his 17th birthday and it proved just the start of a glory filled career as he went on to make 664 appearances for his country. His batting average was 51.7 runs per appearance.
Those numbers put him out on his own in respect of his total run haul at international level having racked up over 30,000 runs across the three forms. He was revered on the domestic stage too with endless honours coming his way.
We could write about Tendulkar all day but, given we already touched on the records he took from Manohar, we think this last sentence pretty much sums it up; Sachin Tendulkar, one of the best the world has ever seen.
There you have it, the best Indian cricketers of all time. Like the number of players who conquered a NBA quadruple-double (click here to know more), these 5 cricketers are in a restricted lot of their own. It’s an elite club, but who else could have been included?
