The most important modern cricketers

[Marcel Proust]

#1 is without a doubt Gilchrist and it's daylight to #2 tbh. Im surprised you don't have him in your list as you stated in a follow.

Not only did he transform the role of the traditional role of the wicket keeper into a keeper batsman, he transformed what was an achievable consistent scoring rate in test cricket and the role of a counter attacking middle order batsman.

That's also overlooking the role he played in ODI cricket, not only as having Keepers open in that form of cricket, but the SR of openers in general and the way in which he played (hitting 6's and going aerial over traditioning looking at 4's).


You could argue that Gilchrist's career and the way he played really planted the seed for T20 cricket.....

Gilchrist, some stats are a level above Viv Richards. Which is pretty handy.

Dravid I think was really good

 

[The Passenger]

Yeah it was Jayasuriya at the World Cup who did the most damage but earlier that year during the tri series in Australia it was Kalu who had the better of things. He was a good cricketer - he hit a century against Australia in the tests in 1992 and was more than just a slogger. And as much as Gilchrist honed and made the ODI keeper-opener-slogger spot his own perfected role, Kalu did it first

Kalu got 250 runs at 25 with s/r of 91 in that trip series.

Doesn't come with in a million miles to doing justice to how much it changed people's mindsets in how ODI's can be played.

Jaya's world cup with a strike rate of 130ish slightly more indicative of this mindset switch. But even then he only got two half centuries. Top score 81.

When people of our generation talk about how much those two changed ODI cricket in the mid 90s, I'm sure the younger generation jump on Cricinfo thinking they're going to see 130 of 80 balls or something like that. And when all they see is Kalu is 74 of 68 they think we're off our rockers.

But that was insane 12 months of ODI cricket. A Gilchrist style opener and T20 would have happened eventually but this accelerated the process by probably a decade or so.

 

[The Passenger]

Also I don't know if it was planned this way or just a happy convenience, but Whatmore at the Sri Lankan's timed their tactics to perfection.

Trialled their new approach a few months (Kalu was still batting lower middle order the prior series) before the world cup knowing teams couldn't adjust.

They had a good team but nothing Australia, India, West Indies or Pakistan couldn't counter in personnel. But none of them had a counter to their opening tactics.

 

[Bareth Garry]

Bevan has to be among the most influential. Pretty much invented the "finisher" role as we know it in ODI cricket. A batsman who can shield or guide the lower order through to scoring the required runs but who can also come in early if the top order falls quickly and anchor the innings by consolidating at first and then going through the gears.

Maybe a wildcard is Chris Gayle. He took T20 cricket seriously as a genuine form of the game that he can devote his career too while most people still thought of it as a bit of fun on the side every now and then but never will supersede the traditional formats. It's worked out for him whether you like it or not. He is still a man in demand at 42 years of age.

The funny thing is that he did actually have a long and impressive test cricket record. Over 100 tests but most of them came before 2010. So a kid who is a teenager now won't remember Gayle the test cricketer but they'll know all about Gayle as the most destructive T20 batsman ever.

 

[big_e]

Not enough Tendulkar in this thread.

Came along and became a God-like figure - moreso than any other Indian - right at the time TV rights started blowing up. That then brought India to the top table and allowed them to dictate terms in world cricket.

 

[Rabish Binney]

Bevan has to be among the most influential. Pretty much invented the "finisher" role as we know it in ODI cricket. A batsman who can shield or guide the lower order through to scoring the required runs but who can also come in early if the top order falls quickly and anchor the innings by consolidating at first and then going through the gears.

Maybe a wildcard is Chris Gayle. He took T20 cricket seriously as a genuine form of the game that he can devote his career too while most people still thought of it as a bit of fun on the side every now and then but never will supersede the traditional formats. It's worked out for him whether you like it or not. He is still a man in demand at 42 years of age.

The funny thing is that he did actually have a long and impressive test cricket record. Over 100 tests but most of them came before 2010. So a kid who is a teenager now won't remember Gayle the test cricketer but they'll know all about Gayle as the most destructive T20 batsman ever.

Gayle's test career is pretty good - 7000+ test runs @ 42 with 15 centuries.

As an opening batsman, you'd take that everyday of the week.

 

[Kyptastic]

Gayle's test career is pretty good - 7000+ test runs @ 42 with 15 centuries.

As an opening batsman, you'd take that everyday of the week.

You don't score two triple centuries in test cricket without being a fairly good player.

His two hundreds in 09 against Australia were also a sign that he could both bat time and utterly devastating - 165* off 285 carrying his bat followed by 102 off 72.

 

[PhatBoy]

You don't score two triple centuries in test cricket without being a fairly good player.

His two hundreds in 09 against Australia were also a sign that he could both bat time and utterly devastating - 165* off 285 carrying his bat followed by 102 off 72.

As a non Aussie fan and someone who likes SA, most of my good memories of summers here in the last 15 years are the three SA wins, and even though I don’t particularly care for India or England, their wins here.

Spliced among those results, that little two test block against the Windies is my favourite. I was immensely proud of the fight at Adelaide led by the one world class batsman in our side (from memory Shiv and Sars missed that series) followed by that absolute wrecking ball effort at Perth. Utter disdain for what was a non superstar but still reasonable attack.

 

[Doss]

As a non Aussie fan and someone who likes SA, most of my good memories of summers here in the last 15 years are the three SA wins, and even though I don’t particularly care for India or England, their wins here.

Spliced among those results, that little two test block against the Windies is my favourite. I was immensely proud of the fight at Adelaide led by the one world class batsman in our side (from memory Shiv and Sars missed that series) followed by that absolute wrecking ball effort at Perth. Utter disdain for what was a non superstar but still reasonable attack.

WI had much the better of that drawn Adelaide test and lost in Perth by only 30-odd runs (also the game where a very young and much faster Roach mashed Ponting’s elbow; was never the same after that).

With not too much different, WI could have won that series 2-1.

 

[Marcel Proust]

Gayle's test career is pretty good - 7000+ test runs @ 42 with 15 centuries.

As an opening batsman, you'd take that everyday of the week.

Strike rate +60