India's best ODI batsmen

By Daljit Singh
May 17 2005

It is often said that good Test players may not belong in the ODI team, and vice versa. How do you determine when a reliable Test batsman should be kept out of the ODI team?

VVS Laxman has said in the media that he does not understand his exclusion from the ODI team. For someone who has fared very well against the Aussies, and is known to be a class Test player, some may support him; yet others who have followed his performance in ODIs would question his value in the short format. Based on his average, it would be difficult to argue that Laxman does not merit a spot in the current lineup. However, are averages a good way to gauge the ability of an ODI player?

For example, compare Laxman who is no longer part of the ODI team with Yuvraj Singh, who doesn't make it into the Test team.

Laxman has a better ODI average than Yuvraj with his 32 compared to Yuvraj's 29. However, most would intuitively agree that Yuvraj, who has collected several Man of Match awards for clutch batting performances under pressure, is a superior ODI player compared to Laxman, even without considering his outstanding fielding skills.

Strike rate is as important as average, if not more so. But using strike rate alone does not work; you could have a player who consistently whacks 10 runs off 4 or 5 balls every innings, who will have a career strike rate of 150-200, while a player like Sachin Tendulkar has a strike rate of 86.15.

A new method of ranking the best batsmen is presented below, which uses their scores along with the number of balls they faced per match, and then calculating what India's innings total would be if all the batsman batted at this rate (providing there were no extras, and just the allocated 300 balls bowled).

This was calculated for all Indian players who featured in the ODI series v Pakistan plus VVS Laxman: 17 players in total. The best batsman is the one who has the highest total from their 50 overs, and here they are in order.

It should be noted that this ranking considers only those players who have at least 50 ODI performances to their names. Without this restriction, rookie wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (9 games) would be at the top of the list, and fast bowler Irfan Pathan (29 games) would be ranked 5th, which bodes well for these two young players to develop into the allrounders that India have been seeking for a long while.

Indian ODI Batsman Ranking

1. Virender Sehwag: 291-8 off 50 overs. Scores 33 off 34 balls per ODI.
2. Yuvraj Singh: 256-8 off 50 overs. Scores 29 off 34 balls per ODI.
3. Sachin Tendulkar: 254-5 off 50 overs. Scores 44 off 52 balls per ODI.
4. Mohammed Kaif: 229-7 off 50 overs. Scores 32 off 42 balls per ODI.
5. Dinesh Mongia: 227-8 off 50 overs. Scores 28 off 37 balls per ODI.
6. Sourav Ganguly: 220-5 off 50 overs. Scores 41 off 56 balls per ODI.
7. VVS Laxman: 218-6 off 50 overs. Scores 32 off 44 balls per ODI.
8. Rahul Dravid: 211-5 off 50 overs. Scores 40 off 57 balls per ODI.
9. Ajit Agarkar: 180 all out off 35 overs. Scores 18 off 21 balls per ODI.
10. Zaheer Khan: 130 all out off 25 overs. Scores 13 off 15 balls per ODI.
11. Harbhajan Singh: 120 all out off 25 overs. Scores 12 off 15 balls per ODI.
12. Anil Kumble: 110 all out off 28.2 overs. Scores 11 off 17 balls per ODI.
13. Ashish Nehra: 80 all out off 18.2 overs. Scores 8 off 11 balls per ODI.