The Best Batsmen in Cricket History
Cricket is packed with some of the best sportsmen the world has ever seen. Considering it is one of the most popular sports to play and watch globally, you have to be exceptional to stand out from the crowd.
This list will go through some of the best batsmen to ever play the sport. They are the ones that won their team important games, defied the odds, and rose to become names that will never be forgotten.
Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin Tendulkar is widely regarded as one of the best batsmen ever to play the game. The Indian superstar started his career in 1989 at the age of 16, making him one of the youngest players to start in a professional cricket game.
Tendulkar would go on to become the highest run-scorer in international cricket of all time. He is also the only player to have a hundred centuries to his name; he was the first player to score a double-century in an ODI and is the only player to have 30,000 runs in international cricket.
Brian Lara
If Sachin is the best batsman to come out of the sub-continent, Brain Lara is the best to come out of the Western Hemisphere. The West Indian is widely praised as one of the greatest of all time, and much like Sachin, has the mind-blowing records to back it up.
Lara held the record for the highest individual score in first-class cricket when he scored 501 runs for Warwickshire, the first and only quintuple hundred in cricket history. He also holds the highest score in a Test match, with 400 runs not out against England. His match-winning performance against Australia in 1999, where he scored 153 runs, is also ranked as the second-best individual performance of all time.
Viv Richards
Sir Viv Richards is a retired West Indian cricketer who, in 2002, was voted by Wisden as the greatest ODI batsman of all time. He was then voted the third-best Test batsman of all time, being narrowly beaten by Sir Donald Bradman and Sachin Tendulkar.
Wisden also voted Richards as the player with the best ODI innings of all time, and he was the first cricketer in history to be awarded 20 Man of the Match awards. In 2009, he was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame.
AB de Villiers
South Africa has also produced its fair share of world-class players, with AB de Villiers being the best batsman of them all. He made his debut for South Africa in 2004 and spent 14 years playing at the international level before retiring from international cricket in 2018.
He holds the fastest 50, 100, and 150 and is the only batsman to average above 50 with a strike rate of over 100. He has been praised for revolutionizing batting by incorporating unorthodox shots and stances, as well as his game-changing approach to dealing with the yorker.
Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting is widely credited as leading the Australian team through their Golden Era, from 2002 to 2011. He is the most successful captain of all time, taking his team to 220 victories in 324 matches, with a win rate of 67.91%.
He is second in the list of players with the highest number of international centuries, behind Sachin Tendulkar. He was voted in as a member of the best Ashes XI of All Time and was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame in 2018.
Javed Miandad
While Javed Miandad may not have such stunning records as other players on this list, he is still regarded as the best batsman Pakistan has ever produced. His 21-year career saw him take part in over 400 first-class matches.
Miandad put his name in the history books in 1986 when, in Sharjah, against a rampant Indian team, Pakistan needed four runs to win off the last ball. Miandad stepped forward and blasted the final ball for six, becoming the first player to end a match in that fashion.
Kumar Sangakkara
India had Sachin, Pakistan had Miandad, Sri Lanka had Kumar Sangakkara. Sangakkara is one of the best left-handed batsman and wicket keepers ever to play, continuing the Sub-Continent tradition of producing world-class players.
He finished his international career with 28,016 runs and was rated as one of the top 3 batsmen across all formats of cricket. He is the second-highest run-scorer in ODI’s and the sixth highest in Test cricket. In 2019, he was appointed the president of the MCC, becoming the first non-British person appointed to the position since the club was formed in 1787.
Chris Gayle
Chris Gayle is one of the few players recognized as one of the best while still being active. The Jamaican made his debut for the West Indies in 1999 and is famous for his incredible hitting power and run-scoring.
He is the only player with more than 14,000 runs in T20 cricket and has hit over 1000 sixes in the format. In 2013, he broke the record for the fastest 100 scored in a T20 match; he finished his innings with 175 runs off 66 balls, which is also the highest total for a batsman in a T20 game.
Virat Kohli
Another player who is still active is Virat Kohli. The Indian maestro made his international debut in 2008 and has played in almost 100 Test matches, 254 ODI’s, and 90 T20 international games.
Kohli holds the record for the fastest batsman to reach 8000, 9000, 10,000, 11,000, and 12,000 runs in ODI’s. He also holds the record for the fastest player to 23,000 international runs. While his career isn’t over yet, his legacy has already been left.
Donald Bradman
This list wouldn’t be complete without Sir Donald Bradman. The Don is often cited as one of the greatest sportsmen ever, with his international batting average of 99.94 being one best achievement by any professional athlete ever.
His 20-year career saw him score almost 7000 Test runs and over 28,000 first-class runs. He died in 2009 but is still remembered as the best to ever do it, with no other batsmen getting anywhere close to his remarkable average.
