Brendon McCullum or MS Dhoni

LJ4MVP

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I just wanted to get evryones opinion on McCullum, I've began to notice just how overatted he his becoming, dont get me wrong he is a good player, well over the last year and a haf he has been. I just wanted to know where most people rated him amongst keepers.

EG.

1.Kumar Sangakarra
2.etc

I've seen him play alot better than Dhoni, who I would say is very overrated
 
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They're all quite different. Without Doubt McCullum is the most dangerous at the top of the order he takes the game away. He hits it better than anyone.

Dhoni can play the big shots also, but he's more the consistent guy who paces the innings well.

Sangakkara is the better testmatch batsman of the three, but he doesn't keep in tests so really he shouldn't be compared anymore. He's not that great in the one day forms because he doesn't go at as good a strike rate. He's a good guy to rescue an innings (which he usually ends up having to do lately.)

I don't think McCulllum or Dhoni are over-rated. For wicket keeper's they're amazing batsmen.
 
McCullum's a marvelous player, he's probably my 2nd favourite player in the world at the moment, after KP of course. I love his style, the way he advances down the wicket to the quicks, bats out of his crease, i've not seen a player who hits the ball as sweetly as him either. If he could develop his test match game further he could go down as one of the great keepers of all time. He's got great keeping ability, he's quick, takes fantastic catches, and keeps brilliantly against Vettori. Brilliant player, fantastic entertainer.
 
Well, for a start, McCullum has easily been New Zealand's best ODI batsman in the past 12 months, with 644 runs at 53.67. That is about twice his career average, so he is an obvious contender for most improved.

Secondly, you can only compare him to his peers. Are they doing any better?
Boucher 314 runs @ 44.86
Dhoni 897 runs @ 40.77
Sangakkara 569 runs @ 31.61
Kamran Akmal 290 runs @ 26.36
Mustard 233 runs @ 23.30
Ramdin 53 runs @ 7.57

Now you can see consistency has been in his favour and that always means more fans. Of course, Dhoni and Boucher have been almost as good. However, we have not added strike rate into the equation.

McCullum: 109.89
Boucher: 83.15
Dhoni: 82.15
Sangakkara: 66.62
Kamran Akmal: 87.08
Mustard: 92.46
Ramdin: 73.61

So we can see that this guy McCullum is putting bums in seats. He is the most consistent ODI wicket keeper in the last 12 months and also the fastest scorer. You might argue that overall there are better players and he hasn't done quite as well in Tests.

You'd be justified to do so, of course, but it's a matter of context. As good as Bradman was, we are not all raving about Bradman 60 years later; we're past that. The man in form gets the headline and currently, McCullum is doing pretty much everything to stay on the front page.
 
A bit hard to compare as thier totally different. But I'd definetly choose McCullum anyday!!
 
I disagree that Dhoni and McCullum are overrated at all. Dhoni has shown his maturity as a batsmen in the past year, as he has been able to pace his innings, and go beserk if his team needs it of him. He doesn't have a particularly compact or elegant technique, but has great mental strength, which causes him to lapse in concentration much less than other batsman.

McCullum of course goes beserk regardless of the situation, which disadvantages him a little, but he is backed by strength, decent technique, and good timing. However, I'm not sure if he's capable of playing a mature innings if his team requires it.

Of course, Sangakarra is hugely UNDERratted in the one-day form of the game. He is probably the perfect batsmen, but has been off-form of late, but you can see from his IPL innings that he can call upon his brilliant technique, buckets of experience, exquisite timing, and elegant strokes to utterly smash the bowlers all around the park if he decides to throw caution to the wind and back himself.

Of course, in recent times(for Sri Lanka, not Kings XI) the situation has not let him play naturally, it has required him to play anchor man, which he has done brilliantly.

All three of these wiki-batsman are absolutely outstanding, in fact all three of these players would rate in the top twenty batsman in the world, regardless of their wicketkeeping.
 
McCullum of course goes beserk regardless of the situation, which disadvantages him a little, but he is backed by strength, decent technique, and good timing. However, I'm not sure if he's capable of playing a mature innings if his team requires it.

I disagree, I thought his 92 in the first test match of the Eng-NZ series was an innings that got New Zealand a draw, and really saved them in the first innings. I think he can restrain himself, but still play positively when the situation requires him to. I'm a big fan of the bloke, and he's only 28 aswell, means he's got plenty of years ahead of him, so I imagine he'll be dominating the One Day scene for a good few years.
 
I disagree, I thought his 92 in the first test match of the Eng-NZ series was an innings that got New Zealand a draw, and really saved them in the first innings. I think he can restrain himself, but still play positively when the situation requires him to. I'm a big fan of the bloke, and he's only 28 aswell, means he's got plenty of years ahead of him, so I imagine he'll be dominating the One Day scene for a good few years.

McCullum has only just turned 26
 
I disagree, I thought his 92 in the first test match of the Eng-NZ series was an innings that got New Zealand a draw, and really saved them in the first innings. I think he can restrain himself, but still play positively when the situation requires him to. I'm a big fan of the bloke, and he's only 28 aswell, means he's got plenty of years ahead of him, so I imagine he'll be dominating the One Day scene for a good few years.
He's only 26, Dhoni is also about 26, I think.

I'm surprised at the Dhoni hate. His numbers above are among the best from an Indian in the past year. He can play flamboyantly, but he can also be mature and gritty. He is a very good competitor and his on-field demeanour is good for his leadership. The only let down is that he is yet to conquer Test cricket, but so few keeper batsmen do, especially before the age of 30. Even with Sangakkara, he averages 40.5 as keeper and 88.5 when not keeping in Tests.
 
McCullum is fantastic. Hes better then Dhoni imo because McCullum can play the Test, ODI and Twenty20 innings where as Dhoni imo is more a ODI player.

McCullum is a very good keeper too.
 
McCullum.

Dhoni simply cannot be trusted with the big shots. If it connects for him, it goes a long way, but the problem is with his technique and lack of footwork, it gets really difficult for him to hit the short of good length deliveries and bowlers have quickly figured it out and bowl a short length at him into his body.

He looks awkward facing the short delivery even on flat pitches.

Dhoni really needs to improve his batting against spinners and against the short-of-length bowling to be truly considered a big hitter. I also noticed that Dhoni really doesn't play the delicate glances which are so effective at the end overs when the fine leg and the third man are usually up inside the circle. He wants to blast every delivery down the ground and it doesn't always work.
 
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Ice Cool Dhoni anyday. Maybe in test matches McCullum will do.
 
Ice Cool Dhoni anyday. Maybe in test matches McCullum will do.

Do you really think Dhoni has the technique to face up to quality bowling?

The more I see of Dhoni's batting, the more I'm convinced that his non-existent footwork has been pretty well figured out by all bowlers around the world.
 

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