Greatest Test XI

[jeromedascorp]

I was focusing on the point of being in their prime. But I guess you missed that. I do not deny that there have been times that he has saved Australia. But considering that he is in the form of his life now, if he was injured and missed a few matches Australia would more than likely still defeat any team.

When Sachin was in the form of his life, India simply could not have him miss a match. All those hundreds he got carried the team. Without him India was given no chance. Yes Kumble, Ganguly and Dravid were in good form. But if Sachin was out of a match no one watched. Again, this was in the mid to late 90s.

 

[cricphan]

What makes a difference if Ponting's Australia or not? It's not like there hasn't been times when he hasn't saved Australia. Old Trafford 2005 & he saved us on a very dead track against Bangladesh just to name acouple.

Fitness? Ponting has a bad back, why do you think his rarely bowled over the last several years? He also had allot of personal issues when he was a youngster aswell. The guy was predicted to be a future Australian Captain at the age of 14 & was quoted by many in Australia as the best teenage batsman they had ever seen. Allot of expectations were put on him. Not everyone can handle that sorta pressure, can they? Just ask Graham Hick.

http://aus.cricinfo.com/link_to_database/ARCHIVE/1992-93/AUS_LOCAL/SS/NSW_TAS_SS_27-30JAN1993.html

why do u think sachin had injury troubles ? He has played with all kind of injuries.With due respect to current n former greats of the indian team , for a major part of his career spanning 18 years sachin was the mainstay of the indian batting .U get sachin , u gte the indian team .Add to that the mad , fanatic indian public and the media . The pressure is just immense .

But i think n hope that he will be back .May be the second coming .

also he should play the 20-20 game .He should reconsider his decision not play 20-20 world cup.

:hpraise:hpraise

 

[aussie_ben91]

The pressure is only immense if you let it get to you.

 

[Monty57]

Does anyone remember Gooch the first batsman to hit 300?

 

[RoboRocks]

Allot of expectations were put on him. Not everyone can handle that sorta pressure, can they? Just ask Graham Hick.

http://aus.cricinfo.com/link_to_database/ARCHIVE/1992-93/AUS_LOCAL/SS/NSW_TAS_SS_27-30JAN1993.html

Greame Hick had to face some pretty good bowlers at a young age.
If he started today then it could of been a different story.
Plus you had to pick a English player didn't you .

 

[covlad-99]

Jayasuriya has to open

 

[King Pietersen]

Jayasuriya's record isnt good enough to be in the top 2 openers of all time. He is a shoe-in for the greatest odi XI but not the test XI.

 

[andrew_nixon]

Does anyone remember Gooch the first batsman to hit 300?

I remember Gooch, but he certainly wasn't the first Test batsman to score 300, not even the first England batsman to do it.

 

[sd92]

The first person to hit a triple hundred was Andy Sandham, who was English, and hit it against the Windies at Sabana Park on 3rd April 1930...several months before Don Bradman got his first triple hundred.

 

[playkid12]

The pressure is only immense if you let it get to you.

No, the pressure can be immense, even if you don't let it get to you. If you let something not get to you, you have great fortitude that offsets the pressure. It doesn't mean that the pressure doesn't exist, which would be on the back of your mind no matter how great of fortitude you have. There is a constant demand for Tendulkar to succeed in India and I will agree that it's probably more than any other player in the world. It's less in tests than ODIs though and I wont agree that this affects his game. He's had to deal with this his entire life. There's no one better to handle that kind of pressure. He's starting to get old, and rather than try to fight it, it seems as if he's getting a little lazy - or perhaps the perfect machine is starting to rust. One thing is clear though, it seems as if he doesn't want the pressure that goes along with his name. That he wants to stay on the team with less pressure because of his age. He might also be tired of constantly having to lead his country - which has been through many controversies (match fixing, ganguly-chappel, tendulkar stranded on 194, etc) and might want less attention when he accomplishes things. However, this goes against his nature, and I strongly doubt it.

Now, when comparing good ol' ricky to tendya, I must admit that Ponting is a better test batsman. Tendulkar is better in ODIs, no doubt - but Ricky's got him for tests. Pressure or no pressure, one man team or not, it comes down to the performance. Ponting didn't get a chance to play for a team that was struggling - so you really can't hold the fact that he hasn't been a one man team against him. They're both geniuses, no doubt, but in tests, Ponting edges over Tendulkar. Yes, Tendulkar has played more quality attacks in the 90's. Yes, the pitches then weren't quite as batsman friendly as now. Yes, Tendulkar has been playing for 18 years and his current form is not reflective of how he used to play. But Ponting has done exceedingly well over the recent years and the numbers tell the story. Tendulkar is a sole legend in ODIs but is only one of the greats in tests, where he has been bettered by a few batsmen.

Jayasuriya's record isnt good enough to be in the top 2 openers of all time. He is a shoe-in for the greatest odi XI but not the test XI.

He isnt even good enough for the greatest odi xi....

 

[aussie_ben91]

Greame Hick had to face some pretty good bowlers at a young age.
If he started today then it could of been a different story.
Plus you had to pick a English player didn't you .

Yeah... And Ponting debuted in 1996 at the age of 20. He also had to face all of the great bowlers of the last decade in domestic cricket, playing for Tasmania, a state that hasn't produced much International cricketers in the last decade or so & he killed it. Averaging in the 60's.

 

[aditya123]

I don`t think that any Aussie can ever understand the kind of pressures faced by a player like Tendulkar .
Leaving the comparision with Ponting alone, Sachin still has a damn good record in both ODIs and Tests.
However, it does not take long for the fans in India to just put him down to the dumps and burn effigies of him when he fails for a game or two.
This oes not happen in India.

India is a country deprived of good sportsmen and Tendulkar is one of a select band of world-beating sportsmen that we have produced over the years and hence the immense pressure of expectation.
We do not have a good football or rugby team to fall back to if our cricket team fails.
We are only an average tennis nation, only reaching the Davis Cup final once.
Hence people expect Sachin to achieve whatever they have dreamt of achieving in their lives in sport, forgetting at times that he is a mortal.

You would`nt see effigies of Ponting being burnt if he fails to perform for a few games , nor would you see 10hrs of a 24hr news channel trying to analyze Ponting`s failures as it happens in India whenever Sachin fails.

Each time Tendulkar fails there are people waiting to pull him down and there are headlines like `Endulkar` in newspapers.
Tendulkar plays for a country which likes to create heroes out of men but its fans also enjoy criticizing and insulting its heroes whenever they fail.

A reason for the above could also be traced to the way heroes never die in Bollywood films where there is always a happy ending and the people expect the same from the cricketers.

 

[jeromedascorp]

The pressure is only immense if you let it get to you. Why dont we all sit and manufacture robots to play cricket? Cricketers are still Human. And in India the only sport you have is Cricket. In England and Australia you can talk to certain groups of people and they probably will not know the names of cricketers because they are bigger fans of football, rugby and aussie rules football.

In India you have nearly 1 Billion people who know every detail about what you do as a cricketer. If you are Indian you know that any tiny bit of News travels like wildfire. On and off the pitch cricketers are faced with constant pressure from the media or the crowds. This is because people are obsessed with cricket so much that they dont even think about any other sport in India.

So the only solution is to create a robot or clone that is like Sachin tendulkar and make him a person with the capability to completely block out the pressure. That will be one fun media room when the robot answers questions!

 

[aussie_ben91]

Yeah but you make it sound like Tendulkar's fearing for his life & worrying so much that he has no time whatsoever to watch the ball from the bowlers hand and yet somehow he is still able to make runs. :

 

[aditya123]

Yeah but you make it sound like Tendulkar's fearing for his life & worrying so much that he has no time whatsoever to watch the ball from the bowlers hand and yet somehow he is still able to make runs. :

I just tried to put forth my opinion to give you an idea of the pressures faced by a cricketer in the subcontinent.
If I made it sound that way, I may have not been articulate enough.