Present Era low on talent! 2017

[Umair7]

Players missing from @Aislabie list who I think are very talented

Josh Hazlewood
James Pattinson
Cheteshwar Pujara
Babar Azam
Younis Khan
Fawad Alam
Brendon McCullum
Brendan Taylor
Imran Tahir
Sunil Narine
KOB
RTD

 

[Satan666]

Players missing from @Aislabie list who I think are very talented

Josh Hazlewood
James Pattinson
Cheteshwar Pujara
Babar Azam
Younis Khan
Fawad Alam
Brendon McCullum
Brendan Taylor
Imran Tahir
Sunil Narine
KOB
RTD

Havent seen much if Narine bowling since being called up for an illegal action. Very talented post or pre bowling action change?

 

[Aislabie]

Players missing from @Aislabie list who I think are very talented

All entirely relevant, good work

 

[Markkkkk]

Mohammad Shahzad
Rashid Khan
David Warner
Steven Smith
Usman Khawaja
Chris Lynn
Mitchell Starc
Patrick Cummins
Tamim Iqbal
Shakib Al Hasan
Mustafizur Rahman
Alastair Cook
Joe Root
Kevin Pietersen
Jonny Bairstow
Ben Stokes
Chris Woakes
James Anderson
Mark Chapman
Virat Kohli
Ajinkya Rahane
Rohit Sharma
Ravi Jadeja
Ravi Ashwin
Ed Joyce
Paul van Meekeren
Martin Guptill
Ross Taylor
Kane Williamson
BJ Watling
Trent Boult
Tim Southee
Misbah ul-Haq
Asad Shafiq
Yasir Shah
Mohammad Amir
David Miller
Hashim Amla
JP Duminy
AB de Villiers
Quinton de Kock
Sybrand Engelbrecht
Dale Steyn
Vernon Philander
Kagiso Rabada
Morne Morkel
Kyle Abbott
Kusal Mendis
Angelo Mathews
Dinesh Chandimal
Rangana Herath
Akila Dananjaya
Chris Gayle
Darren Bravo
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Rahkeem Cornwall
Alzarri Joseph
Sean Williams
Peter Moor

Do tell me more about how this is a generation that's short of talent.

* This is a list of talented cricketers, not necessarily uber-successful cricketers.

FYI Engelbrecht retired.

Also a lot of thise players are not as talented as the people who OP is refering to. I mean, Sean Williams, Mark Chapman and Paul van Meekeren aren't exactly 'talented'. Pretty arb list IMO.

Onto the topic of OP I was thinking a similar thought (but more towards SA and the lack of talent in the domestic circuit ala quota) but I disagree. Smith now is a better batsmen then Tendulkar, Kallis, Lara and the whole lot (atleast according to the rankings) and 20 points of the Don, hard to say he isn't comparable to the Kallises of the previous generation. I think the difference is that now a lot of the world class players are still getting tested and established. We're in a generation transition from Cook, AB, Amla etc. to the fab four and from Steyn and co. to Starc, Cummins, Rabada etc. In 10 years time it'll be easier to say if this generation lacks talent.

 

[Satan666]

FYI Engelbrecht retired.

Also a lot of thise players are not as talented as the people who OP is refering to. I mean, Sean Williams, Mark Chapman and Paul van Meekeren aren't exactly 'talented'. Pretty arb list IMO.

Onto the topic of OP I was thinking a similar thought (but more towards SA and the lack of talent in the domestic circuit ala quota) but I disagree. Smith now is a better batsmen then Tendulkar, Kallis, Lara and the whole lot (atleast according to the rankings) and 20 points of the Don, hard to say he isn't comparable to the Kallises of the previous generation. I think the difference is that now a lot of the world class players are still getting tested and established. We're in a generation transition from Cook, AB, Amla etc. to the fab four and from Steyn and co. to Starc, Cummins, Rabada etc. In 10 years time it'll be easier to say if this generation lacks talent.

Thanks for acknowledging my exact thought patterns in the opening post.

I can see your point with Smith and was thinking about it after witnessing his knock earlier against the Indians. The question arises though has he really been tested by top quality bowling? Not much quality bowlers going around these days and the pitches on offer are generally a bit poor. Smith still moves about too much in the crease for my liking, it has worked for him however.

 

[Bluebagger]

Starc, Steyn, Johnson, Anderson, Zaheer Khan
Warner, Smith, Root, Kohli, Williamson, AB De Villiers, Sangakarra
These players are legends In my opinion. For us who have seen the older players play, this era players how much good they play they will never replace the old guard as we are attached to the older player.
But you ask somebody who has just watching cricket they can easily say the players I mentioned as legends.

Your standards for 'legends' are extremely low.

 

[ParkedTheBus]

I completely agree with the OP. I think there is a dearth of talent atm. Obviously, the likes of Smith/Kohli/Root/Kane/Philander have exceptional averages but without context, all that is mere numbers and nothing else. Pitches have either been too favourable to batsmen (80%) or to bowlers (15%). A pitch like the one were seeing at Dharamsala at the moment is an exception (5%) and not the norm.

Bowling stocks are at an all time low and no, I'm not being nostalgic. You have a few elite bowlers and plenty of average ones who have absurdly good records thanks to playing on rubbish wickets. Also, it is very important to consider the distribution of talent whenever one is judging the relative strength of an era. Some of the teams at the moment are distinctly average. About 10-12 years ago, you had Australia who were incredible, India, South Africa, England and even Pakistan/Sri Lanka with squads that could realistically beat any team from any era on their day. How many teams can you say that about at the moment? India if we're being kind and that's that.

Batsmen have massively benefited from pitches being slow/flat all over the world. An average of 50 in the modern day is perhaps equal to 40 a decade ago. As I said, you need to look at the context along with numbers. Otherwise, Rohit Sharma would be among the best this game ever seen with his ODI double centuries haha. Same with Warner and Voges. Need I point out that the likes of Mike Hussey (in my opinion, one of the best batsmen of the past 3-4 decades), Hodge and Rogers couldn't get a look in the team despite scoring over 10k runs? Same with Muzumdar (spelling might be wrong) with India. Now you see blokes like Shaun Marsh be a fixture in the Australian lineup.

 

[zwarrior]

Your standards for 'legends' are extremely low.

Yours too.

Kohli, Root, Williamson are no less than Smith whom you consider a legend.

 

[Bluebagger]

Yours too.

Kohli, Root, Williamson are no less than Smith whom you consider a legend.

Apart from the fact that Smith's average destroys them all. None of those batsman you quoted comes close to Smith.

I also don't consider Smith a legend but there's daylight between him and the rest.

 

[zwarrior]

Apart from the fact that Smith's average destroys them all. None of those batsman you quoted comes close to Smith.

I also don't consider Smith a legend but there's daylight between him and the rest.

In tests.

In ODI- Kohli is far better than the other three. Not only stats wise, but the way they have exhibited their talent.

In T20I- Kohli, Root and Kane destroys Smith's average and there is a daylight between them and him( Smith ). More than daylight actually. Smith's 22 vs Kohli's 53

Ofcourse now you will say tests is better than the other two. But all of them play all formats of cricket. Don't they ? And it does matter.

 

[Bluebagger]

But but but but T20

Kohli can have his T20 record because the only format that matters is test cricket.

 

[Bigby Wolf]

In ODIs no one (Root,Smith,Williamson) comes close to Kohli.He is the Bradman in successful run chases ,27 hundreds at the age of 28 thats an absolute ridiculous no to have out of which only 4 went in vain.18 in successful run chases some of them have been monumental chases (Hobart vs Sri Lanka,Asia Cup 2012 vs Pakistan,154 vs Newzealand in 2016).
The only two batsmen that are near with Kohli is Amla and Ab De Villiers.

 

[Bigby Wolf]

But but but but T20

Kohli can have his T20 record because the only format that matters is test cricket.

Typical Aussie reply! Have pathetic record in t20 but but test cricket is real cricket
[HASHTAG]#Angoor[/HASHTAG] Nahi Mile toh Angoor Khatte hai - The grapes are sour!

 

[ParkedTheBus]

Since the topic has moved on to 'best batsman in the world', here's my two cents: There is no 'best' batsman at the moment. We can all agree that there are four who are a cut above the rest (Smith, Kohli, Kane and Root) but nobody clearly stands out among the four. Smith has a level of concentration and bloody-mindedness that the other three don't have, Kohli possesses the peerless ability to win any game from any position, Root is technically unmatched and Kane carries a burden that the other three don't. As a result, it is impossible to say X/Y/Z is the best right now.

 

[Bluebagger]

Typical Aussie reply! Have pathetic record in t20 but but test cricket is real cricket

Yeah we care so much about T20 that we played a T20 the day before a test

No sour grapes here T20 is garbage and is a glorified home run contest. You lot can keep it

There is a reason why it's called a test match and there's a reason why that's the ultimate judge of a cricketer. Having 20 overs with ridiculous field restrictions and other nonsense isn't a true judge of talent, where it matters where all bets are off and Smith shines above the rest like no other.