Gilchrist most feared batsman: Poll
June 16, 2005 18:22 IST
World’s leading bowlers have voted Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar among the top 10 batsmen who are the most destructive and intimidating in one-day cricket.
A poll of 20 international bowlers including Harbhajan Singh, Brett Lee, Muttiah Muralitharan – carried out by The Wisden Cricketer magazine – saw Australian opener Adam Gilchrist in the top spot with Sehwag fourth and Tendulkar sixth.
Other leading batsmen to feature in the list include Brian Lara (2nd), Shahid Afridi (3rd) and Andrew Flintoff (5th).
Showering praise on Gilchrist, South African bowler Makhaya Ntini said “he is just unbelievable at times” while Darren Gough rated the Australian as “one of the best one-day openers”.
New Zealand spinner Daniel Vettori said “I would never say any batsman is frightening, but there are some that you are less interested in bowling to than others - that would be Gilchrist.”
“Gilchrist - I don’t want to bowl to him, man” opined Pakistan seamer Azhar Mahmood.
Responding to the rich tributes from the best in the business, Gilchrist played down the accolades.
“I guess it is an honour in a strange kind of way. But it is not something I place a lot of emphasis on. When I bat I am trying to perform a job for the team. It is not a personal battle against individual bowlers,” he said.
In 209 ODIs Gilchrist has scored 6,969 runs at a strike rate of 95, with a colossal 840 boundaries and another 94 which have cleared the ropes, and sometimes the stands.
With battlelines drawn for the Ashes series the poll also showed how highly the Australians rate Flintoff.
“Flintoff hits some big balls from good players,” admitted Jason Gillespie, while Shane Watson, who has not even played against him, rates England’s great hope as the batsman who hits the ball hardest in ODI cricket.
Top ten bowlers’ nightmares:
- Adam Gilchrist, 2. Brian Lara, 3. Shahid Afridi, 4. Virender Sehwag, 5. Andrew Flintoff, 6. Sachin Tendulkar, 7. Chris Cairns, 8. Matthew Hayden, **9. Abdul Razzaq, **10. Ricky Ponting.
