The greatest batting lineup we've seen?
This will up the keystrokes around workplaces this sunny afternoon. A simple statement.
The top seven for India is the greatest batting lineup we have ever seen in this country.
A few of you will instantly go to cricinfo and check up who was playing for the West Indies in 1987, some of you will wonder about the English side of the 1950s, and others will not even bother to check how good Australia was in 2000 let alone 2005 and sit back nodding to the screen and whisper “Yeah, right, cobber.”
But let us look at that top seven – Sehwag, Gambhir, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Yuvraj, Dhoni. The only one I could quibble with is Yuvraj, and he is there for the joyful abandon he inserts at number six. And he’s the newbie, just 27, replacing Ganguly.
Three of those players, if not four, would make India’s all-time XI. The cudgel of Sehwag is matched by the care of Gambhir – who is a bit like Joseph Cotten (Citizen Kane, The Third Man, Magnificent Ambersons, Touch of Evil) in that he is always there but always overshadowed by the big man.
You have Dravid. Nicknamed The Wall. Averages 52. Bit boring to watch. Twenty-six test centuries.
Then Tendulkar, who may very well, depending on which side of the bed you got out of today, be 
the greatest batsman of our generation. Laxman is a gift from the entertainment gods – those pot-bellied deities who hang around eating grapes, drinking amphorae of whiskey and watching The Sopranos on rerun. He is wristy, elegant, smooth, luxuriant.
Yuvraj is very ordinary in that company, but he’d cruise into the New Zealand side without touching the sides. And finally the rock star – MS Dhoni, batting at number six or seven, is a destroyer of tiring attacks and an essay in how, when and where to use a destructive wicketkeeper-batsman. Please read, Baz.
It is ridiculously exciting to have this team here. I don’t truly think they are the number one team in the world – like Guinness they are better at home and South Africa seem to have strength across the board – but if there is any team to see live, ever, then this is it. Sachin and Rahul and VVS may not travel here again. I have planned a late March excursion to the Basin, and I’m going to take my two-year-old son, who will no doubt be more interested in rolling cans down the bank than the flannel ballet out in the middle. Still I want him to be able to say to his grandkids, if they ask, did you ever see Sachin Tendulkar play?
Of course he will be a petrolhead, utterly uninterested in cricket. Or an interior designer. Or a goth. But there is a parental responsibility to at least attempt to give some historical legacy.
Even the 20/20 will be, at the very least, a taster, though why you would watch Sachin for just 20 overs escapes me. Anyway – indulge, enjoy, and bask in the way willow should be wielded, in a septet so rich (in every sense) that it is cricket’s equivalent of a chocolate gateau, with slightly too much brandy.
(Actually on second thoughts Hayden, Langer, Ponting, Martyn, Clarke, Katich, Gilchrist wasn’t half bad, either, but hey you’ve got to enliven a dull Wednesday afternoon somehow.)
Picture: Reuters
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South Africa do not have a spinner anywhere near the quality of Harbhajan and Amit Mishra (New Zealand have Vettori). They also do not have a left arm swinging paceman like Zaheer Khan in the opening burst. And definitely their batting line-up is nowhere near the Indians in quality. So your statement that SA are stronger across the board is very much influenced by the last series. Imagine what the Indians would have done to this Aussie team (last time they toured Symonds and Gilchrist were there and Lee's personal life was still intact). By the way your statement on Yuvraj shows you haven't watched him of late.
India don't have a third seamer and saying that SA's batting is nowhere near the Indians in quality well Smith would replace Gambhir and Kallis would replace Yuvraj and the rest of their batters minus McKenzie are top notch.
To sudeep das- if you look at the South Africans numbers at home and away you would find that over the past year they have been the better team. It doesn't matter if you don't have a world class spinner or left arm quick but if you use what you have got and still win. South Africa won in Australia and England and drew in India which are the hardest places to tour and if you look at the top run scorers and wicket takers in tests last year topping those lists are Steyn and Smith with about four other SA batsman in the top so I would say from what I have said South Africa are currently a better test team than India
Yuvraj is average in tests. Saying he is ordinary in the company of Dravid, Tendulkar, Sehwag and VVS is a pretty fair comment considering he averages 36 compared to their 50 - 55.
I would take Steyn and Ntini over Zaheer and Sharma any day. You would have to be a very one-eyed Inidan supporter to disagree with that.
Sudeep, you can compare individuals all you want but the facts say that India have not achieved the results necessary to be crowned the best team in the world. They have a very talented group of players but as yet they have not beaten Australia or Sth Africa away from home. Sth Africa may not have a left armed paceman or a high quality spinner but they have the results to back their claims for the number 1 slot - India don't no matter how many blogs Indian fans around the world post on raving about how good their team is (see the invasion of Iain O'brien's cricinfo blog for an example).
Oh and it's now 1-0 in the 20/20 series...to the kiwis. How do you explain that?
Grab some facts mate - Tendulkers not playing the 20-20!
Yes Iknowyoudont Sachin isn't playing the 20/20 thanks goodness. It would have been a travesty. But at least I can spell Tendulkar. And I know how to use the possessive.
Sudeep - Yuvraj may have made monkey with England's patchy attack - (in one-dayers) mind you, and his 6 sixes has been gilded into something of a miraculous event, but he doesn't hold a candle to 1,2,3,4, or 5 and only gets near number 7 because Dhoni has about ten jobs to do. For the record - for the sheer Midas quality of Dhoni to turn a bad total into gold, I would ALWAYS select him ahead of Yuvraj as a batsman. That may change in a few years, as Yuvraj is getting better, but we are talking now. Ishant is also potentially a world beater but Dale Steyn is the best fast bowler in the world right now. Boucher is better with the gloves, Dhoni with the bat but there's not much either way. Morkel, Ntini, Nel, Zondeki isn't a bad back-up group, and the batting? Well when you can leave Prince and Gibbs on the sidelines to play Australia and still beat them - and when you have quality batsmen like de Villiers, Amla, Kallis, Smith and Duminy then that's real solidity.
Anyway let's all bask in our six-hitting last night - a record 24 big'uns. And we won. Roll on the 20/20 World Cup.
Sachin Tendulkar the greatest batsman of our generation? He's been playing since he was 16, so he probably unfairly qualifies for about THREE generations.
For all India's batting riches, how about the NZ top order in last night's 20/20? Ryder, McCullum, Guptill, Taylor, Oram, Broom....some major firepower there. Pity they can't play test cricket, of course, but good to see a strong batting line-up at last.
I agree, i dont like T20 cricket but im off to the game tonight in CHCH and i just cant wait. Still go the kiwis we can take em ;)