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Cricket is a sport where batters and bowlers fight it out on the field. But in recent years, the game has tilted in favour of batsmen to an extent that both fast-bowlers and spinners have seen their economies and averages getting worse and that's why many experts have now declared it as the “batter's game”.
However, it is not the first time when batters are dominating the ball on the field. While the likes of Steve Smith, Babar Azam, Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli are modern day greats, Don Bradman, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Jacques Kallis had to face more challenges in their respective eras than what the current generation of batters is facing.
Yet all of them have been considered as among the greatest batsmen of all time, with Australian legend Don Bradman on top of the list.
Don Bradman
Arguably here – Don Bradman is the greatest batter of all time with a fair margin. After all, no other cricketer in the world has a batting average of over 99. In fact, he would have scored just 4 more runs in his final innings against England at the Oval, he would have been the only man till date to have an average of 100 in the longest format of the game.
Nonetheless, there is hardly anything to argue against that Bradman was and is the greatest batsman that ever lived. It is not just the sheer numbers, but the manner in which he dominated the sport makes him stand above the rest.
In an age when protective gear in cricket wasn't of that high standards, Bradman not only managed to survive the hostile bodyline tactics of the England team during the 1932-33 series, but scored at a staggering average of over 56 as well.
56 wouldn't look like a good average when someone compares it to 99, but considering that an average of above 50 is considered a benchmark of greatness in modern cricket, one could then fathom the true extent of the feat.
Bradman, though, didn't stop there as he ended up scoring 6996 runs at an extraordinary average of 99.94 and hit a stunning 29 hundreds in just 52 Test matches. 29 hundreds in 52 games is again something hard to believe, considering current day players take nearly 100 Tests to reach that milestone.
Sachin Tendulkar
Widely regarded as the greatest batsman after Don Bradman, who himself acknowledged after watching him on television that the Mumbaikar reminded him of his playing days, Tendulkar's impact on cricket has been huge to say the least.
To understand the significance of the feat, one should take into account the fact that Tendulkar carried the burden of an entire nation on his shoulders for more than two decades.
Tendulkar – the only cricketer to hit 100 hundreds in the sport, including 51 Test hundreds and 49 One-Day International (ODI) centuries, was epitome of perfection, dedication, and counter-attack.
After all, who could forget his demolition of Shane Warne during the late 1990s in both India and Sharjah. But what really makes Tendulkar, an all-time great is the way he adapted his game in different formats and on different pitches despite his 5 foot 5 inch frame.
His solid technique, and calm temperament always held in good stead against the likes of Glenn McGrath, Shaun Pollock, Courtney Walsh and James Anderson and that's perhaps the reason why he ended up playing 200 Test matches and over 450 games in ODIs.
Brian Lara
Sachin Tendulkar's contemporary Brian Lara holds a plethora of records in international cricket and is the only batsman to hit a score 400 in whites.
The West Indian, widely considered as the greatest left-hander to play the game, dominated both spin and pace bowling with ease.
It is a fact which could be easily understood by his brilliant display during the West Indies tour of Sri Lanka in 2001 where he scored 688 runs, including a double hundred in just three Test matches.
All these runs were scored against a Lankan attack which had the greatest off spinner Muthiah Muralitharan in their line-up, but Lara used his feet to great effect to nullify whatever advantage the tweaker had on helpful pitches and eventually dominated the battle of the greats.
Overall, Lara finished his career with nearly 12,000 runs in Test cricket, including 34 hundreds and is the only batsman to have a score 300 and 400 in the longest format till date.
Steve Smith
Former Australia captain and current mainstay of their batting, Steve Smith is the only active cricketer who has an average of over 60 in Test matches.
The secret behind Smith's average is his consistency as there's hardly any series in which he has failed in recent memory. While he has not scored a hundred in more than a year now, fifties have kept coming off his bat.
However, what makes him a true modern day great and one of the best ever is his ability to pile up huge runs for a considerable amount of time.
This can be easily summed up by mentioning his numbers in a couple of series' against India and England. While the Sydney-born cricketer had an extraordinary series against India in 2014-15, having scored a mammoth 769 runs in four Test matches, including 5 hundreds, he joined the party against England in the 2019 Ashes series where he made 774 runs in 4 Tests.
Jacques Kallis
For many Jacques Kallis' name in this list would come as a surprise, as not many people think that he would have scored that many runs which he actually did.
Not many in cricket know that Kallis has a better average than Tendulkar in Tests. While the Indian maestro retired with an average of just under 54, Kallis ended his career with an average of over 57.
Besides, when one takes into account the sheer number of runs he scored – 12,260 to be precise in addition to his 41 hundreds, then only one can understand his contribution to South African cricket and why deserves a place among the greatest cricketers of all-time.
And if that wasn't enough, Kallis' 292 wickets in Test cricket, perhaps add to his great legacy. The right-hander may not have created as much a buzz as a Tendulkar, or Virender Sehwag, but Kallis was highly effective and his record testifies that he deserves a place among the top-5 batsmen of all-time.
