Best batsman of modern era

I think Sachin handles pressure absolutely fine. You can't say he doesn't perform when it counts, because he does time and time again.
Ponting is a matchwinner, but then again when he plays Australia always won no matter what because the side was great. Lara was a top batsman, but how'd he have performed when playing with Viv, Lloyd, etc. Better or worse? Perhaps that would have brought out way more from him. Who knows? You can't just second guess. Look at the player, look at his performances, look at his strengths and weaknesses and look at his record home and away. Sachin has virtually no weaknesses and he has performed on every continent against every side against every type of bowling and on all sorts of wickets. He faced Wasim, Warne, Donald, Ambrose, Murali etc all in their pomp. For mine he is the best, hands down, no one betters him. Not only has he made a zillion runs, he's hard to get out and he scores at an extremely high rate (just look at his ODI SR of 88, that's ridiculous for a man who averages 45 and bats at the top of the order). Sachin is a freak. The best batsman I have ever seen.

Well Ponting missing in poll is a mismatch in current day context or even in 2006, but we have seen Good Ponting from debut till 2001/2002 and Excellent Ponting then on till now.

Edited by MalhotraRaj84 - 30 October 2009 at 1:58pm

I feel that Ponting is effective, in that he makes a lot of runs, but he's not as flamboyant (like Lara) or technically sound (like Sachin) as Lara and Sachin. Sachin is the ideal package and Lara is just brilliant to watch. Don't get me wrong Ricky is wonderful to watch when on song, but I always feel you can get him early on with that newish ball when he plants his front foot. I also think he's quite suspect to finger spin, mostly off spin. Sachin has almost no weaknesses, a few little things here and there but nothing overawing. That's why Sachin's the best in my opinion. He's just a total package. 

I think Sachin is probably the best since Bradman (or at least top 5) and Lara has the most flair of recent times, but neither of them can play the straight drive or hook/pull better than he. Not even Sachin can hook 6s off the front foot at will like Punter can.

Ponting is still miles better than Gayle on that front. I've actually seen teams use short pitch bowling as a strategy to get Ponting out. Of course Ponting gets out to the pull and hook, it's because he plays it so often, but feeding him short balls just makes me laugh. Another top play of the horizontal strokes was Adam Gilchrist. Played a hell of a lot of cricket at the WACA which helps.

He hardly fizzled out early, he was 39 when he packed up Test cricket. He might not have been the player he was, but he still was averaging 44 over the last 4 years of his career which was a damn good average in that era, and the only reason he kept going was a selfless one as the West Indies needed him to lead the team through the transition from the great 80's unit.

Clobber, fizzled out early in terms of form, not left the game entirely. That is my point richards was a much better batsmen then his record indicates.  39 when when he packed up test cricket? my point entirely! he played on too long and his record suffered for it. I dont think he played on because hes selfless, i think he didn't know when to retire, the west indian selectors finally dropped him before the 1992 world cup. Did the same to lara after he had a brilliant seriers against pakistan in 2006.

Thats right. You cant judge on stats because richards s stats are ****! he was much better then his stats. You cant be a bad player and have a great record either though. 

oh dear you ve missed my simple point. My point is that richards IS a great player. You look at his record over 121 tests and its good but not great. the fact he played on for as long as he did dosent do the man justice. Im not arguing with you in agreeing with you.

Where is JP Duminy in this poll ??

the topic states 'modern era' not 'last year'.

Duminy's maturity is quite startling , he had nowt 12 months ago and now he's loaded. His feet are firmly on the ground and when interviewed he comes across as extremely modest. I foresee him eventually batting at 4 for SA (maybe 3 or 4 years time) and also getting 10 or so overs an innings - he's not the worst offie around and he will improve.  Add to that , he's no slouch in the field!

I guess ABD will be their future skipper Milks. Also how good is Mark Boucher's replacement there?

Kuhn is the future , much tidier behind the stumps than van Wyk. Not much in the batting as yet though.