Well January in back, and so is the second edition of Vineet's Cricket Rankings! And though there are some surprises the top of the heap is captured by none other than two of the most competitive cricketers of 21st century - Ricky Ponting followed by Matthew Hayden.
Ricky Ponting scored 1424 runs in 27 matches at an amazing average of 79.
11 at a very high strike rate of 91.
79!! He smashed 5 centuries and 8 half-centuries on the way to achieving this.
Not to be left behind, Matthew Hayden scored 1601 runs in 32 matches at a very high average of 59.
29 at a good strike rate of 89.
19!! He smashed 5 centuries and 6 half-centuries on the way to achieving this.
Graeme Smith, Andrew Symonds and Sachin Tendulkar follow at 3,4 and 5.
So the year 2007 was heavily dominated by Australian Batsmen, and the same way the Australian Team dominated the World Cricket.
Well, now for some surprises, Ten Doeschate remains in Top 20 (remember this site had picked him to be a player to watch last year).
Shahid Afridi continued to dazzle with an annual strike rate of 161.
A player like Haddin who has a position of No.
7 in the table continues to languish on the fringes of the Australian team (Does the Australian team also have a Seniorphilia like the Indians?).
AB deVillers continued to be in the Top 10, a feat only Yuvraj could manage besides him.
So we can certainly take deVillers and Yuvraj to be the players of the future!! But the biggest surprise in Top 10 was DJ Reekers (Netherlands), and if you combine him and Doeschate you have a team to look out for - Netherlands! Some surprises to watch for are LOB Cann (Bermuda), JM Davison (Canada), Robin Utthappa (India).
1RT Ponting (Aus) 2ML Hayden (Aus) 3GC Smith (SA) 4A Symonds (Aus) 5SR Tendulkar (India) 6Shahid Afridi (Pak) 7BJ Haddin (Aus) 8AB de Villiers (Afr/SA) 9DJ Reekers (Neth) 10Yuvraj Singh (Asia/India) 11Mohammad Yousuf (Asia/Pak) 12V Sehwag (Asia/India) 13SB Styris (NZ) 14Salman Butt (Pak) 15LOB Cann (Ber) 16AC Gilchrist (Aus) 17HH Gibbs (SA) 18S Chanderpaul (WI) 19RN ten Doeschate (Neth) 20JM Davison (Can) 21RR Sarwan (WI) 22Imran Nazir (Pak) 23JH Kallis (SA) 24MS Dhoni (Asia/India) 25SR Watson (Aus) 26KP Pietersen (Eng) 27BC Lara (WI) 28LPC Silva (SL) 29S Matsikenyeri (Zim) 30RV Uthappa (India) Where are the top 5 batsmen of the year 2006? Well RN Ten Doeschate whom this site had predicted as a hidden gem, continued his exciting run by remaining in Top 20.
While Nathan Astle and Mark Trescothick faded into oblivion, Gilchrist continued to be a good bet, though Jayasuria was quite subdued this year.
40ST Jayasuria (SL) (1) 19RN Ten Doeschate (Neth) (2) 232NJ Astle (NZ) (3) retiredME Trescothick (ENG) (4) 16AC Gilchrist (AUS) (5) *These rankings are based on Players who've played 5 matches or more.
These rankings are prepared solely by myself based on owned algorithms.