My XI - Wasim Akram: Adam Gilchrist - 'The most dangerous batsman in ODIs' 

Gilly was the best batsman I personally saw after Sachin. Yes Sachin is compared to Ponting Mark Waugh and Lara or rather they are compared to him but Gilly was a class apart. In a league of his own. Different from the rest. As Wasim rightly said he was very attacking batsman and as he mentions he was more dangerous because he did play not like a pinch hitter or slogger. His attack was based on genuine shots. And very importantly if he got going it was definitely game over. I know the Aussie team of his era was great and had world class bowlers and batsmen but Adam Gilchrist was the main difference between the Aussies and the rest of the team. If you look closely at his time with them I am sure in 30-40% of matches Gilchrist would have been the difference. He made the winning difference. And his attitude both on and off t he field was never of a superstar or great batsman. He never had the look or arrogance of being a great player. Unlike most Aussie players he was never over aggressive with his body language or words. Always cheerful and easy on the pitch and off it. The best compliment I heard for him was when Vijay Amritraj said Gilchrist is the Goran Ivanisevic of cricket. Very rarely do you see sportsmen praise sportsmen of other disciplines. But Amritraj was right. As Ivanisevic was known as Scud after Russian scud missiles for his 100 mph serve, the ball really came like a bullet out of Gilly's bat.

that too when he himself has got wicket of the batsman so many times...

He was the best fast bowler of his generation.He was better than ALL the West Indians,Waqar Younis and Alan Donald.

@johnnytheprick he averaged 23 with the ball. The stats speak for themselves.

@johnnytheprick so you're getting mad my praise wasn't strong enough?

@johnnytheprick i mean this ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WvjUkUTreks.html

No batsmen troubled Akram. He is just being humble .

Yep!,six footer,alike stocky rod marsh,or smallest, Steve rixon

He's around 6'1 lol always thought he was somewhat short as I was used to seeing him beside McGrath and gillespi etc who are 6'5 no less

Is your height 5.3

@@ssk58607 yeh especially alongside Mathew Hayden, he looked short

Did you and Gilly kiss on the lips?

true

Most definitely. Funny thing is I am sure Gilchrist would build Akram up the same way.

Sanga was one of the most elegant Southpaw along with Saaed Anwar. He can be anything but boring.

No he did not. Romesh Kaluwithrana did that like half a decade before him. That too against Australia. Not to mention Moin Khan either

@@sugs1191 what a load of absolute shit. Even Ian Healy had a better batting average than Kaluwithitrana around 27. Moin Khan was just another average test keeper of little note. Gilchrist averaged mid 50's for much of his career and finished just under 50. Kaluwithrana is already forgotten by the world. Gilchrist is the greatest keeper/batsman in history. Thats just a fact.

Any cricket team, doesn't matter whether it's all time test, ODI, or T20 Gilchrist is everyone's keeper Batman's. If you don't pick him, well your a fool

True, Gilly is a trendsetter. He changed life of WKs and influenced generations

@@thatsbollox Romesh is just a quick starter, but he rarely converts that and he fell quickly. Gilly not only starts, he finish them quickly if bowlers doesn't take his wicket. Average is not an issue, Even Sanath had below average. These numbers will have nothing impact. Players like Gilly, Sanath are on different level They're impact players. Numbers don't show real facts. These 2 have done more to Cricket than any other best 10 batsmen in the list. Don't involve the crap numbers with the impact. Players like Babar, will score 100s and will score more runs, what is the use? if team is not winning or they wont be able to influence.

I couldn't agree more.

ahmed sarosh Faiz dhoni

Mark Boucher also

@@AhmedRaza-tc4cv was now way near Gilchrist.. however Dhoni was special in other aspects

Kumar may of surpassed him

Gilly,sanga,Boucher and dhoni.its difficult to choose one.

Mack3nzie Dravid I loved Gilly as much as anyone but the only batsman that was better to watch was Viv

Jayasuriya, aravinda de silva, azharuddin were all better to watch imo.

Harsh Pathak bro Virender Sehwag?

Ruchir Mundhra sehwag was more or less a hometrack bully

I am not a big Sehwag fan but he did score centuries everywhere. Even Gilchrist averages less than 30 in India and England

of all the batsman I have seen I would liken Aravinda De Silva the most to Viv Richards, Gilchrist would be a close second

Sir Viv 🇦🇬 and Gilchrist 🇦🇺 What a duo! From a Kiwi 🇳🇿👍

The last two years really damaged his avg. Dude was averaging like 57-58 till 2005-06

And face reverse swing which is more dangerous than regular swing. Further, hitting a boundary of an older ball is harder than the new ball because the older ball becomes soft. So, Giilly's achievements can never be underrated.

sangkkara fans are gay

Sangakarra only wins the longevity award because Gilchrist didn't get selected for his first Test match until a few days before his 28th birthday (his was born Nov 14 1971, Test debut Nov 4 1999). Sangakarra played his first Test at age 22.

Never got him out in Tests, shows the magnitude of Akram.

Nishant Shivanand he wasn't even the best Australian batsman agaibst pace bowling - Ricky ponting was better. Flintoff kind of ended his career and Akram and Akthar seemed to have an edge on him. I don't think he faced Wasim and Waqar at their peaks either regularly. I rate Gilly highly but I think he was a bit fortunate that he didn't face Ambrose, mcgrath or Lee amongst others. In my estimation Aravinda De Silva and Ponting were the two best players of pace bowling I have seen

Sugan Sivagnanam true I’d include Inzamam along with ponting and De silva to be the best batsman when facing pace bowling

@@sugansivagnanam7523 Gilly faced Ambross-Walsh too. Although those were bowling wickets, very low-scoring series but he could smash them anywhere in the field. Gilly smashed Shoib several times in his pick career and pulled some brilliant hundreds against him. Sometimes it looked like he used to pick Shoib's length like a spinner. You said Ponting was the best in Australia regarding playing pace, which isn't true. Ponting struggled against Harmisson in the 2005 series and got smashed on his chick. But Gilchrist hammered a brutal hundred in ODI in that year against Harmy, and then he got a hundred in 57 balls in Test also. Flintoff was able to get him out in that series, not because he scared off his bowling, pace, or swing but more for Gilly's overconfidence in cutting Flintoff from the beginning. If he had just refrained himself from cutting Flintoff at the beginning of the inning to settle himself first, the story would be a lot different. He proved it later in 2006 and 07 against Flintoff. You can call it a bad patch, but you cannot tell he struggled against Flintoff.

Gilchrist scored 81 on his debut too

Sehwag is still better than him.

@@Ali2Aalimay be ! But Gilchrist isn't a normal human being ! His left hand sawg and attacking is still the best

Before T20, Gayle was just another batsman. But after T20, he changed his batting style and the beast in him came out.

And no wicketkeeper. Brilliant

​@@kamalhusain7082 abd is WK

PEELA dude he won 2 World Cup on his own

r u sure?

Yes Ranchi boy is best with his all round ability

That's the usual case with Australian Cricket. Many many superstar players didn;t get chance. Some of them got very late - Mike Hussey, Hayden, Symonds, etc. Its the level of Competition in Aus cricket at that time.

@@Ali2Aali I disagree with you. I am a Pakistani and I watched all those matches live, and they were painful to watch. He really is telling the truth that no matter what kind of delivery they bowled, they got hammered. Gilchrist would even pick those impossible looking deliveries with so much movement very easily and cleanly, which most of the batsmen would fail to pick. Of course a lot of bowlers got him out. But compare that to how many innings he played against them and how many runs he scored and how much damaged he caused, both psychologically and in terms of runs. The other important thing to consider is that, Gilchrist's role at the top was to not necessarily play long innings, but to score as many runs as quickly as possible, and a lot of times he perished to average looking bowlers while attempting that.

@@alikhawar520You are right. Ali2Ali is biased. Gilchrist was like Sir Viv. He would destroy Wasim, Shoaib, Waqar and all of them. Gilchrist is the legend of the game. According to me the top 4odi batsman are : Viv , Sachin, Gilchrist and ponting . Special mentions are Mark Waugh, Azharuddin, Kohli and dean jones .

Gilchrist smashed every pak great bowler

Lo, have watched Gilly keep😆😆😆Only Boucher can equal Gilly in Keeping, none will match Gilly in keeping.

Muhammad Tahir Sangakara Bangladesh Zimbabwe basher.lol 😂😂 zero match winning centuries in Australia or England

Sanga averages 32 in test when he kept wickets..he played mostly as a pure batsman..whereas gilly change the role of wicket keeping batsman..

Dumb, averages doesn't matter, Sanga never scored plenty of runs in Australia, South Africa while Gilly Scored centuries in India, Sri lanka

It's not about average. Sanga not kept wickets in test for most of his time. He just played as batsman. Gilly comes at no 7 and whacked all over park who averages 47 in the era of great australia batting line up is something extraordinary.

Lol 😆😆don't cry. He showed the entire World that he used a Squash ball. If he doesn't show it to the world, none of the fuking guys like will know. That was a Gentleman!!

I think u r a SriLankan and cant digest 2007 wcup final defeat.

Nasir Ali Nope wasim is incomparable as a bowler

Nasir Ali bhayi comparison mat karo they are legends. But after 1995 back injury waquar lost his karisma. Still good but not the same bowler last 5/6 years till 2003 .lost his pace completely he used to bowled those magical swinging balls which changes direction through air at the very last moment speed more than 86 km/h .Win so many matches for the team.Now days people won't believed that in 1990s fast bowlers win crunch games defending totals.i.e. 50 balls 40 runs to win for opposite team wasim waquar the bowler but give win to pak with magical bowling.fast but clean bowling action hats off

+citizenxgen especially when he can't english

A Khan "especially when he can't english"R.I.P English

Genius, that's for better grip and any cricketer can do it, like Malinga throwing ball instead of bowling like Vaas

SHAHZADA SHAMS lol..you are comparing a flat track bully with a Australian legend.

nishit gupta aus mai 2015 ke world cup mai bowling pitch par lagatar 4 century tera bap mara tha na second heighest run scorer in world avz 57 14000 run in odi har chij mai sanga usse behter hai jaker record check kar le dono ka burbak cricket ki a b c bhi jante hai ki nahi

Sanga great but Gilchrist was dangerous opener world