Legends who were never ranked first in the ICC Rankings

[Unbiased-Fan]

Very surprising to see some absolute legends of the game who were never ranked first in the rankings.


Here are some notable greats who were never ranked 1st in rankings despite tremendous record..

Tests :-
Wasim Akram - 2 (Highest ranking)
Graeme Smith- 2
Alastair Cook- 2
Anil Kumble - 2
Kapil Dev- 2
Rangna Herath- 2
Harbhajan Singh- 2
Kevin Pietersen- 3
VVS Laxman- 6
Geoffrey Boycott- 3
Desmond Haynes- 2
Cheteshwar Pujara- 2
David Warner- 3
Mohd Azharuddin- 3
Courtney Walsh- 2
Mitchell Johnson- 2


ODIs :-
Waqar Younis- 2
Saurav Ganguly-2
Inzamam Ul Haq- 3
Rohit Sharma- 2
Aravinda Desilva- 3
Saeed Anwar- 5
Ross Taylor- 3
Hershelle Gibbs- 5
TM Dilshan- 3
Kumar Sangakkara- 2
Joe Root- 2
Lasith Malinga- 8
Shahid Afridi- 6

Very Surprising ����

 

[Ab Fan]

And that is why they are not ATGs.

Fair to say that those who were not ranked no.1 at any point of their career shouldn't be considered all time great with a few rare exceptions :-

Tests :-
Wasim Akram ( peer reputation)
Courtney Walsh ( longevity)

ODIs :-

None of the mentioned are all-time greats yet.

Waqar as all-format can be given that title, for Rohit in ODIs, time will decide and rest are country greats but not ATGs.

 

[Shaddy86]

Everyone knows ICC rankings are rubbish. We've had bowlers less than half the skills of Wasim and Waqar Ranked No 1. These rankings are all about who can hit a longer purple patch rather than a successful career.

 

[marlonbrowndo]

I am genuinely shocked that Waqar was never ranked #1 in ODIs considering how many 5 wicket hauls he has.

 

[ExpressPacer]

VVS is not the legend that Indian fans make him out to be so this is hardly surprising.

 

[MesonK]

lol at Laxman and Pujara being called Legends.

Going by deep filtered stats, Pujara is like 5th best batsman to have come out of Asia in past 2 decades behind Kohli, Younis, Azhar Ali/Mathews.

 

[Ab Fan]

Pujara is a rich man's Azhar Ali.

 

[jeeteshssaxena]

Lasith Malinga's highest ranking is number 8? Quite surprising. He was definitely the premier loi bowler in the world at one point of time.


Curtly Ambrose, Allan Donald and Mcgrath were operating at the same time Akram was, so he was never the best test bowler in the world and the rankings reflect that.

Nothing surprising about Kapil being number two, Imran and Hadlee were definitely better.
Herath, Bhajji, Warner, Pujara, Laxman, Azharuddin were never the best in business although they were great too.

Boycott was the second best opener behind Gavaskar.

Gibbs, Dilshan, root, Afridi, Taylor aren't exactly legends of the loi game.

 

[Majid Khan]

Surprised no mention of Hafeez, would be great if the OP can provide the career best batting ranking for Hafeez in Test and ODI cricket. Not that I’ve ever checked stats when Hafeez has batted, as by default he is no.1 batsman and everyone else follows just based on the quality of his batsmanship , but would be interesting to know if statistics agree ?

 

[battler]

Surprised no mention of Hafeez, would be great if the OP can provide the career best batting ranking for Hafeez in Test and ODI cricket. Not that I’ve ever checked stats when Hafeez has batted, as by default he is no.1 batsman and everyone else follows just based on the quality of his batsmanship , but would be interesting to know if statistics agree ?

Hafeez odi best ranking - 13
Test best ranking - 21

 

[Majid Khan]

Hafeez odi best ranking - 13
Test best ranking - 21

What !?! So all those match winning performances in ODI and test cricket against the likes of Australia and South Africa over the years , didn’t count for much at all?

Hafeez , who had the most secure place as a batsman in the Pakistan Test and ODI teams for the best part of 15 years , a place so secure that even Miandad and Zaheer Abbas would be envious they could not earn such confidence with the selectors in their times.. and he never even broke into the Top 20 test batting rankings in his entire career, and barely touched Top 13 in ODI cricket ?

Now I see what they mean when people say statistics are damned lies.

 

[NishanKonar]

And that is why they are not ATGs.

Fair to say that those who were not ranked no.1 at any point of their career shouldn't be considered all time great with a few rare exceptions :-

Tests :-
Wasim Akram ( peer reputation)
Courtney Walsh ( longevity)

ODIs :-

None of the mentioned are all-time greats yet.

Waqar as all-format can be given that title, for Rohit in ODIs, time will decide and rest are country greats but not ATGs.

Wasim Akram was terrific bowler in ODIs but his test record was bit patchy. Never that those 30 wickets in a 4 test series like Imran Khan or even Waqar Younis

Imran has 40 wickets in 1982 series against India and 26 in 1988 WI series. Waqar ran through England several times and won test matches.

 

[Unbiased-Fan]

Surprised no mention of Hafeez, would be great if the OP can provide the career best batting ranking for Hafeez in Test and ODI cricket. Not that I’ve ever checked stats when Hafeez has batted, as by default he is no.1 batsman and everyone else follows just based on the quality of his batsmanship , but would be interesting to know if statistics agree ?

Surprisingly, Hafeez was top ranked ODI Bowler for some time.. His highest bowling ranking in T20Is was 3..
Impressive

 

[Unbiased-Fan]

And that is why they are not ATGs.

Fair to say that those who were not ranked no.1 at any point of their career shouldn't be considered all time great with a few rare exceptions :-

Tests :-
Wasim Akram ( peer reputation)
Courtney Walsh ( longevity)

ODIs :-

None of the mentioned are all-time greats yet.

Waqar as all-format can be given that title, for Rohit in ODIs, time will decide and rest are country greats but not ATGs.

I am genuinely shocked that Waqar was never ranked #1 in ODIs considering how many 5 wicket hauls he has.

That's the reason i made this thread..
Waqar never topped the charts in ODIs was hard to believe for me despite having 13 five wicket hauls..
Akram who is generally considered as the best ever fast bowler despite never being the no. 1 test bowler..
Hard to digest

 

[Joseph Gomes]

Lasith Malinga's highest ranking is number 8? Quite surprising. He was definitely the premier loi bowler in the world at one point of time.


Curtly Ambrose, Allan Donald and Mcgrath were operating at the same time Akram was, so he was never the best test bowler in the world and the rankings reflect that.

Nothing surprising about Kapil being number two, Imran and Hadlee were definitely better.
Herath, Bhajji, Warner, Pujara, Laxman, Azharuddin were never the best in business although they were great too.

Boycott was the second best opener behind Gavaskar.

Gibbs, Dilshan, root, Afridi, Taylor aren't exactly legends of the loi game.

Malinga is beyond any ranking, he was the best LOI bowler in the world from 2007-2015. The only team that was scared of Malinga was India due to Kohli and Dhoni. Malinga's impact can't be understated, he's a true ODI ATG imo.

 

[hitthestump]

Was the Pak team of the late 80's/90's overrated then? They clearly weren't the best of their era neither as a team nor individually.

Some superstar performances stick in the mind but really what did they achieve other than bashing India?

 

[Nikhil_cric]

Malinga is beyond any ranking, he was the best LOI bowler in the world from 2007-2015. The only team that was scared of Malinga was India due to Kohli and Dhoni. Malinga's impact can't be understated, he's a true ODI ATG imo.

He was nowhere close to being the best LOI bowler in thr world at any point. He averaged nearly 30 in the period you mentioned.

 

[Buffet]

Very surprising to see some absolute legends of the game who were never ranked first in the rankings.


Here are some notable greats who were never ranked 1st in rankings despite tremendous record..

Tests :-
Wasim Akram - 2 (Highest ranking)
Graeme Smith- 2
Alastair Cook- 2
Anil Kumble - 2
Kapil Dev- 2
Rangna Herath- 2
Harbhajan Singh- 2
Kevin Pietersen- 3
VVS Laxman- 6
Geoffrey Boycott- 3
Desmond Haynes- 2
Cheteshwar Pujara- 2
David Warner- 3
Mohd Azharuddin- 3
Courtney Walsh- 2
Mitchell Johnson- 2


ODIs :-
Waqar Younis- 2
Saurav Ganguly-2
Inzamam Ul Haq- 3
Rohit Sharma- 2
Aravinda Desilva- 3
Saeed Anwar- 5
Ross Taylor- 3
Hershelle Gibbs- 5
TM Dilshan- 3
Kumar Sangakkara- 2
Joe Root- 2
Lasith Malinga- 8
Shahid Afridi- 6

Very Surprising ����

Did any of them were really number one? Clearly, there were better test bowlers than Wasim/Kumble/Dev when they played. The same is true for the likes of Root/Sharma/Anwar etc in ODI format.

Legend and being the best during your career is not the same thing. There can be many legends, but not all of them can be the best. Rankings are mostly the right reflection of their standings.

 

[Buffet]

That's the reason i made this thread..
Waqar never topped the charts in ODIs was hard to believe for me despite having 13 five wicket hauls..
Akram who is generally considered as the best ever fast bowler despite never being the no. 1 test bowler..
Hard to digest

Waqar did not really have a great peak in ODI format. Even overall, Waqar was ranked outside of the top 5 in the majority of his career in ODI. Most fans give extra brownie points to Waqar due to his test peak.

Just to make the point. Ntini was not a top bowler, but see the ranking trend of Waqar Vs Ntini,

http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/s...r-Younis-an-ATG-in-ODIs&p=9749787#post9749787

 

[Mainul]

Sorry, i have suspicion about these stats. Did you take it from authentic source?

 

[Unbiased-Fan]

Sorry, i have suspicion about these stats. Did you take it from authentic source?

My source is Cricbuzz and i personally checked every players profile before making the thread.

 

[Usergame]

Everyone knows ICC rankings are rubbish. We've had bowlers less than half the skills of Wasim and Waqar Ranked No 1. These rankings are all about who can hit a longer purple patch rather than a successful career.

Wasim and waqar while bring incredible ltd over bowlers - were overrated in tests imo. Neither are legends of test cricket.
Waqar I feel also never really turned up in odis either when he got taken on. Not really a pressure bowler.

 

[Usergame]

Was the Pak team of the late 80's/90's overrated then? They clearly weren't the best of their era neither as a team nor individually.

Some superstar performances stick in the mind but really what did they achieve other than bashing India?

Yes they were overrated. Some really talented players but I feel they were mentally weak and at times lacked the fight.

 

[Bilal7]

It's clearly very difficult to get to #1 on the ICC rankings but even tougher to get 900+ ratings points.

This is why Hashim Amla is grossly underrated on Pakpassion; #1 in both Test and ODI formats simultaneously and also had a peak of 900+ ratings points in each. An ATG and the best batsman in the world from 2010 to 2014.

 

[Kaddy]

Was the Pak team of the late 80's/90's overrated then? They clearly weren't the best of their era neither as a team nor individually.

Some superstar performances stick in the mind but really what did they achieve other than bashing India?

IMO Pakistan team from mid 80's to mid 90's was actually a very good team, though they could never become undisputed no 1 team for longer period due to West Indies.

But Pakistan's team of late 90's and early 00's is seriously overrated especially in test cricket. Though they performed good/decent in between but losing their home series to almost every country was shambolic.

 

[Kaddy]

Lasith Malinga's highest ranking is number 8? Quite surprising. He was definitely the premier loi bowler in the world at one point of time.


Curtly Ambrose, Allan Donald and Mcgrath were operating at the same time Akram was, so he was never the best test bowler in the world and the rankings reflect that.

Nothing surprising about Kapil being number two, Imran and Hadlee were definitely better.
Herath, Bhajji, Warner, Pujara, Laxman, Azharuddin were never the best in business although they were great too.

Boycott was the second best opener behind Gavaskar.

Gibbs, Dilshan, root, Afridi, Taylor aren't exactly legends of the loi game.

Not to forget Shane Warne (mid 90's) and Waqar Younis (early 90's) also remained 1 ranked bowlers in test cricket. Competition was very tough in the 90's for the bowlers.

 

[Unbiased-Fan]

It's clearly very difficult to get to #1 on the ICC rankings but even tougher to get 900+ ratings points.

This is why Hashim Amla is grossly underrated on Pakpassion; #1 in both Test and ODI formats simultaneously and also had a peak of 900+ ratings points in each. An ATG and the best batsman in the world from 2010 to 2014.

Really great achievement by Hashim Amla..
He is one of the only nine batsman to top Test and ODI rankings simultaneously..
Others to achieve above feet were all time legends like Tendulkar, Lara, Richards, Ponting, Kallis and most recently Virat Kohli (in 2018).

 

[sweep_shot]

ICC player rankings are overrated. These rankings shouldn't be taken seriously.

If someone like Dawid Malan (with all due respect to him) can be #1 T20 batsman, it tells you how faulty the ranking system is.

 

[Justcrazy]

Waqar Younis not there is highly surprising , he was knocking down with yorkers for fun

His 5 wkt hauls and strike rates are in the top 3 ever in the history