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Sourav Ganguly or Shakib al Hasan? Who is the greatest Bengali-origin cricketer ever?

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Namhin

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Sourav Ganguly had been widely considered to be greatest cricketer of Bengali origin. Shakib, however, imo is giving "dada" a run for his money for at this stage of his career. Can Shakib be compared with Ganguly? If not, is Shakib on his way surpassing him when he hangs up his boots?
 
The only reason for comparison is Bengali origin as a biased fan its Ganguly for me coz he brought in the fighting spirit..
 
What's the point?

Next we will discuss who is the better alrounder around 10km radius in timbaktu.
 
Me as an Indian would say Ganguly. I am sure many Bangladeshis would say Shakib.

You can't compare two completely different cricketers. It has to be apples to apples.
 
ak619 said:
Me as an Indian would say Ganguly. I am sure many Bangladeshis would say Shakib.

You can't compare two completely different cricketers. It has to be apples to apples.
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You are correct. Both are different types of players. Ganguly was an opening batsman and Shakib is a full all-rounder. Not a valid comparison.
 
sweep_shot said:
You are correct. Both are different types of players. Ganguly was an opening batsman and Shakib is a full all-rounder. Not a valid comparison.
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One also has to factor in leadership and captaincy into this because that's a big part of what made Ganguly a modern day legend.
 
sweep_shot said:
You are correct. Both are different types of players. Ganguly was an opening batsman and Shakib is a full all-rounder. Not a valid comparison.
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This.


But Shakib is miles better ARL, already. But Shakib is still playing and will be next ODI captain for BD and most likely to play next WC. By then he might well win few icc events and have scored thousands of more runs and taken hundreds of more wickets. InshAllah.

Shakib Al Hasan could go down as the greatest Bengali player in the history of the game, by 2023!
 
I used to be a Ganguly fan in the early 00s. I watched many of the matches when Ind to play England in UK, back then there used to be Natwest series. Gangulys style was attacking, entertaining to watch. Hence why I use to like Ind before. I remember natwest final 2002 that was epic. Ganguly transformed India cricket in many ways. 2003 WC he was in good form, his six hitting against the spinner was a delight to watch. I Didn’t know he was a Bengali till mid 2000.
 
Hasan2K8 said:
I used to be a Ganguly fan in the early 00s. I watched many of the matches when Ind to play England in UK, back then there used to be Natwest series. Gangulys style was attacking, entertaining to watch. Hence why I use to like Ind before. I remember natwest final 2002 that was epic. Ganguly transformed India cricket in many ways. 2003 WC he was in good form, his six hitting against the spinner was a delight to watch. I Didn’t know he was a Bengali till mid 2000.
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Are there are no Ganguly's in Desh? That is a very popular surname.
 
Completely different roles for both.

Ganguly was a quality batsmen, better than Shakib easily. Ganguly was influentiental captain too. But Shakib is a tremendous all-round cricketer. Arguably the best spin bowling AR ever. A genuine allrounder will obviously be more valued than a specialist batsman.
 
Executioner said:
Completely different roles for both.

Ganguly was a quality batsmen, better than Shakib easily. Ganguly was influentiental captain too. But Shakib is a tremendous all-round cricketer. Arguably the best spin bowling AR ever. A genuine allrounder will obviously be more valued than a specialist batsman.
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But don't forget that Ganguly was a very handy part time bowler too.
 
bujhee kom said:
Shakib is a better player. Ganguly more influencial by far.
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How? Ganguly is one the all-time best Indian players, lead India single-handedly to a better palace after the disaster of match-fixing sags of 1999. Shakib might be a better bowler than him and but not even close as a batsman.
 
Executioner said:
Completely different roles for both.

Ganguly was a quality batsmen, better than Shakib easily. Ganguly was influentiental captain too. But Shakib is a tremendous all-round cricketer. Arguably the best spin bowling AR ever. A genuine allrounder will obviously be more valued than a specialist batsman.
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Certainly not better than Sanath Jayasuryia.
 
I think Ganguly simply for his contributions to Indian cricket. He was also a mighty fine player until 2002/03.
 
Executioner said:
Completely different roles for both.

Ganguly was a quality batsmen, better than Shakib easily. Ganguly was influentiental captain too. But Shakib is a tremendous all-round cricketer. Arguably the best spin bowling AR ever. A genuine allrounder will obviously be more valued than a specialist batsman.
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Jeez, that is some hyperbole, man. Can you tell me a few of his match-winning all-round knocks against any non-minnow country in the recent past? He has a 40 plus bowling average against all the non-minnow teams except Newzealand and Pakistan in ODIs. That is nowhere close to a quality bowler.
 
Dingolfy said:
Jeez, that is some hyperbole, man. Can you tell me a few of his match-winning all-round knocks against any non-minnow country in the recent past? He has a 40 plus bowling average against all the non-minnow teams except Newzealand and Pakistan in ODIs. That is nowhere close to a quality bowler.
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Yes Shakib has lost his bowling mojo, he was smashed for 50 from 6 overs, a few more overs from him he would have been close to Rashid’s figures. I think Shakib should just bat and we need to get overs from Soumya and Mosaddek
 
Executioner said:
Completely different roles for both.

Ganguly was a quality batsmen, better than Shakib easily. Ganguly was influentiental captain too. But Shakib is a tremendous all-round cricketer. Arguably the best spin bowling AR ever. A genuine allrounder will obviously be more valued than a specialist batsman.
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yep. agree. but i do feel that if Ganguly were not to be a captain, Shakib would make a team ahead of Ganguly.

However, i rate Ganguly as a better batsman by a country mile.
 
captain.hansolo said:
yep. agree. but i do feel that if Ganguly were not to be a captain, Shakib would make a team ahead of Ganguly.

However, i rate Ganguly as a better batsman by a country mile.
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Shakib is a bits and pieces player by Indian standards and wont even make Indian A team let alone Indian senior team that too ahead of bloody Ganguly, who was one of our all time greats. Find me some few match-winning contributions of him against a non-minnow in the recent past and then you will know where he stands vis-a-vis Ganguly.
 
Dingolfy said:
Shakib is a bits and pieces player by Indian standards and wont even make Indian A team let alone Indian senior team that too ahead of bloody Ganguly, who was one of our all time greats. Find me some few match-winning contributions of him against a non-minnow in the recent past and then you will know where he stands vis-a-vis Ganguly.
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Now that you have Dhawan & Rohit opening. Will you pick Ganguly over Dhawan ?
 
Ashraful_Rox said:
Now that you have Dhawan & Rohit opening. Will you pick Ganguly over Dhawan ?
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Dhawan is a hack and is a walking wicket against moving ball. Same reason why he failed in Test cricket. Ganguly is a far better opener than him. The only thing Dhawan has ahead of Ganguly is his power game.
 
Dingolfy said:
But how does that makes Shakib better than Ganguly? When was the last time he had a match-winning performance against a non-minnow?
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I never said Shakib was better, this thread is a joke. Ganguly is better we all know that. Dhawan vs Ganguly is debatable. Dhawan in World Cup matches is a beast compared to Ganguly
 
Ashraful_Rox said:
I never said Shakib was better, this thread is a joke. Ganguly is better we all know that. Dhawan vs Ganguly is debatable. Dhawan in World Cup matches is a beast compared to Ganguly
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Dhawan has an edge over Ganguly in ICC tournaments but as a batsmen I don’t rate him better than Ganguly. He has benefitted lot from the current ODI era where the ball hardly moves and even Australians dish out roads. Whenever there was a slight movement, he was found wanting.
 
Shakib is a gun player and deserves all the praise he gets but despite giving steady performances for years he only recently started giving match winning performances against top teams, someone correct me if i am wrong here. Ganguly during his peak was an ODI giant. An out and out match winner. In terms of influence, stature, match winning ability and sheer impact on the game Ganguly is way ahead. Not to mention one of the most tactically astute captain game has ever seen.
 
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Dingolfy said:
Jeez, that is some hyperbole, man. Can you tell me a few of his match-winning all-round knocks against any non-minnow country in the recent past? He has a 40 plus bowling average against all the non-minnow teams except Newzealand and Pakistan in ODIs. That is nowhere close to a quality bowler.
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He already had few important all-round performances in this world cup.

And also funny how you are removing Pakistan, NZ, SL, WI, Zim from the frame considering these are the only teams he gets to play against regularly.

He has decent Test record as a bowler considering he has very little support from other bowlers.
 
Not sure who was the best end product, but I can tell you Muhammad Ashraful was the most gifted.
 
Though this comparison is really apples to oranges

Purely on quality, Sourav wind hands down.
Shakib is a good player, Bangladeshs best imo but the numbers don't stack up for him against better teams, his bowling in particular against stronger nations just isn't good enough, he's a batting allrounder and not the 'genuine allrounder' he's made out to be. While most teams would kill for a player like him purely for the value he would bring (he's miles better than say a Kedar Jadhav for example) he wouldn't make it into most teams on his bowling alone imo.
 
Executioner said:
He already had few important all-round performances in this world cup.

And also funny how you are removing Pakistan, NZ, SL, WI, Zim from the frame considering these are the only teams he gets to play against regularly.

He has decent Test record as a bowler considering he has very little support from other bowlers.
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He has played 91 ODIs against the non-minnows which is enough sample space to judge him. And he didn't do any earth-shattering performance in those to consider him as the ‘greatest’ spin-bowling AR.

Let him perform something substantial against a non-minnow in a series and then you can hype him up as the ‘greatest’.
 
ahmed16 said:
Though this comparison is really apples to oranges

Purely on quality, Sourav wind hands down.
Shakib is a good player, Bangladeshs best imo but the numbers don't stack up for him against better teams, his bowling in particular against stronger nations just isn't good enough, he's a batting allrounder and not the 'genuine allrounder' he's made out to be. While most teams would kill for a player like him purely for the value he would bring (he's miles better than say a Kedar Jadhav for example) he wouldn't make it into most teams on his bowling alone imo.
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Lol. Kedar Jadhav has better strike rate and average at a bloody number six than Shakib and actually won games against non-minnows. Let him do that first and then hype him up.😂😂😂.
 
In terms of pure impact on the cricket scene in their respective countries, it’s Shakib. While Ganguly did his fair share of rebranding India as an attacking and bold team from the lallu panju team it was in the 90s, Shakib pretty much was Bangladesh cricket for a long time till about 2015 when more quality players were introduced around him. He has been the anchor for Bangladesh for over a decade.
 
Ganguly was a better batsmen and a legendary captain.

Shakib, though, is the next finest all-rounder to come after Jacques Kallis.
 
Itachi said:
What's the point?

Next we will discuss who is the better alrounder around 10km radius in timbaktu.
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rofl! 😂

There are both very good cricketers, one was a top batsman and captain and the other is the no.1 all rounder in the world!
Hard to compare as they are different type of players!
 
Even as an all rounder I think ganguly has a superior performance in a series. In a 5 match series against Pakistan (1997) we defeated them 4-1. Ganguly took 15 wickets and almost 370 runs in that series. He was the highest scoring batsman and highest wicket taking bowler in that series, 4 motm awards too.
 
Ganguly is a way bigger player as of now. So are a lot of other great specialists.

People tend to hype al round contributions. Traditionally cricket has always valued specialists more unless you have an AR of Sobers or Imran’s quality who possessed ATG level skill in at least one aspect of the game.

Wisden rated Tendulkar above Imran after Tendulkar had barely completed 50% of his career, to give you an example.

Coming to Shakib, I like what has achieved for Bangladesh and how he was contributed as a very responsible senior player. He’s truly Bangladesh’s greatest cricketer.

But when you are going to compare him to Ganguly, Mark Waugh level of players you will have to dig deep into his stats and see how he has fared against the best of the best teams with both bat and ball.

From my personal opinion, we have played Bangladesh like 20-30 times in these years, he’s never been a threat with the ball. He could be to some extremely poor teams against spin and that doesn’t make him a great spinner.

With the bag also I can hardly recall any moment where Shakib was extra ordinary against us.

Ganguly won an ODI series against Pakistan with the ball alone in the 90s. He destroyed teams with the bat early in his career. He regressed actually and did not achieve his full potential. His test record is an insult to the talent he had. Should have retired with no less than 30 centuries. I consider him overall a massive under achiever.

Still if you ask most players they would put Ganguly way ahead at this point.

Shakib has contributed well. He’s never been a threat of any kind and his performances against top 3-4 teams are quite average.
 
Too many "He has won X number of series and changed the team so he is a superior cricketer" type of posts in this thread.

I would like to see some raw statistics but no one has been kind enough to put Shakib' bowling and batting averages in tests and ODIs up against Ganguly's batting average so far.

If we are going to compare two player's overall quality and ability then how many series he captained his team to win is irrelevant because that also depends on the quality of teammates one has.
 
Bangladesh_Fan said:
Too many "He has won X number of series and changed the team so he is a superior cricketer" type of posts in this thread.

I would like to see some raw statistics but no one has been kind enough to put Shakib' bowling and batting averages in tests and ODIs up against Ganguly's batting average so far.

If we are going to compare two player's overall quality and ability then how many series he captained his team to win is irrelevant because that also depends on the quality of teammates one has.
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You do understand that you can also post the stats here, don't you?
 
Executioner said:
I'm considering both tests and ODIs. In tests they are neck-neck but Tests I reckon sanath as an allrounder is slightly below.
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I'm assuming you meant "in ODIs they are neck and neck"

Which is a ridiculous statement to make considering one player has 7000 ODI runs and the other has 14,000 runs. Exactly double. And at a much better SR too.

Even in terms of wickets, Sanath has 300+ wickets while Shakib has about 250.

So there's no comparison between the two. Jayasuryia is comfortably ahead in this race.
 
Shakib is under rated for obvious reasons.

A peak ganguly for a couple of years was comparable to the best batsmen to have ever played the game. However he didn't sustain it for long time. Shakib doesn't have that big peak as a batsmen nor as a bowler.
 
Executioner said:
Completely different roles for both.

Ganguly was a quality batsmen, better than Shakib easily. Ganguly was influentiental captain too. But Shakib is a tremendous all-round cricketer. Arguably the best spin bowling AR ever. A genuine allrounder will obviously be more valued than a specialist batsman.
Click to expand...

Not forgetting Sobers, are we. In fact, I would also consider Benaud above Shakib too for now, but I would expect Shakib to overtake Benaud in a couple of years.

If we talk ODIs only, then Shakib is the greatest. Other than Afirdi, I cant think of any spin AR that comes close.
 
Even if Bangladeshis are offered one of the two they’d gladly take Ganguly.
 
Comparing players across different eras is silly IMO - the playing conditions are so different (especially in white ball cricket) between now and then.
 
Ganguly is ahead
I loved the way he played.
His stance was so nice
 
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Sidilicious said:
Not forgetting Sobers, are we. In fact, I would also consider Benaud above Shakib too for now, but I would expect Shakib to overtake Benaud in a couple of years.

If we talk ODIs only, then Shakib is the greatest. Other than Afirdi, I cant think of any spin AR that comes close.
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Jayasuriya?
 
Nikhil_cric said:
Jayasuriya?
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Of course. Growing up in the 90s, which Indian fan will forget the thumping he used to give to Srinath and Prasad.

Jayasuriya vs Shakib is close to call. Jaya the batsman is better, but Shakib does edge it with the ball.

For now, its Jayasuriya IMHO, but Shakib will overtake him the way he is playing.
 
It will be Ganguly. If BD miraculously win this WC then It will be Shakib.
 
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Shakib easily

Ganguly was a very fine ODI batsman but he never was at any point in time the # 1 batsman in the world in any format. His highest ranking in ODIs was #2 and in tests it was #8. Ganguly is hardly mentioned when batting greats of the past are discussed.

Shakib on the other hand has been ranked #1 all-rounder in both tests and ODIs for a good amount of time. Shakib gets extra points for being world class while mostly playing for a minnow team.
 
For this you need to ask the question on their records in toughest form of cricket. Test Cricket. Has Sakib scored runs or taken wickets and captained his team to wins abroad. No.

Sakib is a decent bowling AR who is playing great role for his team. But in overall cricketing context, he is not a footnote. Not down to his fault. More because of where Bangladesh have been positioned.
 
Hyperion66 said:
Shakib is a gun player and deserves all the praise he gets but despite giving steady performances for years he only recently started giving match winning performances against top teams, someone correct me if i am wrong here. Ganguly during his peak was an ODI giant. An out and out match winner. In terms of influence, stature, match winning ability and sheer impact on the game Ganguly is way ahead. Not to mention one of the most tactically astute captain game has ever seen.
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This.. 👏 👏 and let us not forget that he took over indian cricket at its lowest during the fixing allegations and gave us 6-7 match winners like Sehwag, Yuvi, Zaheer, Kaif and many others during his stint as a captain... What is shakib's achievement as a captain in the last 5 yrs?
 
The_Odd_One said:
Shakib easily

Ganguly was a very fine ODI batsman but he never was at any point in time the # 1 batsman in the world in any format. His highest ranking in ODIs was #2 and in tests it was #8. Ganguly is hardly mentioned when batting greats of the past are discussed.

Shakib on the other hand has been ranked #1 all-rounder in both tests and ODIs for a good amount of time. Shakib gets extra points for being world class while mostly playing for a minnow team.
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List his achievements as a captain in all forms of cricket including test cricket? Has he won anything for his country outside of Bangladesh?
 
Bengali origin, Punjabi origin, Marathi origin ? What is this ? Please do not try to bask in reflected glory.
 
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