Who was the most elegant, stylish or graceful batsmen of all?

[Harsh Thakor]

Best of the most stylish or elegant batsmen?

Here I am ranking the stylish and elegant batsmen of the game in order of merit.This excludes many greats who were technically great , powerful strikers or great strokemakers. .It just includes the batsmen who were very graceful.Thus the likes of Bradman, Hobbs, Viv Richards,Gavaskar,Tendulkar,Miandad,Dravid ,Border and Ponting excluded.This list ranks the stylists in order of their overall merit and not on the basis of their pure style or elegance.i.e Zaheer or Azhar were more stylish than Greg Chappell or Lara but not equal on merit overall and the same case is between David Gower and Rohan Kanhai. Strange that only 3 of my list of stylists averaged above 50.

Apologize if I have left some great names but remember these choices are subjective.

1.Brian Lara
2.Greg Chappell
3.Victor Trumper
4.Rohan Kanhai
5.Denis Compton
6.Ranjitsinghji
7.V.V.S.Laxman
8.Frank Worrell
9.Martin crowe
10.David Gower
11.Ted Dexter
12.Mahela Jayewaradene
13.Mark Waugh
14.Aravinda de Silva
15.Zaheer Abbas
16.Gundappa Vishwanath
17.Mohammad Azharuddin
18.Majid Khan
19.Saed Anwar
20.Lawrence Rowe

 

[Anik Sharma]

Why all ignore Damien Martin? I question their definition of elegant batting. How they define it actually?

For me Damien Martyn is the best of the most elegant batsmen (close - Saeed and Mazid)

 

[Harsh Thakor]

Why all ignore Damien Martin? I question their definition of elegant batting. How they define it actually?

For me Damien Martyn is the best of the most elegant batsmen (close - Saeed and Mazid)

good choice could have well made it

 

[Cuts_and_cuts_hard]

1. Damien Martyn
2. Brian Lara
3. Mark Waugh
4. Rahul Dravid (I believe he is very overlooked when it comes to elegance and stylishness. He was a defensive and gritty batsman but all his strokeplay was beautiful to watch):

5. VVS Laxman
6. Martin Crowe
7. Rohan Kanhai
8. Saeed Anwar
9. Roy Fredricks
10. Zaheer Abbas

 

[Tusker]

Again?? Last time we discussed Ranji you quietly slipped away without answering the main question ....

)

Thanks for sharing this. Unbelievable.

But hey, he is a better batsman than Kohli and Root because he is batting with a stick bat on uncovered pitches. The fact that he averaged 56 in F/C Cricket with 70 tons sums up the standard of the game at that time. Any half-decent gully batsman of today would have been known as an ATG if he would have played in that era.

This is really comical. He would struggle to average 5 today.

Exactly! And Hence why I do not take anything that Harsh Thakor says seriously. Like [MENTION=77677]IgnitedMind[/MENTION] said it perfectly it is an attempt to sound intelligent by overhyping past players because most of it will not be challenged by anybody.

Past players rank amongst the greatest and could be ranked equal if not better than those of lat 2 decades.It is not I who is saying this,but the most knowledgeabe cricket experts and writers.Do refer to the modern cricket historian or writers.

Tell me why I need to believe anyone when the footage of Ranji is showing him to be worse than a tailender ?

 

[Harsh Thakor]

1. Damien Martyn
2. Brian Lara
3. Mark Waugh
4. Rahul Dravid (I believe he is very overlooked when it comes to elegance and stylishness. He was a defensive and gritty batsman but all his strokeplay was beautiful to watch):

5. VVS Laxman
6. Martin Crowe
7. Rohan Kanhai
8. Saeed Anwar
9. Roy Fredricks
10. Zaheer Abbas

great list. still feel Dravid misses out here anyway well piut on Rahul.Highly debatable.Martyn above Lara?Or list is not in order of merit? well done again.

 

[Tusker]

 

[zain7077]

Very surprised no one has mentioned Mohammad Yousuf.

 

[Smudger]

Lara is not a stylish batsman ,was plain ugly to watch.
The true best elegant batsman is Steve Smith, just so beautiful to watch an unorthodox batsman bat so well . He never looks rushed,is just so pleasing to the eyes
Thpse textbook batsman are just so boring to watch.
All past batsman seem to have same batting style. Old boring TECTBOOK

 

[austerlitz]

7 most elegant batsmen i saw -

Lara
Azharuddin
Ganguly
Anwar
Sangakkara
Mark waugh
Martyn

 

[Harsh Thakor]

7 most elegant batsmen i saw -

Lara
Azharuddin
Ganguly
Anwar
Sangakkara
Mark waugh
Martyn

Good list sangakaara also stylish?

 

[austerlitz]

Good list sangakaara also stylish?

Divine cover drives.
I never liked laxman's style for some reason.

 

[King-Misbah]

Mohammed Yousaf was the most elegant batsman to grace the field. His batting was poetry. He is followed by Sangakara; Sanga also had great timing, strokes and general style. All the above lists are simply rubbish.

 

[giri26]

Lara, Dravid, Laxman, Martyn, Saeed Anwar and Mark Waugh from the players I watched.

 

[Sadevdesai]

They always forget ..... David Gower !!!!!!!

 

[maxamax]

No MoYo?

 

[Hasan123]

From who I have seen, Bell,Moyo,Mahela,Sangakara,and Martyn.

 

[Harsh Thakor]

Most elegant or stylish batsmen of all in my order of merit.

1.David Gower
2.Denis Compton
3.Zaheer Abbas/Mohammad Azharuddin
5.Frank Worrell
6.Victor Trumper
7.Mushtaq Ali
8.Majid Khan
9.Ted Dexter
10.Gundappa Vishwanath
11.Lawrence Rowe
12.Greg Chapell

I may be harsh but David Gower gets the nod by a whisker being a left hander and thus exhibiting more silken grace.He treated the cricket ball like a child caressing the quickest of deliveries to the fence with the most delicate of touches.Denis Compton was simply the magician of batting.Zaheer Abbas and Azharuddin took batting artistry to mythical proportions.Worrell was elegance personified resmbling a ballad dancer.Trumper,Mushtaq ,Vishy and Majid on their day took batting wizardry to another height.Even when destroying opponents Rowe,Dexter and Chappell 's strokes always posessed characteristic grace.

Ofcourse it is subjective but Gower and Compton posessed the English style in marginal contrast to the oriental touch of Zaheer and Azhar.The latter may have been more artistic but perhaps by the slenderest of margins the former were more refined.The order could well be reversed in terms of rating on pure touch art.

Likes of Rohan Kanhai,Mark Waugh and Alvin Kalicharan just miss out.