ODI’s Greatest Trios – Where do Shikhar-Rohit-Virat stand?
Comparing India's formidable top order with past greats in ODI Cricket
India displayed their mighty domination in ODI cricket with the 3-1 win over the Windies in the recently concluded series. Virat Kohli was adjudged as the Man of the series for his phenomenal batting effort where he struck three consecutive centuries in the first three matches. He remained the major talking point as he shattered the record of being fastest to score 10,000 runs in ODI cricket.
India’s opening batsman Rohit Sharma hogged the limelight as well with his two centuries. The Hitman struck his 200th six of the ODI cricket career and continued his belligerent batting. Shikhar Dhawan did not have a pleasant outing, but he enjoyed tremendous success in the recently concluded Asia Cup.
These performances raise the question of where does the Indian trio of Rohit-Shikhar-Virat stand in the pantheon of ODI greats. Here is an attempt of comparison based on statistics of the past greats and the current Indian top-order.
#5. Tillakaratne Dilshan - Kumar Sangakkara - Mahela Jayawardene
The golden generation of Sri Lankan batting consisted of the opener Tillakaratne Dilshan and the middle order pair of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. Their union lasted for 15 years starting from the year 2000. Dilshan played 330 ODIs in total while Sangakkara (404) and Jayawardene (448) crossed the 400-ODI mark.
These three batted together for Sri Lanka in 267 ODI matches. In these games, they added 26,204 runs for the island nation. Sangakkara was the leading run-getter among the trio as he accounted for 10,263 of these runs at an average of 44.42. Dilshan contributed 8,051 runs at 38.52 while Jayawardene added 7890 runs at 35.06. Their combined individual batting average* comes to be 39.40.
Sangakkara leads the century tally as well as he scored 20 centuries while batting alongside Dilshan and Jayawardene. Dilshan scored 18 for himself, and Jayawardene completed 10 hundreds. Collectively the trio added 48 centuries and 155 fifties. Their association ceased to exist after Sri Lanka’s defeat against South Africa in the Quarterfinal of the 2015 World Cup.
* - Combined individual batting average = Total runs by three batsmen / (total innings played by three - the number of not outs)