India's 10 greatest ODI match-winners
I will start this with an apology. No matter how hard I tried, I can’t fit all the fan favourites in this list. Consider this a purely non-emotional piece, based on the hard stats I have turned and tortured in the last few days. I have had to cut my heart out leaving Rahul Dravid out of this list even though he is one of only three Indian batsmen to score 10000 ODI runs and is in my opinion, the finest sportsman India has ever produced.But, here are some of the factors, I have considered, to separate India’s finest match-winners from the rest. There are players like Ajit Agarkar who have been left out too. Agarkar is one of the unsung heroes in Indian cricket. Very few realise that he is the third most prolific ODI wicket taker for India with an impressive average of 27.85 and has a better win percentage than many of the stalwarts. Fastest to 50 wickets in ODI cricket, he also has 9 four-wicket hauls, the most by any Indian bowler with more than 50 wickets in wins. Yet, we could only pick 10 of the best and most of the players on this list waltz into it with authority based on:Their overall contribution to Indian cricketTheir contribution with bat or ball or both in winsThe number of wins they were part ofThe impact they created in winsTheir style of play and how they were unique with their gifts
#10 Zaheer Khan
| Matches | Wickets | Average | Economy | 4 wicket hauls |
Overall | 194 | 269 | 30.11 | 4.95 | 8 |
Wins | 114 | 189 | 23.87 | 4.61 | 7 |
India’s second most prolific ODI wicket taker in wins, Zaheer Khan was India’s spearhead during the 2003 and 2011 World Cup campaigns. He was fast, accurate and could swing the ball both ways.
His impact on games is clearly seen from the fact that seven of his eight four-wicket hauls have come in wins where he averaged 23.87. Zaheer Khan, a rhythm bowler, saw a massive performance difference between wins and losses.
He has just 80 wickets in 80 matches outside wins, compared to 189 in 114 which is more than 1.5 per game. He could have been India’s greatest ODI bowler had injuries not kept him out of the game frequently.