Sangakkara - how good will he be at the end of his career?

Where will he rate? Obviously he's given up the gloves now but will he be up there with the likes of Gilchrist?

He's 30 now so has at least 5 or 6 years left.

Currently has nearly 6,000 runs at 55.73. Could break the 10,000 run mark and probably will.

Looking at his record he averages:

42 vs Aus
36 vs England
40 vs India
63 vs NZ
83 vs Pak
54 vs SA
59 vs West Indies.


Only hole is England, which he's rectifying as we speak. Centuries against everyone except for England too.

What a player.

Lara Lara Laughs wrote:Where will he rate? Obviously he's given up the gloves now but will he be up there with the likes of Gilchrist?

He's 30 now so has at least 5 or 6 years left.

Currently has nearly 6,000 runs at 55.73. Could break the 10,000 run mark and probably will.

Looking at his record he averages:

42 vs Aus
36 vs England
40 vs India
63 vs NZ
83 vs Pak
54 vs SA
59 vs West Indies.


Only hole is England, which he's rectifying as we speak. Centuries against everyone except for England too.

What a player.

Why Gilchrist?

Because he's a great batsman.

Lara Lara Laughs wrote:Because he's a great batsman.

Come on, you're comparing them as keeper-batsmen . . .

Remember that Sanga only averages 41 when keeping.

So why not compare him to a specialist batsman?

Probably the best batsman SL have produced.

doremi wrote:Probably the best batsman SL have produced.

Yep, probably is.

Ponting then. Will he be as good as Ponting or Dravid?

Well, it's him or deSilva. I'd prefer Sanga to him.

When not keeping wicket Sanga averages 98 from 22 tests including the current test.

He will be challenging for the title of best batsman ever to have been his country's regular keeper. He would probably be third at the moment behind Flower and Walcott and ahead of Gilchrist and Ames. He would have the two ahead of him in his sights if he maintains current form for 2 or 3 years.

ten years after wrote:When not keeping wicket Sanga averages 98 from 22 tests including the current test.

He will be challenging for the title of best batsman ever to have been his country's regular keeper. He would probably be third at the moment behind Flower and Walcott and ahead of Gilchrist and Ames. He would have the two ahead of him in his sights if he maintains current form for 2 or 3 years.

Why do you keep bringing his keeping into it?

He was never really a keeper anyway, more a stopper.

Very good move to make him a pure batsman.

I disagree pdy. He improved tremendously and kept brilliantly to Murali for a long time. He wasn't great by any means but towards the end of his keeping career, he was around the same level as Gilly, IMO.

he looked ordinary everytime i watched him.

Win win anyway, Prasanna Jayawardene is a top draw keeper and sanaga is making tons of runs as a batsman.

taipan wrote:

ten years after wrote:When not keeping wicket Sanga averages 98 from 22 tests including the current test.

He will be challenging for the title of best batsman ever to have been his country's regular keeper. He would probably be third at the moment behind Flower and Walcott and ahead of Gilchrist and Ames. He would have the two ahead of him in his sights if he maintains current form for 2 or 3 years.

Why do you keep bringing his keeping into it?

First time i've mentioned it.

But it's reasonable to do so surely, since he has kept wicket in 2/3rds of his tests. I've nominated a category in which he may finish as the greatest ever.

What category?

Players who average twice as much when they don't keep wickets?[/b]

ten years after wrote:

taipan wrote:

ten years after wrote:When not keeping wicket Sanga averages 98 from 22 tests including the current test.

He will be challenging for the title of best batsman ever to have been his country's regular keeper. He would probably be third at the moment behind Flower and Walcott and ahead of Gilchrist and Ames. He would have the two ahead of him in his sights if he maintains current form for 2 or 3 years.

Why do you keep bringing his keeping into it?

First time i've mentioned it.

But it's reasonable to do so surely, since he has kept wicket in 2/3rds of his tests. I've nominated a category in which he may finish as the greatest ever.

And by the time he retires he will have scored the majority of his runs when not keeping.

Why do you keep talking about his keeping?

The guy is simply a machine at the moment.

As long as he can keep sustaining it for another three years, then he will go down as a great.

Plus he's batting at first drop which makes a huge difference.

taipan wrote:

ten years after wrote:

taipan wrote:

ten years after wrote:When not keeping wicket Sanga averages 98 from 22 tests including the current test.

He will be challenging for the title of best batsman ever to have been his country's regular keeper. He would probably be third at the moment behind Flower and Walcott and ahead of Gilchrist and Ames. He would have the two ahead of him in his sights if he maintains current form for 2 or 3 years.

Why do you keep bringing his keeping into it?

First time i've mentioned it.

But it's reasonable to do so surely, since he has kept wicket in 2/3rds of his tests. I've nominated a category in which he may finish as the greatest ever.

And by the time he retires he will have scored the majority of his runs when not keeping.

He may achieve this in the next test match. The difference is currently 220.

I guess he's in with a real chance of replacing Ponting as the worlds number 1 ranked batsman after this Test.

Henry wrote:I guess he's in with a real chance of replacing Ponting as the worlds number 1 ranked batsman after this Test.

he will still be behind the great Kallis

Sangakkara - how good will he be at the end of his career?

Not very good, I'll wager.
The eyesight will have gone, the timing off, the footwork slower and, in general, he'll be shuffling around like most top quality mortal batsmen prior to retirement seeking a final pay-packet before the statisticians big them up.

He is, however, right now - a bloody fabulous batsman to watch.
In a rich vein of form and striking the ball cleanly once given a chance (or two) by the fielders.
But again like most mortals, he will hit an 'orrible patch when criticism will be rife and calls for his replacement loud (as happened lately).

So .... let's not get too carried away.

Sri Lanka must be starting to get a tab worried about how reliant they are becoming on him.

In the space of two test matches they will have lost attapatu and sanath and you have to wonder what Sri lanka are going to do when sanga's hot streak cools down.

Sanga is a wonderful player - but two consecutive double-hundreds (and both not out) against the might of Bangladesh does wonders for a player's average!