Indian batsmen, as they say, have scored truckloads of runs in international cricket. The subcontinent team has produced some of the greatest batsmen in world cricket and have been doing so since their inception at the highest level way back in 1932. A person who doesn’t want to measure a batsman by his stats but just his impact, would remain in a state of confusion to decide who the greatest among them was and what made him stand apart from the rest.
In fact, it wouldn’t be easy for him/her to decide even though he looked at the stats. These batsmen have impressive numbers under their belt and that have come with their incredible performances for India for years and years of their careers. We take a stride in that direction and find out who the Top 2 Indian middle order batsmen of all time are, of course across formats.
Here’s the list:
1) Rahul Dravid - ‘The Wall’ has played over 500 matches for India and became the permanent sheet anchor of the side for close to 16 years of his international career. He batted in the middle order over 90% of his innings and scored more than 90% of his runs there. If there was a legend for each batting position, Rahul Dravid was the one for No. 3 in Test cricket. His batting was suitable in any conditions.
He scored 22,171 runs in the middle order in 548 innings at an average of 45.80 including 134 fifties and 43 hundreds with a highest score of 270 in Tests and 153 in ODIs. He also batted in the middle order in his lone T20I for England and scored 31 off just 23 balls. He scored 3169 of those runs against West Indies in just 70 innings at an average of 55.59. He scored 7 centuries and 21 half-centuries against the Caribbean men.
2) Virat Kohli - The current Indian captain has taken over the mantle from Sachin Tendulkar and has been the nation’s batting maestro in all three formats. Arguably the best batsman in the current era, Kohli has almost always batted in the middle order irrespective of the format. He has made No. 3 position his own in limited-overs cricket and No. 4 in the longest format.
The Delhi-boy has scored 21,493 runs in the middle order in 442 innings at an excellent average of 57.42. None of the other Indian middle order batsmen have even managed to achieve an average of 50 with at least 10 innings while Kohli has managed over 57 even after playing more than 400 innings. He has hit a total of 70 centuries and 102 half-centuries batting in the middle order for India.
Don’t forget to keep checking Live cricket score to watch the Indian skipper in action.
3) Sachin Tendulkar - The only reason one finds Tendulkar at the third position is because he opened the batting in ODIs and scored over 15000 runs in those matches. Most of his performances in the middle order have been in the Test format. The Mumbaikar had Dravid in awe before he made his international debut and inspired the generation of Kohli to take up cricket. His international career lasted over 24 years and played over 450 matches.
In the middle order, Tendulkar scored 18,885 runs in 435 innings at an average of 49.17 including 55 hundreds and 89 fifties. His highest scores in the middle order are 248* in Tests and 140* in ODIs. He amassed 3816 runs against Australia in 80 innings and scored 11 centuries and 18 half-centuries. He averaged 53 against the mighty Australians whenever he batted in the middle order.
