Top 5 highest rated Indian batters of all-time
India has been lucky enough to produce a lot of high-class batters from generation to generation and the competition and quality of domestic cricket in India deserve credit as well. The Indian batters have been able to dominate world-class bowling attacks in the past as well and rarely, the top ten rankings for batters do not feature an Indian batter. Let us look into the top five highest-rated Indian batters of all time in terms of ICC rankings.
Cheteshwar Pujara – 888 points
Cheteshwar Pujara might be a surprise name in the list, and despite not reaching the number one position in ICC test rankings, he has made it to the all-time ICC highest ratings for India. His patience was rewarded in 2017 with 888 rating points for batters and he did have a fantastic time in the year with more than 1000 runs in the format.
Rahul Dravid – 892 points
Rahul Dravid was India’s saviour when the conditions got tough and he made it to the number one position in ICC rankings in just his third year in international cricket in 1999. However, Dravid reached his career-best rating points of 892 in 2005 when he scored a massive 270 against Pakistan and had a brilliant year across formats as well. Dravid, nicknamed ‘The Wall’ is among the greatest Test batters of all time.
Sachin Tendulkar – 898 points
Sachin Tendulkar is among the all-time greatest cricketers to have played the game and with more than 34,000 international runs, he almost holds every record in the book. The batting legend had attained 898 points in February 2002 against Zimbabwe and it remained his highest despite coming close to the landmark a few times. He scored 1392 runs in the year and it is a surprise, that he wasn’t able to go past 900 points despite being very consistent.
Sunil Gavaskar – 916 points
Sunil Gavaskar is considered to be one of India’s all-time greatest batters and he had a purple patch in September 1979 against England. He had a brilliant year, scoring centuries after centuries, and was the No. 1 ranked batsman as well. With more than 1000 runs in two consecutive years, Gavaskar attained 916 points in ICC rankings which is still the second-highest for Indian batters.
Virat Kohli – 937 points
No wonder, Virat Kohli holds the first spot in the list as he has been a run machine for India since his international debut in 2008 and is likely to break a lot more all-time records in the coming years. The right-hander attained 937 points in ICC rankings in the 2018 tour of England and was at the peak of his powers from 2016 to 2018 as he scored runs for fun.