20 Years of Indian Cricket (1992-2012) - Highest Run Scorers & Wicket Takers

Earlier this morning I got into a little to and fro on Twitter about whether Sachin should carry on and if it's time MSD called it a day based on form? This led to digging up some numbers on Stats Guru. The complete details are available below: Highest Run Scorers (Test, ODI, T20 and overall) and Highest Wicket Takers (Test, ODI, T20 and overall) from 1992 to 2012. You can play around with the numbers by clicking here.

For me the main highlights were as follows:

Batting 

1) We cannot overemphasize how much the team has depended on Sachin over the past twenty years. Genius is one thing, but being a genius for twenty years, consistently takes you to a different level.

2) If it required any more highlighting, Rahul Dravid deserved less attention than anyone else would have by not only being the highest scorer (all forms combined) 6 years (5 of them in a row - 2002-06) but also being the highest scorer in ODIs (a format he was apparently not good enough to make the playing 11) for 3 years (in a team with Sachin, Sourav, Laxman, Sehwag and Yuvraj at their peak). Also, he made his exit by being the highest scorer in Tests during his last year. Way to go.

3) Sourav Ganguly's comeback in 2007 (highest Test scorer, and also overall) after being in the wilderness for two years, is just a script waiting to be made into a movie.

4) There is no denying Virat Kohli's future. If he can look back at the last couple of years by the time he retires and calls it "not too bad" he's a legend.

5) Back to Sachin, highest scorer in both forms of the game, in 5 of the 10 years from 1992-2002, is perhaps a feat that will not be repeated again

Bowling 

1) Anil Kumble has been to Indian bowling almost what Sachin has been to the batting. Given the batsman focused nature of the game he hardly got the attention he deserved.

2) The present state of our bowling reflects in the stats from the past few years - lack of consistency. And if R. Ashwin is to become the greatest bowler we have in the team, it will remain like that for a while.

3) If we had one magical bowling year by anyone during this year it was Harbhajan Singh in 2001. The only 100+ wickets in a year spell.

CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE CHARTS

Of course there's a lot more that can be gleaned from the data. Look forward to your insights.