#2 Sourav Ganguly
Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly scored 11,363 runs in just 311 ODIs, at an average of 41.02 and a strike rate of 73.7. Apart from his inspiring leadership, the left-hander was also very capable with the ball in hand, and picked up exactly 100 wickets at an economy rate of 5.06.
Dada was a useful medium-pacer who had the knack of picking up crucial wickets and even took two 5-wicket hauls in ODIs. One of these 5-fors was a spectacular 5/16 against arch-rivals Pakistan in the 3rd ODI of the 1997 Sahara Cup.
Ganguly left behind a legacy that cannot be represented adequately in numbers, with his impact on Indian cricket transcending statistics. But what the stats do show is that the current BCCI President was a highly underrated al-rounder.
#1 Sachin Tendulkar
When a young Sachin Tendulkar approached Dennis Lillee at the MRF Pace Foundation with the aspiration of becoming a fast bowler, the Aussie great advised him to focus on his batting, which was precocious at the time. But the Master Blaster could have become a successful bowler had he concentrated on honing his abilities at the other end of the pitch.
In his legendary 463-ODI career, Tendulkar scored 18,426 runs at an average of 44.83 and strike rate of 86.23, with 49 hundreds - these are stats everyone knows. But the great man also scalped 154 victims at an economy rate of 5.1, with two 5-fors to his name.
Bowling all three of medium pace, off-spin, and leg-spin, Tendulkar bamboozled the best of batsmen over the course of his international career. Had the weight of expectations on his shoulders from a batting perspective been slightly lesser, we could have seen the man from Mumbai become one of the best all-rounders of all time.
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