Top Five Batsmen in World Cup History

Tournaments come and go but none can match the excitement and buzz of the Cricket World Cup that sits at the pinnacle of the cricketing contests. Similar to the FIFA World Cup in football, the ICC Cricket World Cup plays centre stage to a pantheon of contests that determine the best in the business. Teams from across the world undergo a layer of litmus tests to qualify for the Cricket World Cup where the top nations rumble against one another for ultimate glory. 

The tournament not only tests the character of a team but also the constituents that make up the unit. Each player is key to their respective sides but some of them have been able to make it big in the grandest of stages. To perform at the highest level with sheer brilliance, utmost skill, and undying perseverance is something a few individuals have been able to do in the World Cup. In this piece, we shall delve into the top five cricketers who dominated the ODI World Cup with the willow in hand.

1. Sachin Tendulkar | 2278 runs in 45 World Cup matches

A young Tendulkar made his World Cup debut in the 1992 World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand, and it wasn’t a bad campaign. An unbeaten 54 against Pakistan and a gritty 84 against New Zealand were the highlights apart from Tendulkar being the highest scorer for India (81) against Zimbabwe, where the veterans failed to impact. However, India lost five matches in the round-robin stage to get eliminated.

The 1996 World Cup was held in the sub-continent and an in-form Tendulkar carried expectations of his countrymen. He wasted no time living up to it with an unbeaten 127 runs in the opening match against Kenya. Tendulkar’s crucial knocks of 70 against West Indies, 90 against Australia and a brilliant 137 against eventual champions Sri Lanka helped India reach the semis in that World Cup edition.

The 1999 World Cup went past India with a whimper as the Mohammad Azharuddin-led side finished last in the Super Six stage. However, with most players underperforming, Tendulkar still pulled off an unbeaten 140 against Kenya.

India were a new-look side in the 2003 World Cup under the aegis of Sourav Ganguly. India went to the final for the first time since 1983 and it was the same old Tendulkar who led the batting, tallying 673 runs. Whether it be his 152 against Namibia, 50 against England, an iconic 98 against Pakistan or 97 against Sri Lanka, all are part of today's cricketing folklore. Unfortunately, this ended in a heartbreak with Australia beating India in the final.

The 2007 World Cup was a dark chapter with India getting ousted from the group stages with Tendulkar’s unbeaten 57 against Namibia being a short relief for the fans. However, the best was yet to come when India hosted the World Cup 2011 under MS Dhoni’s captaincy.

Many touted it to be Tendulkar’s last World Cup and the fairytale couldn’t have ended any better. Tendulkar was in great touch, scoring two centuries against England and Sri Lanka apart from providing crucial starts of 53 and 85 against Australia and Pakistan in the quarter and semi-final, respectively. Though he couldn’t score big against Sri Lanka in the final, Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni ensured that the Indian legend got a proper send-off from his favourite tournament.

2. Virat Kohli | 1795 runs in 37 World Cup matches 

Making his debut in the 2011 World Cup, Virat Kohli announced himself with a century against Bangladesh at the Shere Bangla International Stadium, Mirpur on February 19. The match was also famous for Virender Sehwag’s blitzkreig of 175 runs that blew the opposition bowler on the curtain raiser. Going on, he scored a fifty against West Indies but one of the underrated knocks was the 35 against Sri Lanka in the final. He came in to bat at a precarious stage and forged a crucial stand with Gautam Gambhir to stabilise the stage for Dhoni and the southpaw to end India’s 280-year-old World Cup drought. 

While Kohli averaged 35.25 during India’s triumphant campaign, the 36-year-old’s batting average never fell below 50 in ICC World Cups in the succeeding editions. Kohli mustered 305 runs from eight innings at a batting average of 50.83 in the 2015 World Cup followed by 443 runs from nine innings as captain where his average read 55.37. The latest of being World Cup 2023 in India where the elegant batter smoked a whooping 765 runs from eleven innings, scoring three centuries and averaging 95.62. Across the three editions, Kohli has stockpiled 1795 runs from 37 innings, which is also the second-best in the world. He has scored five tons at a batting average of 59.83.

His 107 against Pakistan in Adelaide in 2015 was one of the highlighted knocks from the 2015 outing. The Delhi-born also smashed five back-to-back fifties during the 2019 season in the United Kingdom and mustered three tons – against Bangladesh, South Africa, and New Zealand – during the World Cup 2023 under Rohit Sharma’s leadership.

3. Ricky Ponting | 1743 runs in 46 World Cup matches

Having openers like Mark Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, Mathew Hayden and Shane Watson ahead of Ricky Ponting meant that the middle-order batsman hardly got time to build an innings. However, this doesn’t take anything away from the legendary Australian captain who led the side to two titles in 2003 and 2007, with his team remaining unbeaten.

Making his World Cup debut in 1996, a young Ponting was still testing the waters with his only big score being a 102-run knock against West Indies. However, he was the second-highest scorer for Australia in the final with a crucial 45-run innings against a bowling-heavy Sri Lanka, albeit it came in a losing cause.

The 1999 World Cup was relatively silent for Ponting where the star-studded side around him was enough to carry the team to the title. However, Ponting’s 69-run knock against South Africa, after Australia were down to 20/2, is one of the lesser-appreciated World Cup knocks.

Ponting returned in the 2003 World Cup as the captain and established himself as a big-match player. He would score 114 against Sri Lanka in the group stages before making the most important century of his career against India, in the World Cup final. His unbeaten 140 took the result beyond doubt even before India came out to chase a target of 360 runs.

A world-class Australia team would win the 2007 World Cup needing little contribution from captain Ponting, quite similar to the ‘99 WC campaign. Like Tendulkar, the 2011 World Cup was Ponting’s swansong as well. And while he remained silent the entire campaign, he chose another big match (WC quarterfinals versus hosts India) to roar one last time. With the tournament at stake, Ponting scored 104 runs, although it couldn’t stop Australia from getting eliminated.

4. Rohit Sharma | 1575 runs in 28 World Cup matches

Yet another Indian who gleamed with the bat at the grandest of stages, Rohit Sharma amassed 1575 runs from 28 innings in the Cricket World Cup history. His journey to leading the Indian troop would’ve been a fairytale if India had beaten Australia in the finals in 2023. 

Despite being around the Indian team, he was omitted from the 15-man squad during the World Cup 2011, where India were triumphant. A dejected Rohit took to twitter citing, “Really really disappointed of not being the part of the WC squad. I need to move on from here. But honestly it was a big setback. Any views!” 

Years later, the Mumbaikar became a regular in the Men in Blue set up and went on to dominate in the World Cup stage. Making his World Cup debut against Pakistan in 2015, he scored just 15 before making it big against Bangladesh with a mesmerising 137 in the group stages. He aggregated 330 runs from eight innings at an average of 47.14 that season. 

Four years later, under Kohli’s captaincy, Rohit found his breakthrough World Cup season, amassing 648 runs from nine innings at an average of 81.00. He clobbered five hundreds – 122* against South Africa, 140 against Pakistan, 102 against England, 104 against Bangladesh, and 103 against Sri Lanka. Rohit’s form was pivotal in helping India reach the semi-finals before New Zealand and rain dashed their hopes of lifting the silverware. 

The 2023 was special to Rohit and the Indian fans as the World Cup returned to the peninsular nation after twelve years. The skipper had a different role during the campaign under coach Rahul Dravid where Rohit acted as an aggressor at the top of the order and maximised runs during the first powerplay. In the process, he mustered 597 runs from eleven innings at an average of 54.27. The Indian captain belted 131 against Afghanistan, 86 against Pakistan, and 87 against England, among the numerous blistering starts he provided in the tourney. He even gave a solid start in the finals against Australia, scoring 47 off just 31 balls including three sixes and four fours before Travis Head’s unreal catching effort concluded his knock.

5. Kumar Sangakkara | 1532 runs in 47 World Cup matches

Despite being a part of the 2003 World Cup, Kumar Sangakkara didn’t really arrive at the World Cup stage until 2011. The wicket-keeper batsman was largely a bits-and-pieces player for the first two campaigns.

By 2007, however, Sangakkara was a pivotal batsman for Sri Lanka and he started the World Cup with a promising 76 against Bermuda. He would score 56 against Bangladesh and an unbeaten 69 against New Zealand but couldn’t convert good starts into big scores. Sangakkara’s 54 against Australia in the final was a similar instance where he started strongly before fizzling out as his team lost the grip.

A full-fledged Sangakkara would turn up for the 2011 World Cup, where he tallied 465 runs to take his team to the final. He scored his first-ever World Cup ton against New Zealand at Wankhede - a match-defining 111 runs. But, while his brief knocks helped Sri Lanka reach the final, his crucial 48 runs in the final against India did little to help his side. It was all, however, a build-up for the 2015 World Cup.

Sangakkara entered the 2015 World Cup announcing that he would retire post that campaign and he played likewise. He went full throttle from Sri Lanka’s third group match against Bangladesh where he remained unbeaten at 105. He would score three consecutive centuries after that with his scores reading 117*, 104 and 124 against England, Australia and Scotland, respectively, thus taking Sri Lanka to the quarterfinal single-handedly. Unfortunately, the Lankans lost to South Africa, although Sangakkara ended his last World Cup as the second-highest run scorer.