Who has cricket's best cover drives? | Crickpicks EP 13

[@usersk3579]

That was fun to see everyone playing hot potato to make sure someone else picked Virat. I think a key thing that was missed (in favor of Virat) is variety of different styles of cover drive that each batter has. For example, Virat has three different versions that come to mind for me - the limited bat movement "check" that was mentioned is one of them, but my personal favorite Virat cover drive is the one he plays against spin where he gets a big front stride in and kind of pauses with his wrists cocked so that he can time the wrist release with the ball pitching to keep the ball along the ground while playing inside out. This wristy "pause" cover drive vs spin is pretty unique to him and highly effective. He also has a lofted "finisher" version of the shot that he plays at the death where he lets the full bat flow to lace it over cover for a flat-ish six or one bounce four. While some of the players mentioned may have more aesthetic cover drives, I don't think anyone has weaponized the cover drive to the extent that Virat has with variety and seeking out ways to play the shot. Even with all that, it's tough to beat Kumar Sangakkara or Ian Bell (among players I've watched)

[@introspect623]

He has a bottom handed version of the drive vs pacers. He played it vs Anderson in 2021 Ind tour of Eng. There are a couple of unique things. He can play on the up better than most, play with both top hand and bottom hand vs both spin/pace and lastly he gets to the pitch of the ball so it looks like a punched drive or a check drive. You brilliantly mentioned about variety. This is a rarity in any player.

[@xdarshan]

Weird list but I guess it is coming from "best" = "beautiful". Its got to be a combination of effectiveness and beauty. Kolhi has played the cover drive in so many situations, formats, and pitches that its got to be him. Wolvaardt definitely has to be the best looking cover drive. Also... no mention for KL? Dude can hit a cover drive for 6.

[@sagarhirani4559]

I used to absolutely LOVE Murali Vijay's cover drives. As soon as I read 'best cover drives' I thought of Vijay. I loved watching that dude bat. Not saying he should've been in the list. But I personally loved his cover drive the most.

[@yashdaware2458]

Real Cricket fan

[@tpjpower]

When Estelle said “my first pick is Lara…” I thought this might be a decent list for once. Turns out…

[@sonalkhaitan9690]

My top ten players known for their exceptional cover drives: 1. Sachin Tendulkar 2. Ricky Ponting 3. Kumar Sangakkara 4. Virat Kohli 5. Brian Lara 6. Jacques Kallis 7. AB de Villiers 8. Steve Smith 9. Hashim Amla 10. David Gower

[@johanbotha7462]

JP Duminy has one of my favourite cover drives

[@TerrAqua]

Did they put Kohli and Smriti in the thumbnail 😊just to appease Indians subscribers

[@zuhaibkamal2895]

You mean smriti ?

[@TerrAqua]

Sorry mistake

[@pratikbharadwaj706]

No I Think They Are Trying To Troll Indians

[@zuhaibkamal2895]

@@pratikbharadwaj706 I don't think so they did put them both in the list.

[@bhargav38]

obviously !!!

[@ayushsinha1813]

Markram, Williamson, de Kock, Ganguly, LG Rowe (Not my list, just some names that come to mind)

[@jineshudani401]

Holy shit no Sachin? NO SACHIN? The man made millions and millions of men feel a shiver between their thighs with his cover drive

[@murugesanvivekanandhan1883]

Sachin is known for his straight drive more

[@rollingwithdeep]

Sachin had to put the cover drive away cos he kept getting out playing it 😂

[@SMA265]

On drive is something he owns.

[@shriniwaspatwardhan]

⁠@@rollingwithdeepwas the question “who has the best cover drive” or “for whom is cover drive the best shot”

[@Abhi_0893]

Noo Behram! Should have picked Anwar! So elegant

[@shivamchoudhary6998]

Where is the master? This is blasphemy

[@prachotanei9222]

Sachin had many pretty looking shots in his arsenal. I personally feel that his flick towards midwicket and the straight drive are better than his cover drive, so it's fine to exclude him on the list I guess :P He would ideally end up on the list of every shot in front of the wicket. He was impeccable

[@shivamchoudhary6998]

@@prachotanei9222" no I am outraged" 😂😂. Its fine, just having some fun that's all.

[@charliecaslake3349]

His straight drive was better than his cover drive imo

[@shriniwaspatwardhan]

@@charliecaslake3349was this a list of “for which batters is the cover drive their best shot” or was it “who has the best cover drive”

[@richardray9373]

Hobbs ? Is there footage ?

[@akshatjain8052]

How is Sachin not here! SACHIN!! After straight drive, this is Sachin's shot!!

[@anand120556]

You forgot Saurav Ganguly?

[@rohitseth818]

No one thought of Wally Hammond? Miles ahead of KP in that same breadth. The fiercest cover drive ever..

[@raheelakhtar7]

Just had that thought, was going to post it and then saw your comment 👍

[@GovernorBandicoot]

Yuvraj guys. This list is incomplete without him.

[@richardray9373]

Yeah the more I think about it. Stephen Flemming should be right up there.

[@yashsingh1631]

Another episode where favourite player top the list over logical candidate.

[@MrSanat1985]

Lara, Sachin, Ponting, Viv had most of shots better than everyone else mentioned here

[@raheelakhtar7]

Lara’s cover drive, Sachin’s straight drive, Ponting’s pull/hook and Sir Viv’s smack through mid wicket

[@chiraggupta7301]

My list: Sanga JP Duminy Rahul Dravid Ian bell Babar Azam Crawley Yuvraj Vince Kohli Kallis Cook

[@User39814]

Brian lara's batting is beautiful 🤣🤣🤣 . Even brian lara won't agree with that . He was a great batter , don't get me wrong, but i think his batting was optimised for power rather than elegance

[@naveenkumar4527]

Damien Martin, Ian bell tops the list

[@bhargav38]

Audience Remember : these guys are not players and have no technical expertise !! they just picking based on how appeasing it is to them !!

[@Abhi_0893]

No one picked sachin! 😮 Lara's cover drive goes before Sachin's? Hmmm And Behram, you praised Martyn for his forward defence kind of cover drive, but then called virat's a check drive 😅

[@rajnish03]

Ganguly and Sachin!

[@user-tr1hx7jx4r]

Kumar sangakarra , Ian Bell

[@areicgnon]

I can't believe you guys missed Yuvraj Singh. He has the most stylish cover drive I have ever seen!! He would be number 1 on my list!!!

[@Vikasmis70]

My goodness no sachin tendulkar

[@bhavesh9702]

this ep is gonna open a can of worms isn't it

[@gurkirtsingh]

Stephan Fleming ????

[@PYogaaaa]

Arguably the worst list in the series. This is unbelievable stuff. Women picks were actually decent but the male batter's list was embarrassing.

[@roshanraj9831]

Don't worry guys these are non cricketers and 1 biased guy , one of the best batter this era rohit sharma said its virat kohli the best technique for playing cover drive (fullstop)

[@mrityunjaigiri1402]

Behram qazi 😂lol...virat has better cover drive than babar atleast

[@nayan_dixit]

So basically dada was considered as one of the most potent player of the off side and he is a left hander, sachin popularised the shot by abandoning it and virat made it popular in front of the whole world, dravid and laxman were known for their technically correct batting but to my surprise none of them r mentioned, sorry to say this but half of the players u mentioned are not even close to sachin virat and dravid nd call me anything but behram is biased

[@SMA265]

You are mentioning all Indian players, do you see the irony here?

[@nayan_dixit]

@@SMA265 i cannot see any irony for a simple simple reason if everyone wants to be biased towards India then we must remind them about Indian players, kp in every aspect of the game or ian bell or mahila Jayawardene for that matter r not even one ounce of sachin's class and virat's class, also if u want to rate someone's cover drive as 'beautiful', one must define what is a beautiful cover drive, in the first place, u cannot let ur subjective bias run over the whole list and i m not even saying that u should include every Indian batter in that list my point is, if sanga and mahila, yusuf and babar are mentioned then i guess rahul dravid, laxman, ganguly, sachin and virat are also beautiful and much more technically correct batsmen, so if they had defined a beautiful cover drive and then if there was no indian batter in the list, i wouldn't have find it biased.

[@thusharaboy]

Sanga's drive is the best

[@Soumik_Mondal_fullstack_dev]

why do left handed coverdrive look more beautiful

[@prachotanei9222]

The right arm bowlers' angle favours left handers when the bowler bowls over the wicket, that's partly the reason

[@Soumik_Mondal_fullstack_dev]

@@prachotanei9222 true but the shot is so risky it is so easy to edge it to keep or slip

[@ASHISHMISHRA-qd5sz]

not having sachin and ab deviliers on this list is outrageous and they call themselves cricket experts

[@sidnightmare]

Sachin tendulkar . That's it. Noone else comes close

[@shriniwaspatwardhan]

This podcast is becoming too niche unnecessarily. It’s meant to just stand out. They picked laura over sachin! Also they mentioned “that’s not his best shot” so he won’t be on the list. was the question “who has the best cover drive” or “for whom is cover drive the best shot”

[@karannagpal1112]

Oh come on now, I really try to criticise decisions on what's obviously subjective in terms of selections, but Yuvraj had an unreasonably beautiful cover drive.

[@MrSanat1985]

Also Injamam was a better batsman than Babar in every possible way

[@vaibhavmishra8389]

Mahela didn't have good cover drive

[@devynkumar1997]

Sangakara, that's it.

[@harshsingh5029]

Smriti, mithali,Kohli they are the best

[@ammar6036]

course harsh singh, if that’s what helps you sleep tn

[@harshsingh5029]

@@ammar6036 I am sleeping well 😴 don't care about me care about your diluted point of view

[@sahilkumar-qf9tg]

this podcast urgently needs an indian

[@ammar6036]

no it doesn’t

[@ammar6036]

womp womp, your idol was 14th. 2 indian women were rated better, rejoice

[@yashsingh1631]

​@@ammar6036 I hope urs score half as him with that elegant cover drive. But he shits pant against quality bowling

[@Soumik_Mondal_fullstack_dev]

why

[@pratikbharadwaj706]

Yes We Need That

[@surajjha2814]

Sachin?

[@yashdaware2458]

Terrible list. Nobody has the 3 yo South African kid who is all over cricket Twitter on their list

[@happydhaliwal9832]

These episodes are getting way to biased other than jarod everybody is just picking players from their country or just the players they like

[@jojo_ranjan]

Well, the show is about who they like. Best commentator, best cover drive, facial hair, hairstyle etc are all subjective opinions and are based solely upon one’s specific preferences.

[@happydhaliwal9832]

If thats the case then the title is misleading it should be our favourite whatever

[@jojo_ranjan]

Listening to arguments it seemed they picked players with best cover drives based on aesthetics not how many runs one scored and I don’t think I mind that. Aesthetics is highly highly subjective and would vary heavily which they addressed at the end as well. Nice picks nevertheless.

[@devangmetha]

Don’t mix mens and womens cricket. It is a confusion.

[@ishwar8119]

Agreed with you in terms of strike rate stats, test stats, etc but for a list of aesthetic cover drives I think it's fine

[@AryanVerma-hj9wv]

I'm sorry but I don't agree with this you guys left so many Sachin, Ganguly, Yuvraj and Virat is the last pick oh come on .... all I can say is it is very BIASED

[@nooneknows19]

So u named 4 Indians and calling them biased. Come on man.

[@chiraggupta7301]

Don't be sorry, are you sure your list won't be biased?