Top 100 of the 21st century: 90-81

Counting down: 100-91; 90-81; 80-71; 70-61; 60-51; 50-41

90. Gautam Gambhir (Ind)

Image Id: ~/media/B73ED876BB044F3396F4C7B68C1A0535

Key numbers (from Jan 1, 2000): 56 matches, 4,046 runs at 42.58

For a 15-month period between October 2008 and January 2010, Gautam Gambhir was almost certainly the best batsman on the planet. Certainly the ICC thought so, awarding him the 2009 Test Player of the Year thanks to a then world record run of scores in excess of 50 in 11 straight matches. That golden run included eight of his nine Test hundreds, but for India fans, it was all too fleeting; five years on, they have long given up hope of seeing a return to those halcyon days.

Best Performance: Gambhir’s skill-set allowed him to play all manner of innings, and while his career-best double hundred against Australia was a Delhi delight, he’ll be best remembered by his countrymen for an 11-hour series-saving 137no in Napier against New Zealand.

89. Chris Cairns (NZ)

Image Id: ~/media/9F309B5ACF5B4005A12A384E8079AE2A

Key numbers (from Jan 1, 2000): 18 matches, 1,265 runs at 45.17; 68 wickets at 29.63

Blessed with pedigree, power and pace, Cairns had all the attributes to follow on from Richard Hadlee as New Zealand’s next great allrounder. Though most of his career was played before the new millennium, the dashing right-hander never fully lived up to the lofty expectations. Even so, on his day Cairns was a match-winner with bat or ball. As an opening bowler he could swing the ball away from the right-hander with genuine velocity, and as a lower-order pinch-hitter no boundary was safe if his eye was in. At this stage, it looks as though the allrounder's career will forever be tarnished by the stench of match-fixing.

Best Performance: Taking on an attack that featured Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, Cairns rescued the Black Caps in Wellington in March 2000 from 5-66 to a respectable 298 with an imperious 109 that featured some audacious hitting against the King of Spin.

88. Shane Watson (Aus)

Image Id: ~/media/A7407AFCC4434AE7BBC508AAA7591D92

Key numbers (from Jan 1, 2000): 57 matches, 3,657 runs at 35.50, 74 wickets at 33.32

For more than a decade now, Shane Watson has managed to survive the ravages of various injuries to forge a meaningful and ultimately successful Test career. Not without his share of critics, who point to his formidable ODI record and label him an underachiever in the five-day game, Watson was nonetheless a key contributor – with both bat and ball – through a period of transition for Australia. In the 2009 Ashes he impressed at the top of the order, and he broke through for a maiden hundred later that year in the same position, but he has since been shuffled throughout the order. Converting strong starts into hundreds has remained an issue for the 33-year-old, as his conversion rate indicates (four hundreds, 24 fifties).

Best Performance: Against the spin of Harbhajan and the swing of Zaheer, Watson dug in on the opening day of Australia’s two-Test series in India to produce an outstanding Test match hundred. He finished with 126, the only hundred of a match that Australia eventually lost by one wicket. With the ball, he swung and seamed his way to figures of 5-7 when he helped skittle South Africa for 93 in Cape Town in 2011.

87. Peter Siddle (Aus)

Image Id: ~/media/84CDDB378B64425D8338D112043FB27F

Key numbers (from Jan 1, 2000): 56 matches, 192 wickets at 30.45

It doesn’t get much sweeter for a debutant Test bowler than dismissing Sachin Tendulkar for your maiden wicket. Siddle began his Test career in fine style with the wicket of the Little Master as a chubby, Dandenong product with a bustling action that produced a ‘heavy’ ball. The 30-year-old’s transformation from a hit-the-deck fast bowler to the crafty line and length merchant he is today coincided with a shift in diet and lifestyle. Reliable and gutsy, Siddle bowled himself into the ground at Adelaide in 2012 on the last day in search of Australian victory against the Test premier Proteas, epitomising the never-give-up attitude the Baggy Green stands for.

Best Performance: In a man-of-the-match performance, Siddle claimed nine wickets against Sri Lanka in Hobart in 2012 in the first match of the post-Ponting era. Five wickets came in the first innings before he grabbed four more second time around (including Kumar Sangakkara twice) to bowl his side to victory.

86. Angelo Mathews (SL)

Image Id: ~/media/96AC5917B26F4EAAA6B5D98A16855E20

Key numbers (from Jan 1, 2000): 46 matches, 3,193 runs at 51.50, 23 wickets at 55.26

It’s a fair indication of a man’s talents when he’s asked to lead Sri Lanka with the likes of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara sitting alongside him in the dressing room. But such is the respect Angelo Mathews commands, and the 28-year-old allrounder has delivered on the faith shown in him with six superb years of Test cricket. In that time, the right-hander has grown in confidence at No.6 and more recently No.5, shoring up Sri Lanka’s order with a solid technique that regularly garners him runs. His impact with the ball has been less consistent, a fact that can be forgiven as his influence grows with the bat and as a leader.

Best Performance: Mathews made his maiden hundred in Colombo against Australia but it was his fighting 160 against England at Headingley last year that sealed a rare away series win for his side and was immediately hailed one of the great captain’s knocks.

85. Marvan Atapattu (SL)

Image Id: ~/media/583DBD82932E409AB2EDDAA088588EDC

Key numbers (from Jan 1, 2000): 61 matches, 4,055 runs at 42.68

While his explosive opening partner Sanath Jayasuriya was blasting away at one end, a reserved Atapattu nudged singles, worked gaps and scored mountains of runs at the other. His thirst for batting was only quenched by scoring big hundreds, and since the turn of the century the elegant right-hander posted five double centuries to satisfy his cravings. A signature high elbow treated fans to technically efficient stroke play, none more so than on home soil where he amassed seven centuries since 2000.

Best Performance: On his first visit to the Home of Cricket, Atapattu made sure his name was inscribed on the Lord’s honour board by compiling an eight-hour 185 in 2002, helping Sri Lanka to an enormous 8-555dec.

84. Chris Martin (NZ)

Image Id: ~/media/C29C3C7EA2D84287BB6B97D6CEF9146A

Key numbers (from Jan 1, 2000): 71 matches, 233 wickets at 33.81

Behind only legendary pair Sir Richard Hadlee and Daniel Vettori among New Zealand’s Test wicket-takers, Chris Martin was a model of consistency through much of the first 13 years of this century. Never too quick, never too much swing movement, the right-armer relied on a nagging line and length and occasional seam movement to claim his victims. Collected 10 five-wicket hauls throughout a career in which he was New Zealand’s Mr Reliable.

Best Performance: Playing in just his 12th Test, Martin took 11 wickets to bowl New Zealand to a memorable victory over South Africa in Auckland in 2004, collecting the scalps of Smith, Kallis and Kirsten among others in the process.

83. Misbah-ul-Haq (Pak)

Image Id: ~/media/7E6EB86C64CF4B09AB6094A31405CB1F

Key numbers (from Jan 1, 2000): 55 matches, 3,886 runs at 49.18

It’s hard to imagine a time when Misbah wasn’t Pakistan’s calm, calculated and courageous Test captain. Six of his eight Test tons have come since he took over the reins following the spot-fixing scandal in 2010 that rubbed out former skipper Salman Butt. In the 36 Tests henceforth, Misbah has churned out 2,878 runs at 59 and shows no signs of slowing down despite entering the 14th year of his career and fifth decade of life.

Best Performance: Based on his measured, patient approach to batting, you’d rarely find Misbah’s name in the same conversation as Richards, Gilchrist and Gayle. But in October 2014, the Pakistan captain blasted the equal fastest Test century ever, demolishing and demoralising Australia to all parts of Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Stadium.

82. Joe Root (Eng)

Image Id: ~/media/E5532FBC1ACE434D9F7C75FCDCC7E827

Key numbers (from Jan 1, 2000): 27 matches, 2,273 runs at 54.11

England’s next great batsman? Plenty are predicting as much, and already Joe Root has begun living up to the hype with a phenomenal start to his Test career. A batting average of 54.11 sneaks him into the top 20 all-time, but it’s Root’s combination of serious class at the crease and a seemingly unshakeable faith in his own ability that stamps him as one to watch among generation next. Only 24, Root already has six hundreds against five different nations and has quickly established himself as arguably the most important wicket in the England team.

Best Performance: Root plundered an unbeaten 200 against Sri Lanka last year at Lord’s but it was his 180 against Australia on the same ground during the 2013 Ashes that really announced his arrival. Hot on the heels of a maiden hundred against the Black Caps, this was a classic second-innings rescue act that buried Australia and gave England a 2-0 series lead which they never relinquished.

81. Vernon Philander (SA)

Image Id: ~/media/4487CF5FF0674C1589A565834257723E

Key numbers (from Jan 1, 2000): 29 matches, 121 wickets at 21.95

Philander's modus operandi is pretty simple: stand the seam up, hit that awkward length just outside off-stump and do a little bit both ways. That basic strategy has been super effective for the 29-year-old since November 2011, screaming to 50 Test wickets in only seven matches – the joint second-fastest in history. The early rampage engulfed Australia, Sri Lanka and New Zealand, helping the Proteas remain at the summit of the world Test rankings. While Philander has been mesmerising at home, his record slightly drops off away from the rainbow nation but remains a vital member of South Africa’s lethal fast bowling triumvirate.

Best Performance: A spanking debut against Australia (the infamous 47 game in Cape Town) was superseded two matches later in Centurion when Philander claimed five wickets in each innings to register a match haul of 10-102 including the key wicket of Kumar Sangakkara twice.

Counting down: Players 100 - 91

Counting down: Players 90 - 81