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Saqlain vs de Villiers

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
SaqlainWinner
84.8

Saqlain wins: Dominance, Peak, Honours

de Villiers
84.7

de Villiers wins: Longevity

Candidates
Locked to Cricket

Shareable URL · /compare/saqlain-mushtaq-vs-ab-de-villiers

Time range

Showing full careers. Pick a window to recalculate the selected period.

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇵🇰 Saqlain Mushtaq
84.8

Saqlain leads in 4 of 5 weighted categories. Inventor of the doosra and the fastest bowler to 100 ODI wickets.

1. Saqlain Mushtaq
84.8
2. AB de Villiers
84.7

Category breakdown

Season form · Centuries per year

Career timeline · Centuries per year

Cumulative output season by season — the shape of each career against the other.

GOAT pace tracker

Career stage · GOAT pace

Through year 5 · Centuries per year
1. 🇿🇦 AB de Villiers5 years played · career day 2,191248 runs
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇵🇰 Saqlain Mushtaq5 years played · career day 2,190228 runs
-8.1% vs de Villiers at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇵🇰 Saqlain00020180328
🇿🇦 de Villiers00040135435

Careers are aligned at debut, so a rookie's first 5 years are measured against the same window in a legend's career — Yamal against Messi at the same age-stage, a tour rookie against Tiger Woods in 1996.

MetricSaqlainRetiredde VilliersRetired
Test wickets208
ODI wickets288
Fastest to 100 ODI wickets (matches)53
Five-wicket hauls13
Tests played49
Test runs8,765
ODI runs9,577
ODI average53.5
Fastest ODI century (balls)31
ICC Player of the Year1
Test centuries22
Dominance w25%8482
Peak w20%9492
Longevity w20%7682
Honours w20%8078
Statistics w15%9292

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Saqlain84.8
de Villiers84.7
The people
Saqlain
de Villiers

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Make your case for Saqlain vs de Villiers. The scoring is published in full — if you can point at the pillar or the weight you disagree with, we read it. Read the methodology paper.

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