Kirsten surely gets in the ODI side ahead of Barlow OR Gibbs: he broke into the World's top ten at the beginning of 1996, hit the top 4 in March of that year and stayed in the top four right through to May '98. For most of that time he was the world's no 1 / 2 ODI batsman. He then had 2 years where he was merely "very good" (top 20) rather than outstanding... before returning to the top 5-6-7 in the world from Aug 2000 to Jan 2002.

Kirsten's peak ODI batting rating is 900: that is all-time great territory. Checking this out... he's equal eighth in the all-time list.. behind Lara but ahead of Sachin Tendulkar. His career best wasn't a flash-in-the-pan, either: we was above the 850 mark from April '96 to Jan '98 - that's almost two years at a level that has thus far eluded Jayasuria, Ganguly, Gilchrist, Kallis and Ponting.

Kirsten's spot should be automatic!!!