silentstriker
The Wheel is Forever
I would probably put him around 10-12th in all time opening lists. I suppose it depends on your criteria if that fits an all time great.
Ah yes very good point, backs up my assertion of how adaptable Hayden has been post 2005 Ashes. The swing India produced had everyone is problems excpet for Hayden, if Hayden was so out of sync againts anything that is moving of or quality he wouldn't have batted so well.Then some people forget how well India bowled in the recent series, and how Hayden smashed them. Because there are no all-time greats in those bowling line-ups they mustn't have been strong eh? As I said in the beginning: Rubbish.
Another problem is that you also have a lot of relatively new watchers of the game (basically a good thing when you think about it) and they saw Hayden struggle in 2004/05 and thought "what's the fuss all about?"Ah yes very good point, backs up my assertion of how adaptable Hayden has been post 2005 Ashes. The swing India produced had everyone is problems excpet for Hayden, if Hayden was so out of sync againts anything that is moving of or quality he wouldn't have batted so well.
BS.
Ben Hilfenhaus, Shaun Tait, Mark Cameron, Brendan Drew, Steve Magoffin, Ashley Noffke, Brett Geeves, Nathan Bracken.
They are top quality bowlers.
Put any of them into a test side and you would not see a noticeable difference from the current attack.
AWTA.
lolBS.
Ben Hilfenhaus, Shaun Tait, Mark Cameron, Brendan Drew, Steve Magoffin, Ashley Noffke, Brett Geeves, Nathan Bracken.
They are top quality bowlers.
Put any of them into a test side and you would not see a noticeable difference from the current attack.
...or even Alan Donald.One of the all-time Australian great, yes .... One of the all-time greats, no
I can't see him doing as well as some of the others when playing against the likes of Marshall, Hadlee, Wasim, Ambrose bowling at their best
Quality shovel you have there.It's official. Hayden is an alltime great on CW.
Ah, that convinces me.What puts the argument that he suddenly got better as bowlers disappeared to rest is his FC record against touring sides where he belted some of these 'great' bowlers. They say he didn't face his own attack? He did, and he smashed them in FC cricket. I
By my reckoning:We could have arguments about stats, flat tracks, failures in the 1990s, decline of fast bowling etc. until we're blue in the face.
I'm looking here at sheer weight of numbers. Hayden has:
The highest individual Test innings by an Australian batsman
The highest individual ODI innings by an Australian batsman
8,625 Test runs, 4th behind Border, Ponting and Steve Waugh in the all time Australian list, (12th overall)
30 Test centuries, bettered only by Tendulkar, Ponting, Gavaskar, Lara, S. Waugh and Kallis, all of whom have played significantly more innings than Hayden.
The 2nd highest run tally as a Test opener behind Gavaskar, 11th highest average amongst those who have opened at least 40 Test innings.
5th highest average amongst batsmen who have opened in at least 40 ODIs
7th most runs by any Australian in ODIs
Hayden is quite clearly an all time Australian great.