Who is the second best opener of the last half century?

[a massive zebra]

I believe there is a widely held consensus that Sunil Gavaskar was the best opening batsman of the last fifty years. But who would you rank as the second best?

 

[trundler]

Greenidge was amazing too but I'll go Boycott

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Jayasuriya.

 

[sunilz]

Graeme Smith. He wasn't a liability in any conditions unlike Sehwag/Hayden.

@mr_mister what was your rankings of opening test batsman? Do you have the result ?

 

[mr_mister]

Hobbs 1
Hutton 2
Gavaskar 3

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I sense a plant hoping someone over fifty will say Barry Richards.

 

[sunilz]

Hobbs 1
Hutton 2
Gavaskar 3

I was asking relative rankings of Boycott, Hayden , Cook, Sehwag , Smith.

 

[a massive zebra]

I sense a plant hoping someone over fifty will say Barry Richards.

I added Barry Richards to the poll.

 

[Teja.]

Greenidge

 

[Jack1]

Hobbs 1
Hutton 2
Gavaskar 3

1. Sutcliffe

 

[Gob]

1 Matty Hayden

 

[mr_mister]

I was asking relative rankings of Boycott, Hayden , Cook, Sehwag , Smith.

Boycott came 5th, he was the best of the rest after the big 4.

 

[honestbharani]

went with Greenidge. Am ok with Graeme Smith too.

 

[Jack1]

HowSTAT! Test Cricket - Highest Batting Average for Each Batting Position

Test Cricket - Highest batting averages for each batting position

howstat.com

 

[Noumenon]

Only reason I clicked this one was to rail against Rohit missing in the list but...oops.

 

[Raz0r6ack]

Graeme Smith. He wasn't a liability in any conditions unlike Sehwag/Hayden.

@mr_mister what was your rankings of opening test batsman? Do you have the result ?

Smith averaged 20 vs Australia in South Africa and wasn't any better then Sehwag when the conditions were doing a bit.

If you take out West Indies, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe Smith averages 34 in South Africa. Across the same timespan of Smith's career, Hayden averaged 49 in South Africa.

Hayden was marginally better then Sehwag and Sehwag was better then Smith. Hayden had the best career of the 3.

 

[slippy888]

Well it sehwag

 

[Slifer]

Went with Sehwag. His record outside of India is perfectly acceptable for an opener and he has the unrivaled ability to completely demoralize an attack like no one I've seen outside of Gilchrist and Viv.

 

[Arachnodouche]

Yeah, Sehwag for me too. Fine record in its own right despite the drastic downturn in form towards the end but he made cricket fun after all the ethical turbulence India fans endured around the turn of the century. He also seemed genuinely mental in a way Jayasuriya or Gilchrist, his closest contemporaries in fearless exploits, never did.

 

[Uppercut]

Nobody since Greenidge or Richards has quite the universal respect of those two. Maybe we don’t give openers enough credit generally any more.