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

[ankitj]

Sehwag is interesting. i have heard him described on CW as possibly the best player pf spin ever (no idea tbh, only ever watched him against utterly janky rsa spinners).

Has got at least one daddy hundred while playing against Warne, MacGill, Murali, Mendis, Saqlain. That's all the the good to great spin bowlers that existed during his playing days. His claim is very strong IMO.

 

[sunilz]

I mean he played for 8 years which is not very high but comparable to the other 3. It’s not his fault that Pakistan didn’t play many tests in the 90s.

Many batsmen have scored more runs in a decade than Sachin in the 90s because India only played 60-odd games. Were they better than him at the end of the 90s just because India didn’t play many games in the 90s?

And if Sachin had retired at the end of 90s he wouldn't be rated so high. One of the major reasons people rate Sachin so highly is because of huge longevity and 15000 test runs.

 

[Teja.]

And if Sachin had retired at the end of 90s he wouldn't be rated so high. One of the major reasons people rate Sachin so highly is because of huge longevity and 15000 test runs.

I rate him higher for longevity in terms of years but I wouldn’t rate him higher if the BCCI calender for the 1990s had 87 tests instead of 65. That is out of his control.

I would consider Anwar’s career of 8 effective years quite short generally but in the context, the 3 others have also had fairly short careers.

 

[ankitj]

Can't choose between Hayden and Greenidge.

 

[Flem274*]

The major reasons people rate Sachin so highly is he was ****ing good from age 16 and just got better and better. When I think of Sachin I don't think of his longevity, I think of just how dominant he was. He was the batsman of the 1990s and shares the 00s with Ponting.

Probably the #2 of all time in contention with Hobbs, Sobers and Smith and synonymous with Indian cricket, one of the most fanatical cricketing nations along with Pakistan.

It's a shame he held on too long for the tons record because it really doesn't play into his legend at all imo. He wrote his legend with everything that came before.

 

[Flem274*]

Also on Sehwag - I watched one of his tons in Aus the other day from 2003 or so and man, he got hit in the head so often they were icing it and allowing him to carry on. I was worried for him tbh despite knowing he's all good today.

With today's knowledge and practice that doesn't happen, and he gets subbed and potentially even dropped since going off getting smoked in the skull as an opener is a potential career death sentence. He needed that huge ton on that day because selectors aren't going to look fondly on that.

I think Chopra was at the other end, which probably offers the counter to the risk to Sehwag's career, but still.

 

[vcs]

I rate him higher for longevity in terms of years but I wouldn’t rate him higher if the BCCI calender for the 1990s had 87 tests instead of 65. That is out of his control.

I would consider Anwar’s career of 8 effective years quite short generally but in the context, the 3 others have also had fairly short careers.

Sehwag yes - Hayden got dropped sometime in the mid 90s after facing Ambrose et al and couldn't get back into that batting lineup until around 2000. He was smashing it in Sheffield Shield by all accounts and had to displace superior competition.

 

[OverratedSanity]

It's a shame he held on too long for the tons record because it really doesn't play into his legend at all imo.

This is a common myth tbh. Tendulkar got his 100th ton in early 2012 which was less than a year after he was the best batsman in the world. He was mildly below par on the tours to England and Aus but hardly disastrous and there werent really any voicferous calls for him to retire at that point.

His actual **** period in tests was the 18 months after his 100th ton where he made very few runs of any consequence. I think he wanted that 200 test milestone which is a cool mark, but yeah probably not worth that decline.

 

[Teja.]

Sehwag yes - Hayden got dropped sometime in the mid 90s after facing Ambrose et al and couldn't get back into that batting lineup until around 2000. He was smashing it in Sheffield Shield by all accounts and had to displace superior competition.

Anwar also played a test in 1990 but only made his breakthrough in 1994 from when he played continuously for 8 years. His case is similar to Hayden.

 

[honestbharani]

He was the batsman of the 1990s

*shares with Lara and honestly, same for 2000s.

 

[Shady Slim]

voted for the big dos but teja makes a very compelling case for greenidge here, who obviously i myself didn't see so i'm not really versed on as much in that detail - teja's case for him (unless it's an intellectually dishonest one for reasons i don't know, for not having been there) is a very compelling one

 

[Gob]

Then why post it lol

 

[vcs]

Anwar also played a test in 1990 but only made his breakthrough in 1994 from when he played continuously for 8 years. His case is similar to Hayden.

Yes, but he has some bad holes in his record vs SA/WI (which is also mirrored by his poor record in Australia, SA, NZ in ODIs) so maybe he had the same technical deficiencies which Sehwag did.

 

[subshakerz]

Sehwag averages 25 in SA, 27 in Eng and 20 in NZ. Basically, with his cement feet he was a liability as an operner where there was a hint of lateral movement.

 

[Immenso]

My first day watching international cricket at a ground Greenidge score a 200. I'd like to say I enjoyed it, but I was too young (and I'm still too parochial) to enjoy the opposition killing it. So, **** that guy ....

 

[Slifer]

The major reasons people rate Sachin so highly is he was ****ing good from age 16 and just got better and better. When I think of Sachin I don't think of his longevity, I think of just how dominant he was. He was the batsman of the 1990s and shares the 00s with Ponting.

Probably the #2 of all time in contention with Hobbs, Sobers and Smith and synonymous with Indian cricket, one of the most fanatical cricketing nations along with Pakistan.

It's a shame he held on too long for the tons record because it really doesn't play into his legend at all imo. He wrote his legend with everything that came before.

Agree with everything but the bold part. Imo someone like Ponting or even kallis or Sangakkara were the batsmen of the 2000s not Sachin.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Would put Dravid over Sachin in the 2000s. I think both of Sachin's great peaks happening at the turn of the two decades probably hurts him there.

 

[OverratedSanity]

I think Kirsten is probably more underappreciated here than the likes of Anwar. Much longer career, incredibly consistent across conditions (lowest average in any country is 21 in SL and that was just one series), and was a big reason why that SA team was so successful in the subcontinent in that era. Seriously underrated, I dont put him that far below Smith/Hayden/Sehwag tier if at all.

 

[The Sean]

It's interesting to compare Greenidge and Haynes and how their longevity - relatively speaking - hurt one and helped the other. As has already been noted in this thread, Greenidge declined markedly toward the end of his career - in a 30-Test run from March 1987 to April 1991 he averaged just 33 (before a double ton in his second last Test gave him a bit of a lift), dropping his overall career average to under 45, which has always felt lower than it "should" have been.

Haynes, on the other hand, went the other way and got better with age - in a run of 37 Tests from 1988 to 1993 he averaged 50, to the point where the final career numbers for the two men weren't far apart. There was under 100 runs difference between their Test aggregates and even Haynes' average got to within a couple of points of Greenidge's in the end, there having been a much bigger gap for a lot of their careers.

 

[Slifer]

It's interesting to compare Greenidge and Haynes and how their longevity - relatively speaking - hurt one and helped the other. As has already been noted in this thread, Greenidge declined markedly toward the end of his career - in a 30-Test run from March 1987 to April 1991 he averaged just 33 (before a double ton in his second last Test gave him a bit of a lift), dropping his overall career average to under 45, which has always felt lower than it "should" have been.

Haynes, on the other hand, went the other way and got better with age - in a run of 37 Tests from 1988 to 1993 he averaged 50, to the point where the final career numbers for the two men weren't far apart. There was under 100 runs difference between their Test aggregates and even Haynes' average got to within a couple of points of Greenidge's in the end, there having been a much bigger gap for a lot of their careers.

Yeah but Haynes is probably the biggest HTB of all time. I personally would take Gayle over him anytime when it comes to WI openers.