DoG's Top 100 Test Batsmen Countdown Thread

[His Dudeness]

The Don is the greatest sportsman the world has ever seen, in any sport. There is nowhere where the statistical gulf is so wide. Would be interesting to analyse this but the conclusion is obvious.

Couldn't agree more. There's even a coefficient out there that puts him top, ahead of the baseballers, Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, and the likes of athletes such as Emil Zatopek and Ed Moses. That's why we have a word like Bradmanesque. Ruth (Ruthian) is the only other sportsperson, to my knowledge, who has inspired that degree of legitimate and justified adulation.

Interestingly, for us baseballicket fans, there's a pitcher called Jacob DeGrom who's having a Bradmanesque season as I write. Minds are being blown.

 

[His Dudeness]

I adore Ken, but all the reservations are justified.

His fear of, and unfamiliarity with, pace exposed him against Hall and Griffith, who, in the post-Heine and Adcock era - 1964 to 1970 - were just about the only quicks he faced with anything remotely resembling regularity or approaching life-threatening pace and aggression until Dennis popped along. I'd love to know what Ken averaged against Our Fred.

Sobers played in the same era and he didn't have to face Gibbs/Hall et all. And yet he still averaged less than Barrington over his career. Of course, he scored his runs at a faster rate which is one of the reasons he finishes above Barrington in this analysis.

Anyway, I just posted no.7 so I'm leaving this thread to go into meltdown for a few hours. Back soon.

Fea

 

[Days of Grace]

I adore Ken, but all the reservations are justified.

His fear of, and unfamiliarity with, pace exposed him against Hall and Griffith, who, in the post-Heine and Adcock era - 1964 to 1970 - were just about the only quicks he faced with anything remotely resembling regularity or approaching life-threatening pace and aggression until Dennis popped along. I'd love to know what Ken averaged against Our Fred.


Fea

Barrington averaged 34.73 in matches involving Hall or Griffith or both. Scored 3 centuries. Hardly a disaster, but well below his career average.

 

[Starfighter]

I adore Ken, but all the reservations are justified.

His fear of, and unfamiliarity with, pace exposed him against Hall and Griffith, who, in the post-Heine and Adcock era - 1964 to 1970 - were just about the only quicks he faced with anything remotely resembling regularity or approaching life-threatening pace and aggression until Dennis popped along. I'd love to know what Ken averaged against Our Fred.

Peter Pollock was as quick as Hall or Griffith and arguably better than either.

 

[Days of Grace]

Against Hall, Griffith, or Pollock, Barrington averaged 43 with 5 centuries. He averaged 58 against them away with 5 centuries.

Unless you want to be very selective, there is no way Barrington doesn't make a top 10 or top 15 list of test batsmen if the criteria is purely stats based.

 

[Coronis]

Re-reading some of this and wondering if Kohli’d still be top 20 and Warner’d still be above Williamson.

Will say once again great stuff DoG!

 

[ankitj]

Kohli will drop to #30 to #40 I guess.

 

[ataraxia]

Kohli will drop to #30 to #40 I guess.

That he drops down despite averaging replacement-level (30) shows the fallibility of the system most of us use. Longevity, gentlemen.

 

[Coronis]

That he drops down despite averaging replacement-level (30) shows the fallibility of the system most of us use. Longevity, gentlemen.

Longevity matters definitely, but then again so does consistency.

 

[Adorable Asshole]

That he drops down despite averaging replacement-level (30) shows the fallibility of the system most of us use. Longevity, gentlemen.

What?

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

What?

He's saying that Kohli being mediocre for a while shouldn't really count against him (nor does it count for him!) as it is basically neutral performance. Therefore the fact that we think less of Kohli now after this run suggests that we were overrating him a few years ago to have him so highly then.

 

[Adorable Asshole]

Viv cannot finish ahead of Hobbs and Hutton. They averaged 6 more in harder eras for runscoring.

Now way 30s and 40s were harder than than 70s and 80s

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

Now way 30s and 40s were harder than than 70s and 80s

20s and 50s were hard though.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Now way 30s and 40s were harder than than 70s and 80s

20s and 50s were hard though.

Yeah the pre war era where Hobbs shined was very low scoring. And Hutton's post ww2 run scoring came against much better fast bowling attacks than any that had been seen before.