What are the five strongest batting lineups who ever played?

[mr_mister]

Was trying to find a small overlap when the Windies had 2 of Headley, Sobers, Viv and Lara together

Sobers played his first test 3 months after Headley's Last

Viv played his first 6 months after Sobers last

And Lara debuted in tests before Viv retired from them but didn't actually play in a test with him

Pretty crazy how that worked out

 

[Red]

Morris
Barnes
Bradman
Hassett
Miller
Harvey

Hayden
Langer
Ponting
Waugh
Waugh
Martyn
Gilchrist

 

[morgieb]

It probably lacks a true ATG, and only shone briefly, but England's 2010 Top 7 was legitimately really good for a period:

Cook
Strauss
Trott
Pietersen
Bell
Collingwood
Prior

One of the only Top 7's (other than Gilchrist-era Australia) to have 7 bats averaging over 40.

 

[trundler]

It probably lacks a true ATG, and only shone briefly, but England's 2010 Top 7 was legitimately really good for a period:

Cook
Strauss
Trott
Pietersen
Bell
Collingwood
Prior

One of the only Top 7's (other than Gilchrist-era Australia) to have 7 bats averaging over 40.

I love how one of the other few top 7s who qualify for this includes Greg Matthews.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Australia 2003-04

AUS vs IND Cricket Scorecard, 3rd Test at Melbourne, December 26 - 30, 2003

Get cricket scorecard of 3rd Test, AUS vs IND, India tour of Australia 2003/04 at Melbourne Cricket Ground dated December 26 - 30, 2003.

www.espncricinfo.com

One of Australia's greatest opening pairs (Langer & Hayden), two ATG batsmen (Ponting and S Waugh), a couple of quality middle order players (Martyn & M Waugh) and arguably the greatest wicketkeeper batsman (Gilchrist).

A nitpick but M Waugh finished in 2002

 

[trundler]

A nitpick but M Waugh finished in 2002

TMI

 

[Slifer]

On paper only but I believe WI had a top 6/7 of:

Stollmeyer
Holt
Walcott
Weekes
Worrell
Sobers
Atkinson

 

[reyrey]

It probably lacks a true ATG, and only shone briefly, but England's 2010 Top 7 was legitimately really good for a period:

Cook
Strauss
Trott
Pietersen
Bell
Collingwood
Prior

One of the only Top 7's (other than Gilchrist-era Australia) to have 7 bats averaging over 40.

Bresnan, Broad and Swann all averaged around 25 with the bat in that period too.

 

[bagapath]

How many Test runs does a batsman need to be considered a great in Test Cricket, like minimum qualification ?

If, theoretically, someone plays 4 series and scores 500 in each of them and retires with 2000 runs and 60+ average they don't automatically become an ATG player. I would say one should have batted in 50 innings - which is roughly 30+ tests and that would mean a career spanning 4-5 years with matches against many opponents in different conditions home and away. Plus, the batsman would have played long enough to have reached a steady average and the opponents would have cracked his strengths and weaknesses and attacked him differently and he would have learnt to counter their strategies. about 30 tests/ 50 innings should be a good indicator to decide how good a player actually is. same no of tests for a bowler would have produced 120+ wickets which is also a good indicator of their position on the greatness graph.

 

[ma1978]

Sehwag
Gambhir
Dravid
Tendulkar
Laxman
Ganguly
Dhoni

has to make the list, obv not 1 or 2 but somewhere 3-5. The fact that we had RP Singh and Harbhajan and other crap with that lineup is sad

 

[Coronis]

If, theoretically, someone plays 4 series and scores 500 in each of them and retires with 2000 runs and 60+ average they don't automatically become an ATG player. I would say one should have batted in 50 innings - which is roughly 30+ tests and that would mean a career spanning 4-5 years with matches against many opponents in different conditions home and away. Plus, the batsman would have played long enough to have reached a steady average and the opponents would have cracked his strengths and weaknesses and attacked him differently and he would have learnt to counter their strategies. about 30 tests/ 50 innings should be a good indicator to decide how good a player actually is. same no of tests for a bowler would have produced 120+ wickets which is also a good indicator of their position on the greatness graph.

Like Pollock.

 

[Boags]

It probably lacks a true ATG, and only shone briefly, but England's 2010 Top 7 was legitimately really good for a period:

Cook
Strauss
Trott
Pietersen
Bell
Collingwood
Prior

One of the only Top 7's (other than Gilchrist-era Australia) to have 7 bats averaging over 40.

Only because Collingwood retired, but 6 of the top 7 shone for a number of years before they burned out against South Africa in 2012.

Pietersen gets underrated now, he's not in the top tier but he played a number of ATG innings.

 

[Prince EWS]

Like Pollock.

And your face.

 

[Coronis]

And your face.

I know you are but what am I?

 

[Jumno]

Sehwag
Tendulkar
Ganguly
Laxman
Dravid
Yuvraj
Kaif

Australia 2001 ashes

Australia 2003-04

WI 1960s

Australia early 80s

 

[number11]

On paper only but I believe WI had a top 6/7 of:

Stollmeyer
Holt
Walcott
Weekes
Worrell
Sobers
Atkinson

Ridiculous line up. Obviously age blunted some whilst others were emerging but that remains a fine line up.

 

[mr_mister]

Kanhai played a few tests too with the 3 Ws plus Sobers

 

[Burgey]

Sehwag
Tendulkar
Ganguly
Laxman
Dravid
Yuvraj
Kaif

Australia 2001 ashes

Australia 2003-04

WI 1980s

Don’t know if you can lump the West Indies sides of the 80s in one bunch tbh. They were arguably at their best in the early 80s when they had the legendary opening pair then Viv, Lloyd, Kallicharan, Rowe and Murray. But by the mid 80s they had Richie Rich, Viv had moved down and Logie was in the middle order with Dujon, then later Hooper.

 

[Jumno]

Sehwag
Tendulkar
Ganguly
Laxman
Dravid
Yuvraj
Kaif

Australia 2001 ashes

Australia 2003-04

WI 1970s Edited

WI 1960s

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Any England XI with Hobbs, Sutcliffe, Hammond, and Ames in it would be very strong. If they could then be supported batting wise by some of Duleepsinhji, Hendren, Jardine, Paynter, and Woolley if would be superb.