Again, the top 25 oldest players in test cricket were all pre 1950. That must give you enough idea about what the standard of test cricket used to be.
One off instances like Boycott, Misbah don’t really help your point here.
There are many batsman in that list, don’t know why you only presented an argument from spinners.
An average cricketer is past his prime at age of 35-36, I don’t think players pre 1950s were any sort of genetic freak.
Its okay to have an opinion that Hobbs was a better batsman than Boycott based on peer comparison, but what some people are implying here is that Hobbs was also technically better, which is a dumb opinion.
I rewatched Hobbs batting technique video on yt to see if there’s even an iota of truth in that but as I said its a dump opinion, the technique used in that day wouldn’t work against under 19 cricketers let alone international cricket.
Again, So?
All you're telling me is older cricketers played less, were under less mental stress and liked to play Cricket for longer (they played 5 international games a year)...and half of them are spinners...and most of them were past prime by the end like any modern cricketer would be...I mean, duh? all of it makes sense to me, you're not really proving to me it has anything to do with the standards or status quo changing, I reckon you should get into technicalities of Cricket and explain your viewpoint beyond "older players managed to play longer in a less hectic era" which, duh, just feels like logical progression to me.
none of the guys you listed there are average cricketers though? Doctor Grace and 1800s cricket I don't count anyway, but regardless, you mention Headley who played one test in 1954...and failed and never played a game again. or Wilfred Rhodes, a spinner who played for years through bowling decline on reputation...more or less, you haven't established a correlation between "some spinners and declining batters in X time played this long and thus Cricket's standards were lower" when all it says to me was that less matches = more years.
now, Hobbs is a vastly superior Batsmen to Boycott, nobody who saw both even entertained the idea of Boycott being a superior batter, Boycott himself does not support the idea, and he saw from Hammond to Hutton to Viv to Sachin to Smith.
The Point I made via bringing up Boycott was simple, if you reserve yourself to playing test and county, and stay injury free, you can indeed play on the top level until mid 40s, sure your prime would be behind you like it was with Boycott but that did not stop Boycott from making hundreds against the two Greatest fast bowlers to ever exist.
I rewatched Hobbs batting technique video on yt to see if there’s even an iota of truth in that but as I said its a dump opinion, the technique used in that day wouldn’t work against under 19 cricketers let alone international cricket
and I mean, this is just silly, a 50 year old Hobbs in clearly promotional material does not look cutting edge!? crazy! Anyway, any argument of technical improvements just goes out the window when you actually see the game today and their inability to play basic leg breaks and even straight deliveries, if anything, the technique has detoriated since the time of the Gavaskars and Boycotts, and I don't see anything to say their technique is any different than the ones during Hobbs's and Hammond's era.
Though, believe me, I'd love for this to be correct and for Joe Root to be a Greater Batsmen than Sunil Gavaskar because muh 50 years passed and technique garbage yada yada, but it just isn't convincing enough considering how you've presented it.