All-rounders opening the batting

[Debris]

Just watching the Australia/Pakistan test and both Australian openers are all-rounders (OK, Katich might be a stretch) and I could not think of any all-rounders who opened the batting long-term. I am probably missing someone obvious but has there been anyone successfully combine the two. Is it possible to do it over a sustained period?

 

[G.I.Joe]

Vinoo Mankad.

 

[nexxus]

Manoj Prabhakar did it for a little while didn't he.

 

[honestbharani]

Eddie Barlow too..

 

[Debris]

Eddie Barlow is a good call. One occurred to me as well in Bob Simpson. I guess as long as you are not a front-line bowler it can be done.

 

[Himannv]

There must be a few common names.. Shahid Afridi, Chris Gayle, Sanath Jayasuriya, maybe Thilakaratne Dilshan at the moment.. I think Wilfred Rhodes used to open the batting for a while as well. I'm sure there must be more..

 

[Flyonthewall]

Pretty sure that South Africa opened for a time with Eddie Barlow and Trevor Goddard, both of whom were genuine all-rounders, although neither were absolute front-line bowlers (both very good, of course, and actually Goddard had a fine test bowling record and was ridiculously economical). Wilfred Rhodes did indeed open the batting for England immediately pre-war, and shared in a triple-century partnership with Hobbs (?) as an opener as well.

 

[Shri]

Neil Johnson from Zimbabwe.

 

[jeevan]

Manoj Prabhakar did it for a little while didn't he.

And he replaced Ravi Shastri (another all rounder, certainly) after the latter retired.
Shastri probably did better, but suffered more by comparison to Gavaskar, whose retirement led to the move to open with him.

 

[zaremba]

Mudassar Nazar?

Quite a few part-timers of varying degrees of competence:
Graham Gooch
Mark Butcher
Marcus Trescothick
Michael Vaughan
Aamer Sohail

CB Fry bowled early in his career but was known as a chucker and eventually more or less gave up.

 

[Prince EWS]

Neil Johnson from Zimbabwe.

Yeah, Trevor Gripper to a large extent as well.

 

[wpdavid]

Mudassar Nazar?

Quite a few part-timers of varying degrees of competence:
Graham Gooch
Mark Butcher
Marcus Trescothick
Michael Vaughan
Aamer Sohail

CB Fry bowled early in his career but was known as a chucker and eventually more or less gave up.

Boycott's bowling was considered good enough for a WC final.

Jayasuria springs to mind.

 

[Uppercut]

Yeah, I think Sanath is the best modern example.

 

[jeevan]

There must be a few common names.. Shahid Afridi, Chris Gayle, Sanath Jayasuriya, maybe Thilakaratne Dilshan at the moment.. I think Wilfred Rhodes used to open the batting for a while as well. I'm sure there must be more..

For a while, as in forming a fairly storied opening pair with Jack Hobbs. If I'm not mistaken they held the record for opening partnership for a long time (350+) till it was broken by another all rounder-batsman opener pair (Mankad-Roy). Both pairs likely to be in the top 3 opening combinations ever for their respective countries - certainly for Mankad-Roy (as the other two are Gavaskar-Chauhan, Sehwag-Gambhir).

 

[slippy]

Mark Waugh

 

[Himannv]

For a while, as in forming a fairly storied opening pair with Jack Hobbs. If I'm not mistaken they held the record for opening partnership for a long time (350+) till it was broken by another all rounder-batsman opener pair (Mankad-Roy). Both pairs likely to be in the top 3 opening combinations ever for their respective countries - certainly for Mankad-Roy (as the other two are Gavaskar-Chauhan, Sehwag-Gambhir).

I said "for a while" simply because he wasn't always an opener. He's played 1000+ first class games if I remember the stats right and quite a few of them were spent not opening. The beginning part of his career, he was predominantly a bowler. It took him a few years to start opening regularly I think.

 

[fredfertang]

Jack Hobbs opened the bowling in three Tests - exactly 100 years ago in South Africa - he only took one wicket though

 

[Pothas]

CHB Fry bowled early in his career but was known as a chucker and eventually more or less gave up.

He must have been good though surley?

 

[G.I.Joe]

Gavaskar had one wicket opening the bowling too.

 

[zaremba]

He must have been good though surley?

He was. But once you get a nickname like "CB Shy", as he did, you know that you're in trouble.