Best left handed batsman of all time

[Jager]

That top six is an interesting one, but definitely agreed that Harvey deserves a place. He is my second pick after Bradman for Australian middle order batting. Who is your wicketkeeper? (I am guessing Tallon with Miller at 7)

 

[NUFAN]

One guy who has gone up and up in my estimation is Neil Harvey. Bloody good batsman, great team man. Apparently his advice to incoming batsman was nearly always "These blokes aren't that good, let's get stuck in to them"!! Brilliant batsman, especially on the sort of tough wickets we don't see these days.

Combine that with the fact he was one of Australia's greatest fielders and his talent shows.

For mine, Harvey has now leapfrogged Border in my ATG Australian team top 6.

Ha. I'm not going to disagree with your order, but I will with your reasoning. The way that you described Harvey could so easily be about Border too.

 

[Red]

That top six is an interesting one, but definitely agreed that Harvey deserves a place. He is my second pick after Bradman for Australian middle order batting. Who is your wicketkeeper? (I am guessing Tallon with Miller at 7)

Yeh, poses an issue, Miller. Prefer 6 batsmen, and say what you will, Miller's average of 37 is okay, but not great. And the fact that he took only just over 3 wickets a test is concerning if you name him as a frontline bowler....


Generally pick him as 12th, if McGrath rolls his ankle in the warm up, or Bradman gets appendicitis that nearly kills him, we'll be ok with Miller!


Trumper
Morris
Bradman
G. Chappell
Harvey
Ponting
Gilchrist
Lindwall
Warne
Lillee
McGrath

12th- Miller


Take Gilchrist because he can destroy a test in a session, and he managed to keep to Warne for a long time

If the wicket is going to turn, I change my line up to:

Trumper
Morris
Bradman
G. Chappell
Harvey
Miller
Gilchrist
Warne
Lillee
O'Reilly
McGrath

 

[Red]

Ha. I'm not going to disagree with your order, but I will with your reasoning. The way that you described Harvey could so easily be about Border too.

Yeh, fair call. I can see your point. And it really is splitting hairs. Six months ago I'd have taken Border over Harvey. Now I take Harvey over Border.

Border was a hero as I grew up, he played in the era that I was a kid/teen. He was dogged and courageous, and basically the wicket every team wanted most.

I think the thing that is swaying me to Harvey is that I think he was a more natural stroke player (splitting hairs again), and when two players are near identical in stats, I prefer the more elegant batsman. Also, the more I read about Harvey, the more I admire him as a team man. He could have been bitter about not being Australian captain (overlooked for Craig, then Benaud), but instead backed his captains to the hilt, and was the most popular bloke in the team.

 

[harsh.ag]

Damn Nufan, you are being a bit 'harsh' about Lara, rating him below Fleming, Hayden and Sanga on watchability.

Btw, here is Sanga's record against all teams (excluding Zim and Bang) as a non-keeper specialist batsman:

M: 52 | Runs: 5312 | Avg: 61.76| That's bloody brilliant, if I may curse so..

I do rate Sanga ahead of Border, Lloyd, Gower, maybe even on par with Harvey.

Fleming was great to watch, but just like Gower lacked substance. Obviously Gower had more. Hayden always struck me to be a bit in the Sehwag mould, that is to say not much elegance there. Very impressive, though, of course.

Just to throw in some great non-aussie lefties (seriously, guys stop hogging the thread ), Alvin Kallicharran, Andy Flower, Kepler Wessels, Roy Fredericks, maybe Saurav Ganguly and Saeed Anwar.

P.S. It's not a coincidence that the last 4 test records for highest scores have been by lefties.

 

[watson]

If style were the sole or determining criteria then it would have to be David Gower

Or Frank Woolley

 

[NUFAN]

Damn Nufan, you are being a bit 'harsh' about Lara, rating him below Fleming, Hayden and Sanga on watchability.

That was batting order mate. I only picked the one genuine opener so Fleming would have to bat with Haydos.

 

[Debris]

Surprised that M Hussey has not got a mention. Guess his form has trailed off a bit but a really good finish to his career could put him into contention.

 

[The Sean]

1. Garry Sobers
2. Brian Lara
3. Graeme Pollock
4. Allan Border
5. Kumar Sangakkara
6. Neil Harvey
7. Clive Lloyd
8. Matthew Hayden
9. Adam Gilchrist
10. David Gower

Edrich, Thorpe, Morris, Lawry, Taylor, Langer, Hussey, Smith, Kallicharran, Fredericks, Chanderpaul, Sutcliffe, Fleming and Jayasuriya could all claim to be in contention I suppose, while I reckon Cook will get there at some point - but I’d be happy with that as a Top 10 since WWII.

Cue someone pointing out a really obvious name I’ve forgotten.

Now I just have to work out where Hill, Woolley, Bardsley, Mead, Leyland and Paynter would fit in…

 

[Riggins]

Yeh, fair call. I can see your point. And it really is splitting hairs. Six months ago I'd have taken Border over Harvey. Now I take Harvey over Border.

I may be missing something, but what on earth has Neil Harvey done in the last 6 months to improve thoughts?

 

[Debris]

I may be missing something, but what on earth has Neil Harvey done in the last 6 months to improve thoughts?

Maybe just STFU. He has been Australia's resident cranky old fart but can't remember too much recently.

 

[watson]

1. Garry Sobers
2. Brian Lara
3. Graeme Pollock
4. Allan Border
5. Kumar Sangakkara
6. Neil Harvey
7. Clive Lloyd
8. Matthew Hayden
9. Adam Gilchrist
10. David Gower

Edrich, Thorpe, Morris, Lawry, Taylor, Langer, Hussey, Barlow, Smith, Kallicharran, Fredericks, Chanderpaul, Sutcliffe, Fleming and Jayasuriya could all claim to be in contention I suppose, while I reckon Cook will get there at some point - but I’d be happy with that as a Top 10 since WWII.

Cue someone pointing out a really obvious name I’ve forgotten.

Now I just have to work out where Hill, Woolley, Bardsley, Mead, Leyland and Paynter would fit in…

Barlow and Sutcliffe were right-handed batsman. Or were thinking of the New Zealander Bert rather than Herbert?

 

[The Sean]

Barlow and Sutcliffe were right-handed batsman. Or were thinking of the New Zealander Bert rather than Herbert?

Ha ha, of course he was! I think I was imposing Goddard's handed-ness on Barlow's batting...

But yes, the Sutcliffe is Bert, as I was talking about post-war batsmen.

 

[Spark]

P.S. It's not a coincidence that the last 4 test records for highest scores have been by lefties.

Really? Why, may I ask?

 

[Red]

I may be missing something, but what on earth has Neil Harvey done in the last 6 months to improve thoughts?

You are missing something. He hasn't "done" anything. I've just learnt more about him.

 

[harsh.ag]

Really? Why, may I ask?

Not saying it was ordained, but looking at the 21 batsmen who have scored more than 300 runs in an innings, 9 have been left handers. Extraordinarily high ratio when you consider that there have been far, far more righties than lefties. I guess they have slightly more prolific historically. What are your thoughts?

 

[watson]

I would stake a $100,000 that if you did a statistical analysis of all the righthanded V lefthanded batsman who have ever played Test cricket that you would find that the overall Average and Strike Rate for both categories would be almost identical.

 

[BackFootPunch]

I would stake a $100,000 that if you did a statistical analysis of all the righthanded V lefthanded batsman who have ever played Test cricket that you would find that the overall Average and Strike Rate for both categories would be almost identical.

According to statsguru:

All RHB - 2190 players, average 29.04
All LHB - 489 players, average 34.00

Top order RHB (1-7) - 1550 players, average 35.14
Top order LHB (1-7) - 368 players, average 38.14

 

[harsh.ag]

I would stake a $100,000 that if you did a statistical analysis of all the righthanded V lefthanded batsman who have ever played Test cricket that you would find that the overall Average and Strike Rate for both categories would be almost identical.

Dude, it's time to donate the money to CW

 

[NUFAN]

According to statsguru:

All RHB - 2190 players, average 29.04
All LHB - 489 players, average 34.00

Top order RHB (1-7) - 1550 players, average 35.14
Top order LHB (1-7) - 368 players, average 38.14

This concludes that its easier for lefties, so I propose that all right handed batsman start their innings on 3.