Best out of these four '90s aussie fringe-test batsmen? Bev, Lehmann, Blewett, Elliot

[Coronis]

Even though he was an opener, Hayden has one of the highest century scoring rates in history. Of those who have played a comparable number of matches, only Sanga and Younis scored them faster.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Lehmann by a mile for me.

 

[Tangles]

But he's a Canberran

Shh. I loved watch Bev in the shield when I was young. Blewitt had some nice drives but that's about it. Boof was good to watch but he always seemed a bit of an AO bully. The other guy is a Victorian. I never thought he should have been ahead of Hayden but maybe he was a bit older. Do seem to remember him being injury prone.

 

[Cric123]

Lehmann was the best of these lot and Blewett had the most aesthetically pleasing drives I've ever seen played by a cricketer.

 

[adub]

Stuey Law definitely got stiffed. Was a great player for a very long time.

 

[Tangles]

Totally agree on Law. Would have given him Martos spot myself.

 

[morgieb]

Lehmann for mine. More success at Test level than the others (so it's easier to see him having a better Test career had he gotten a callup 10 years earlier), and was just a class act. Excellent player of spin, and if you average 70 at Headingley you can't be too bad at playing pace either.

What I will point out is that Bevan's Shield average > everyone else of his contemporaries. Food for thought, definitely agree with adub that if Australia didn't have such great depth he may well have really kicked on later in his career. One of the more mystifying failures at Test level....you don't average above 60 at Shield level with a poor technique, and watching him play in ODI's suggested it wasn't a temperment issue.

And as others have said, there's the likes of Law, Love, Cox, etc. who got even more shafted as they didn't even have a real Test career of note. How we could kill for these guys.....I have no doubt they're far better than a lot of the batsmen we've tried out recently.

 

[Tangles]

Was thinking the same. How awesome would Law or Love be atm.

 

[robelinda]

Lehmann easily. But a guy like Law got bugger all opportunity to even fail, they marked his card early, he had no chance.

 

[The Sean]

Stuey Law was better than any of them

Stu Law - 54*

So good he doesn't even have a Test average. Met the man twice, both times at coaching clinics, and he was an absolutely top bloke as well as a superb batsman. Would have loved him to have had the international career his talent deserved.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

Stuey Law was the first name in my head. But used to have such a list of talented guys in the wings of that test side. It used to make me mad to see such talent and then have guys like Mark Waugh not fully commit themselves. He was very talented, just not committed

 

[harsh.ag]

There was Martin Love too.

 

[Top_Cat]

On Law, he was an strong personality, real lead-from-the-front sort, not really much a team guy. Problem was, right at the time he was getting a go in internationals, the Test side already had one of those in Ponting. That's who he was competing with for a spot (two of the batting spots were locked up for obvious reasons) and, as good as he was, Ponting was always better. So the way ahead for him was to play the team game and compete with Martyn for the number 6 spot as Ponting was being moved to 3. Law had a middling season right at the time Martyn was gunning it, Martyn slammed the door shut and was better suited to the role as he'd humbled up whereas Law wasn't able to do it (in fairness, that was exactly the way QLD wanted him). By the time the Waughs' spots came up, the horse had bolted.

 

[weldone]

If you shift the timeline a bit, Brad Hodge is a very good contender.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

If you shift the timeline a bit, Brad Hodge is a very good contender.

There have been so many over a long period but during that golden age we (Australia) could have won with a second XI most of the time

 

[vic_orthdox]

Herb's copped a bit of a rough run in here. Guy was seriously class; that knee injury is a massive what-if. And unlike Hayden, he actually took his opportunity when first given to him (to those guys who asked how he could play in front of Hayden).

 

[Spikey]

Herb's copped a bit of a rough run in here. Guy was seriously class; that knee injury is a massive what-if. And unlike Hayden, he actually took his opportunity when first given to him (to those guys who asked how he could play in front of Hayden).

Seems like the more tests you played, the less rated you are. (Lehmann played more in the end, but the fewest during the 90's/early 00's era)

 

[Prince EWS]

Lehmann definitely had the best Test career but, having been exposed a lot to these guys when I started really getting into cricket, I thought Bevan was the best bat. I'm sure there exists a parallel universe somewhere he scored twenty Test tons.

 

[Top_Cat]

Equally-likely parallel universe where he bowled left-arm meds for The Comets.

 

[morgieb]

Lehmann definitely had the best Test career but, having been exposed a lot to these guys when I started really getting into cricket, I thought Bevan was the best bat. I'm sure there exists a parallel universe somewhere he scored twenty Test tons.

You could also argue a parallel universe where we're talking about what if? with regards to the likes of Langer, Hayden or Martyn. You could name about 20 batsmen who were contemporaries of each other that may well have been class Test bats.