Jack Hobbs vs Gary Sobers

[subshakerz]

Two legends. Who is better as a bat?

 

[kyear2]

Really hard to judge, but I rate Sobers 3rd and Hobbs 4th, and in the same tier. So Sobers by a smidge.

 

[Aidan11]

Hobbs by the width of a cigarette paper.

 

[kyear2]

Two legends. Who is better as a bat?

Is there a reason your polls are never public?

 

[capt_Luffy]

Hobbs due to more dominance over peers for me.

 

[subshakerz]

Is there a reason your polls are never public?

I keep forgetting sorry

 

[Coronis]

H is for Hobbs

 

[kyear2]

Sobers looks set to hold a beating here, guess one of the few who could dish one out.

 

[howitzer]

Sobers looks set to hold a beating here, guess one of the few who could dish one out.

I've just voted for Sobers. It's incredibly tight though, and I could easily have gone the other way on another day. Think this will end up close regardless of who wins.

 

[kyear2]

I've just voted for Sobers. It's incredibly tight though, and I could easily have gone the other way on another day. Think this will end up close regardless of who wins.

No shame either way, this is the rarefied air of the pantheon.

 

[PlayerComparisons]

Tough one

 

[Patience and Accuracy+Gut]

I have Hobbs 2nd and Sobers 3rd as a batsman. Close but Hobbs just.

 

[subshakerz]

What could be a convincing case for putting Sobers ahead?

 

[shortpitched713]

What could be a convincing case for putting Sobers ahead?

If you've seen any video footage of him batting.

 

[271 & 16/166]

Both top five ATG, but Hobbs, made the hard runs by opening and his sheer rate of first class hundreds after the age of 40

 

[kyear2]

What could be a convincing case for putting Sobers ahead?

I would start out by saying I have no issues with Hobbs winning this, but to answer the question...

Sobers faced much better bowling, like exponentially better.

No one alive have seen Hobbs bat and none of us know what that looked like, and we've seen what Sobers can do

Sobers had to deal with much more travelling and much more varied conditions

Sobers had to deal with an insane bowling workload that had to impact his batting

 

[kyear2]

Both top five ATG, but Hobbs, made the hard runs by opening and his sheer rate of first class hundreds after the age of 40

Two points, I assume we're just factoring in tests, and what does it say about the competition that he was scoring 100s in his 40's?

 

[Bolo.]

I would start out by saying I have no issues with Hobbs winning this, but to answer the question...

Sobers faced much better bowling, like exponentially better.

No one alive have seen Hobbs bat and none of us know what that looked like, and we've seen what Sobers can do

Sobers had to deal with much more travelling and much more varied conditions

Sobers had to deal with an insane bowling workload that had to impact his batting

If you run with this logic, you end up rating a bunch of modern players ahead of both.

 

[_00_deathscar]

If you run with this logic, you end up rating a bunch of modern players ahead of both.

As one should. Maybe not the Sobers era but cricket is the only sport where a large portion of the best ever considered are from before the World Wars, when hardly anyone alive saw them play.

 

[capt_Luffy]

As one should. Maybe not the Sobers era but cricket is the only sport where a large portion of the best ever considered are from before the World Wars, when hardly anyone alive saw them play.

Really?? I don't think hardly anyone from back then but Don, Hobbs and Hammond are discussed for ATG teams, at most sometimes Barnes. I think if anything it's kinda sad how few people put W G Grace in their All Time XIs.....