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Nominate your top 15 best ever test opening batsmen - another in my countdown series
- Thread starter mr_mister
- Start date
TNT
Banned
No drama, overlook my list as I cant see myself putting any order to my list.
TheJediBrah
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Hayden
Sehwag
Cook
Warner
Langer
G.Smith
Vaughan
Strauss
Kirsten
Gayle
Saeed Anwar
Katich
Rogers
Trescothick
Azhar Ali
I know my list is **** but I only went with players that I've seen because otherwise I'm relying too much on stats and secondhand reports
Sehwag
Cook
Warner
Langer
G.Smith
Vaughan
Strauss
Kirsten
Gayle
Saeed Anwar
Katich
Rogers
Trescothick
Azhar Ali
I know my list is **** but I only went with players that I've seen because otherwise I'm relying too much on stats and secondhand reports
Red_Ink_Squid
Global Moderator
Hutton
Hobbs
Grace
Sutcliffe
Gavaskar
Sehwag
Boycott
B Richards
Simpson
G Smith
Greenidge
Lawry
Hunte
Trumper
Gooch
Hobbs
Grace
Sutcliffe
Gavaskar
Sehwag
Boycott
B Richards
Simpson
G Smith
Greenidge
Lawry
Hunte
Trumper
Gooch
trundler
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Sorry for the delay. I'm well-aware of how much my opinion on matters relating to cricket history is sought after but the delay was for a good reason. At first I thought I'd do a sem-troll list but then I realized the world would be far worse off if all of us acted like Australians.
I thought of several ways of going about this - grouping batsmen by country, their strengths and weaknesses, whether they were attacking or defensive but in the end settled for a chronological order. We start off with the Golden Age - the first era in which test cricket came to the fore of public conscience and began to be seen as the pinnacle of the sport. Sadly, we must therefore omit those greats whose feats preceded the Golden Age and took place in FC rather than test matches. Any list of batsmen would still be incomplete without mention of Grace and Shrewsbury. In the period preceding The Great War, one man towered above his contemporaries in a manner exceeded only by The Don. John Berry Hobbs's career spanned over 3 decades but it was this period with which he liked to be identified. Before the War, Hobbs was attacking and exhilarating, often scoring at run-a-minute. Hobbs averaged over 50 and perhaps excelled even his other great contemporary, Victor Trumper, in attack. Everyone has heard of the story of Grace passing on the bat, so to speak, to Trumper whom he viewed as his successor. Trumper was the cricketing equivalent of a unicorn, a superbly attacking opener - the rarest of the rare breeds of cricketers. Trumper continued to be the poster-boy of Australian batsmanship until he too was overtaken by one Donald George Bradman. Besides these 2, there was another who merits a mention here - Herbie Taylor who was perhaps one of the greatest players on matting wickets. His claim to this is particularly strong as he's the only batter who can claim to have said to have had some success against SF Barnes on matting wickets where he was absolutely devastating. From the pre-War period we then have Hobbs, Trumper and Taylor.
Batting conditions became fairly easy in the inter-war period as the quality of pitches dramatically improved. Now there was Herbert Sutcliffe to partner Hobbs at the top of the English batting order. The 2 formed the greatest opening partnership the game has seen. Sutcliffe's average never dipped below 50. It is understandable why Hobbs is considered his superior owing to historic reasons but Herb is overlooked all too often. It is true that he was a defensive batsmen who made generous use of the old LBW rule but he ferociously hooked and pulled against the pacers. Hutton credits him with the best hook he'd seen. What makes the situation even more baffling is the fact that Sutcliffe did even better than his career average against the Old Enemy. His career was a bit shorter than his more celebrated predecessor and successor though. Taylor and Hobbs continued their careers post War and some new names emerged too.
Warren Bardsley was a gritty left-hander who usually opened the batting. He was noted for his crouching stance and if I may speculate a bit here, this may liken him to Border to an extent. Bardsley was succeeded by Woodfull - a hard as nails character who is noted for his graceful leadership and obdurate batting. The resilience he showed against Bodyline is the stuff of legends. Besides Woodfull, there was Ponsford who had a relatively short career. Ponsford had a hunger for daddy hundreds and a tendency to go big which was again only excelled by The Don. Ponsford held the record for the highest score in Shield cricket before being overtaken by Bradman. Bill Brown was next in the line of great Australian openers. His career was interrupted by War and he ended on a high with The Invincibles in 1948.
A special mention is merited by a certain South African who still has a claim to being his country's greatest test opener. Bruce Mitchell's batting was certainly substance over style. He wasn't very flashy but has one of the highest averages whilst opening the batting. He did very well against England but only met Australia a few times. In one of those he struggled but to be fair that was Grimmett's record-breaking tour and Mitchell too had more success as a bowler. He finished his career with most runs for South Africa and just 1 century short of Nourse's 9.
Of course, one notable name is missing from the above recollection. Sir Leonard Hutton was perhaps the most technically astute batsman ever. His career came at a unique point such that he mastered Australia's spin centric attack led by Tiger O'Reilly before WW2 and then went on to neutralize Lindwall and Miller's fury after it. Hutton overcame a ridiculous amount in his illustrious career. Owing to a war injury one of his arms was 2 inches shorter than the other and so he had to alter his playing style to play within himself. His 364* against an Australian attack containing O'Reilly is remembered to this day and it wasn't even his greatest achievement. Hutton led England to a remarkable Ashes victory in 1954-55 and he was the first professional to do so. The South African and West Indian teams Hutton faced were increasingly strong unlike before with decent pace attacks and he succeeded against them as well. That brings us up to speed with the period before World War 2. Hobbs, Trumper, Taylor, Sutcliffe. Ponsford, Mitchell and Hutton make the cut from this period.
After the War, Morris was the first great Australian opener. Many tout him as the finest that nation produced. He was a quick-scoring left-hander. His career was one of 2 halves. In the first he averaged over 60 with an excellent conversion rate and in the latter half he fell away. Some credit this to the rising standard of English attacks as his career progressed - Trueman, Statham, Tyson, Laker etc must've been a daunting challenge. Nevertheless, Morris finished with an excellent all-round record. After him, Simpson and Lawry took some time to get going but soon became one of the greatest opening partnerships, doing well in England and at home too. Simpson moved up and down the order but flourished at the top where he averaged over 50. His overall record is hurt a bit by the series he played against WI in '78 coming straight out of retirement. Lawry was solid as a rock and perhaps one of the more underrated performers. He started out as dashing strokemaker who became an obdurate accumulator later on - a Barrington-esque trajectory. Lawry was famously labeled a corpse with pads on by the English. Simpson and Lawry were excellent runners between the wickets and kept the scoreboard ticking.
In the same period, Edrich and Boycott emerged from England. Barrington occasionally opened when needed too. And now we veer off into the modern age. But before we do that, we have 2 masters from 2 emergent nations we ought to take a look at. Hanif Mohammad was the first great batsman Pakistan produced and his 970 minutes long triple is one of the greatest innings ever played. Vijay Merchant was more of a pre-war cricketer but I thought it fit to group him with Hanif. Merchant has one of the highest FC averages and was likewise the first great of his country.
I suppose a simple recollection will be enough for the modern period. Gavaskar and Boycott were a challenge for spectators and bowlers alike. Greenidge took apart bowling attacks like no other when on song. Turner like Hanif for Pakistan had a major hand in NZ's newfound successes. Gooch was an excellent player of pace and peaked superbly later in his career. From then on we have Kirsten, Anwar, Slater, Taylor, Langer, Hayden, Sehwag, Smith, Cook, Gayle and Warner.
The list
Hobbs
Hutton
Gavaskar
Sutcliffe
Trumper
Greenidge
Simpson
Boycott
Morris
Smith G
Sehwag
Kirsten
Cook
Turner
Lawry
I thought of several ways of going about this - grouping batsmen by country, their strengths and weaknesses, whether they were attacking or defensive but in the end settled for a chronological order. We start off with the Golden Age - the first era in which test cricket came to the fore of public conscience and began to be seen as the pinnacle of the sport. Sadly, we must therefore omit those greats whose feats preceded the Golden Age and took place in FC rather than test matches. Any list of batsmen would still be incomplete without mention of Grace and Shrewsbury. In the period preceding The Great War, one man towered above his contemporaries in a manner exceeded only by The Don. John Berry Hobbs's career spanned over 3 decades but it was this period with which he liked to be identified. Before the War, Hobbs was attacking and exhilarating, often scoring at run-a-minute. Hobbs averaged over 50 and perhaps excelled even his other great contemporary, Victor Trumper, in attack. Everyone has heard of the story of Grace passing on the bat, so to speak, to Trumper whom he viewed as his successor. Trumper was the cricketing equivalent of a unicorn, a superbly attacking opener - the rarest of the rare breeds of cricketers. Trumper continued to be the poster-boy of Australian batsmanship until he too was overtaken by one Donald George Bradman. Besides these 2, there was another who merits a mention here - Herbie Taylor who was perhaps one of the greatest players on matting wickets. His claim to this is particularly strong as he's the only batter who can claim to have said to have had some success against SF Barnes on matting wickets where he was absolutely devastating. From the pre-War period we then have Hobbs, Trumper and Taylor.
Batting conditions became fairly easy in the inter-war period as the quality of pitches dramatically improved. Now there was Herbert Sutcliffe to partner Hobbs at the top of the English batting order. The 2 formed the greatest opening partnership the game has seen. Sutcliffe's average never dipped below 50. It is understandable why Hobbs is considered his superior owing to historic reasons but Herb is overlooked all too often. It is true that he was a defensive batsmen who made generous use of the old LBW rule but he ferociously hooked and pulled against the pacers. Hutton credits him with the best hook he'd seen. What makes the situation even more baffling is the fact that Sutcliffe did even better than his career average against the Old Enemy. His career was a bit shorter than his more celebrated predecessor and successor though. Taylor and Hobbs continued their careers post War and some new names emerged too.
Warren Bardsley was a gritty left-hander who usually opened the batting. He was noted for his crouching stance and if I may speculate a bit here, this may liken him to Border to an extent. Bardsley was succeeded by Woodfull - a hard as nails character who is noted for his graceful leadership and obdurate batting. The resilience he showed against Bodyline is the stuff of legends. Besides Woodfull, there was Ponsford who had a relatively short career. Ponsford had a hunger for daddy hundreds and a tendency to go big which was again only excelled by The Don. Ponsford held the record for the highest score in Shield cricket before being overtaken by Bradman. Bill Brown was next in the line of great Australian openers. His career was interrupted by War and he ended on a high with The Invincibles in 1948.
A special mention is merited by a certain South African who still has a claim to being his country's greatest test opener. Bruce Mitchell's batting was certainly substance over style. He wasn't very flashy but has one of the highest averages whilst opening the batting. He did very well against England but only met Australia a few times. In one of those he struggled but to be fair that was Grimmett's record-breaking tour and Mitchell too had more success as a bowler. He finished his career with most runs for South Africa and just 1 century short of Nourse's 9.
Of course, one notable name is missing from the above recollection. Sir Leonard Hutton was perhaps the most technically astute batsman ever. His career came at a unique point such that he mastered Australia's spin centric attack led by Tiger O'Reilly before WW2 and then went on to neutralize Lindwall and Miller's fury after it. Hutton overcame a ridiculous amount in his illustrious career. Owing to a war injury one of his arms was 2 inches shorter than the other and so he had to alter his playing style to play within himself. His 364* against an Australian attack containing O'Reilly is remembered to this day and it wasn't even his greatest achievement. Hutton led England to a remarkable Ashes victory in 1954-55 and he was the first professional to do so. The South African and West Indian teams Hutton faced were increasingly strong unlike before with decent pace attacks and he succeeded against them as well. That brings us up to speed with the period before World War 2. Hobbs, Trumper, Taylor, Sutcliffe. Ponsford, Mitchell and Hutton make the cut from this period.
After the War, Morris was the first great Australian opener. Many tout him as the finest that nation produced. He was a quick-scoring left-hander. His career was one of 2 halves. In the first he averaged over 60 with an excellent conversion rate and in the latter half he fell away. Some credit this to the rising standard of English attacks as his career progressed - Trueman, Statham, Tyson, Laker etc must've been a daunting challenge. Nevertheless, Morris finished with an excellent all-round record. After him, Simpson and Lawry took some time to get going but soon became one of the greatest opening partnerships, doing well in England and at home too. Simpson moved up and down the order but flourished at the top where he averaged over 50. His overall record is hurt a bit by the series he played against WI in '78 coming straight out of retirement. Lawry was solid as a rock and perhaps one of the more underrated performers. He started out as dashing strokemaker who became an obdurate accumulator later on - a Barrington-esque trajectory. Lawry was famously labeled a corpse with pads on by the English. Simpson and Lawry were excellent runners between the wickets and kept the scoreboard ticking.
In the same period, Edrich and Boycott emerged from England. Barrington occasionally opened when needed too. And now we veer off into the modern age. But before we do that, we have 2 masters from 2 emergent nations we ought to take a look at. Hanif Mohammad was the first great batsman Pakistan produced and his 970 minutes long triple is one of the greatest innings ever played. Vijay Merchant was more of a pre-war cricketer but I thought it fit to group him with Hanif. Merchant has one of the highest FC averages and was likewise the first great of his country.
I suppose a simple recollection will be enough for the modern period. Gavaskar and Boycott were a challenge for spectators and bowlers alike. Greenidge took apart bowling attacks like no other when on song. Turner like Hanif for Pakistan had a major hand in NZ's newfound successes. Gooch was an excellent player of pace and peaked superbly later in his career. From then on we have Kirsten, Anwar, Slater, Taylor, Langer, Hayden, Sehwag, Smith, Cook, Gayle and Warner.
The list
Hobbs
Hutton
Gavaskar
Sutcliffe
Trumper
Greenidge
Simpson
Boycott
Morris
Smith G
Sehwag
Kirsten
Cook
Turner
Lawry
honestbharani
Whatever it takes!!!
ok
honestbharani
Whatever it takes!!!
ok
ataraxia
International Coach
If you want likes it's best to compare the players (and not cheap out of writing about the modern day).
ataraxia
International Coach
Unlucky.
SillyCowCorner1
Moooo
Always do a draft.