The greatest batsman who averaged in the 40s

[TestMatch]

In this thread we determine who was the greatest batsman who ended their career averaging in the 40s.

My nominees are:

Kanhai (sorry Viv, Kanhai was the original king of swag)
Lloyd
KP
Sehwag
Jayawardene
Inzzie
Gilchrist
Greenidge

 

[mr_mister]

Neil Harvey
Peter May
Frank Worrell
Martin Crowe
Bruce Mitchell
Ted Dexter
Geoff Boycott
Graeme Smith
Bill Ponsford
Michael Clarke
Stan McCabe
Aravinda De Silva
Mark Waugh
Damian Martyn

 

[listento_me]

In this thread we determine who was the greatest batsman who ended their career averaging in the 40s.

My nominees are:

Kanhai (sorry Viv, Kanhai was the original king of swag)
Lloyd
KP
Sehwag
Jayawardene
Inzzie
Gilchrist
Greenidge

It's gotta be Inzy, surely?

 

[OverratedSanity]

Worrell

 

[Gob]

Clarke

 

[harsh.ag]

Worrell or Harvey or Kanhai.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

Harvey from Australia. The guy started having vision problems halfway through his career. Wearing glasses according to him wasn't in fashion. Just not the done thing. Couldn't read the scoreboard from the pitch.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

And of course Clarke had back problems

 

[Black_Warrior]

Justlin Langer
Saeed Anwar
Aravinda De Silva
Mohammad Azharuddin
Inzamam ul Haq
Graham Thorpe
VVS Laxman

 

[flibbertyjibber]

No mention of Gower yet which is a surprise.

 

[Coronis]

David Warner.

 

[Zinzan]

Martin Crowe, his 45 is probably worth 55 today... considering the bowlers he faced, lack of minnow opposition and the pitches he played on.

Also the fact he was probably more dominant vs. the two best opposition bowlers of his time, Malcolm Marshall and Wasim Akram than any other batsman.

 

[TestMatch]

Oh, Worrell's a good one. I could have sworn he averaged in the 60s like Headley.

I disagree with Clarke and Warner. Clarke didn't do enough abroad and Warner's too early in his career.

Mark Waugh is a hard guy to judge. He's a 90s ODI great and he had good test tons against everyone, but was hugely inconsistent.

It's gotta be Inzy, surely?

The greatest chubby batsman. That era was the last of the chubby cricketers. I still remember Ranatunga taking a catch off his rolling belly.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Laxman is basically Mark Waugh turned up to 11 imo. Much better batsman.

 

[grecian]

Gower and Zaheer Abbas for me, they're probably not the best, but they deserve mentioning over many here, batting in superior condions.

I think obtusely I'd go for Gilchrist though, for most of his career he was averaging well over 50, and the manner in which he counter-attacked was so key for that Oz team, and in the context of World Cricket at the time.

 

[mr_mister]

Laxman is basically Mark Waugh turned up to 11 imo. Much better batsman.

pretty crappy century-to-test ratio though for real

 

[andruid]

That bloke thay averaged 49.9 odd

 

[vcs]

Gower and Zaheer Abbas for me, they're probably not the best, but they deserve mentioning over many here, batting in superior condions.

I think obtusely I'd go for Gilchrist though, for most of his career he was averaging well over 50, and the manner in which he counter-attacked was so key for that Oz team, and in the context of World Cricket at the time.

Yeah. It was astonishing at the time how he managed to average that much for a huge part of his career striking at close to 100.

 

[Gnske]

Thilan Samaraweera

 

[Coronis]

That bloke thay averaged 49.9 odd

No such bloke.