Battle For the Worst Opening Batsman of the 2000-Present Era.

[SillyCowCorner1]

Inspired by the openers in the team that I chose for the Sim League: Imran Nazir, Yasir Hameed, and Salman Butt.

They have been terrible for my team, so I thought of why can't we extrapolate and list more of them...

 

[harsh.ag]

Bangladesh and Zimbabwe kinda spoil the discussion.

 

[Slifer]

Any WI opener not named Chris Gayle or Kraig Braithwaite

 

[Daemon]

Martin Guptill

 

[OverratedSanity]

MSK Prasad played only one test in the period, but he's pretty clearly the worst.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Ravindu Shah of Kenya was a mug with the bat

 

[Howe_zat]

I had a look to see who each nation's worst opener has been in the time and came up with

Bangladesh - Mehrab Hossain
England - Adam Lyth
India - Aakash Chopra
New Zealand - Craig Cumming
Pakistan - Shan Masood
Sri Lanka - Lahiru Thirimanne
South Africa - Stiaan van Zyl
West Indies - Rajendra Chandrika
Zimbabwe - Stuart Matsikenyeri

The worst opener from Australia with more than a couple of innings is actually Ed Cowan, who averaged a just-about-acceptable 33. It's remarkable that not once in nearly 20 years have the Australians had a bloke come in at the top of the order for half a dozen tests and make a pig's ear of it, everyone else has had several.

 

[Moonsorrow999]

Alex Hales was kinda bad.

 

[Starfighter]

I know he's not even close to being the worst Bangladesh have had, but it's so tempting to say Imrul Kayes.

 

[Bijed]

I know he's not even close to being the worst Bangladesh have had, but it's so tempting to say Imrul Kayes.

Probably the worst to have played more than a handful of tests as an opener?

 

[Starfighter]

Probably the worst to have played more than a handful of tests as an opener?

Going by averages for the 2000's Javed Omar takes that one. 40 tests opening and averaged only 22.

 

[quincywagstaff]

The worst opener from Australia with more than a couple of innings is actually Ed Cowan, who averaged a just-about-acceptable 33. It's remarkable that not once in nearly 20 years have the Australians had a bloke come in at the top of the order for half a dozen tests and make a pig's ear of it, everyone else has had several.

Discounting Robbie Kerr who only played 2 Tests, you have to go back to Andrew Hilditch for someone with a lower average and he still averaged 31. Sub-30 you have to go back to John Dyson.

 

[quincywagstaff]

It was unusual cirumstances and a one-off to be sure, but the worst batsman to open a Test innings this century would surely have to be Morne Morkel.

 

[GoodAreasShane]

NZ persisted with Guptill in tests for far longer than they should have, quality limited overs opener but all he provided against the red ball was catching practice for the slips.

 

[_Ed_]

New Zealand - Craig Cumming

All of these were worse, IMO.

Jamie How | Cricket Players and Officials | ESPN Cricinfo
James Marshall | Cricket Players and Officials | ESPN Cricinfo
Rob Nicol | Cricket Players and Officials | ESPN Cricinfo
Aaron Redmond | Cricket Players and Officials | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[Mike5181]

All of these were worse, IMO.

Jamie How | Cricket Players and Officials | ESPN Cricinfo
James Marshall | Cricket Players and Officials | ESPN Cricinfo
Rob Nicol | Cricket Players and Officials | ESPN Cricinfo
Aaron Redmond | Cricket Players and Officials | ESPN Cricinfo

Peter Ingram was pretty successful at first-class level, but he was never going to come off in test cricket either.

 

[_Ed_]

Of course! Him too. I completely forgot about him.

 

[Flem274*]

did johnson charles ever get a test? between him and james marshall imo

 

[S.Kennedy]

When I saw ''worst'' I immediately thought, ''how many Cook batting partners can one nominate''?

 

[Starfighter]

did johnson charles ever get a test? between him and james marshall imo

Nope. Charles never played a test thankfully. I found it so amusing whenever he did well because he was so obviously not even close to being international standard the rest of the time.