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Top Batsmen with 20 or Fewer Tests

Magrat Garlick

Magrat Garlick

Rather Mad Witch
Aritro said:
Every time I read something about cricket in America, I wish it had survived there as a major sport.
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every time i look into baseball fandom it seems to be a distorted mirror image of cricket fandom and it would be better if the two merged somehow
 
Immenso

Immenso

International Vice-Captain
Martin Donnelly's career was war interrupted. But also he stayed on in Europe after the completion of the war and went to Oxford University and then settled there and played for Warwickshire. (He also played one rugby test match for England). So, he also missed all NZ's post war test cricket apart from their 1949 tour of England.

No tests between 1937 and 1949.
 
Immenso

Immenso

International Vice-Captain
Stu Dempster. According to a Jared Kimber recent youtube video I watched. Got signed up by a rich English aristocrat's travelling cricket team. Can't remember the name - looking at his career, I assume it is H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI? But he didn't play many FC matches for these gentlemen style XI's, so did they play mainly sub-FC level cricket?

Anyway. He was 30 when he stopped playing test cricket, so that is reasonably respectable for the era. But he was playing county cricket after that.

Looking in the archive. Unlike Donnelly (as per above post) he didn't play for NZ on their 1937 tour of England even though he was in the country at the time- he was active in county cricket for Leicestershire at the time. Annoyingly - he averaged 54 in FC cricket that English season and scoring 5 centuries:

The actual NZ squad managed 12 FC centuries between them that season out of a tour consisting of 29 FC matches.
 
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Line and Length

Line and Length

International Coach
I agree with the comments regarding Law. He, along with Hodge, would have played many more Tests had they represented another country or played in another era (now?) for Australia.
 
TheJediBrah

TheJediBrah

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Hodge was better than Law. Could have genuinely been a 50 averaging Test batsman. Big call but probably better than Damien Martyn for most of his career IMO but didn't get the chances, also nowhere near as good to watch.
 
stephen

stephen

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
TheJediBrah said:
Hodge was better than Law. Could have genuinely been a 50 averaging Test batsman. Big call but probably better than Damien Martyn for most of his career IMO but didn't get the chances, also nowhere near as good to watch.
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Spot the Victorian :p

The entire 90s Australian second XI batting line-up is better than anyone not named Smith, Labuschagne or Warner. Lordy-lu. Can you imagine the rope Bevan would be given if he were in his prime now? 100+ test player for the current Australian outfit.
 
honestbharani

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
_00_deathscar said:
Not sure about actual mental health issues, but a lot was said about his attitude - and at times post-career it has also come through. He does seem a bit bitter, but maybe reasonably so.
Far lesser players were given a longer leash - quite a few have played 20-30-40 or so tests.

Of course there's no substitute for a good attitude, but I think he should have been at least allowed to fail, rather than binning him off with a ~55 average.
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A rumor that has been going around is that he apparently got drunk and slapped Azhar for choosing to bowl in the 96 WC semis. He did not play much post that. And it was not like he had a poor world cup either.
 
Nintendo

Nintendo

Cricketer Of The Year
stephen said:
Spot the Victorian :p

The entire 90s Australian second XI batting line-up is better than anyone not named Smith, Labuschagne or Warner. Lordy-lu. Can you imagine the rope Bevan would be given if he were in his prime now? 100+ test player for the current Australian outfit.
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Early days, but reckon green and potentially Pucovski are as good as any of the Australia A/shield veterans from the 90's-2000's. I'm not as huge on Pucovski as other guys here, but green has all the makings of a 70+ test high 40 - 50average batsmen about him.
 
0

_00_deathscar

International Regular
Nintendo said:
Early days, but reckon green and potentially Pucovski are as good as any of the Australia A/shield veterans from the 90's-2000's. I'm not as huge on Pucovski as other guys here, but green has all the makings of a 70+ test high 40 - 50average batsmen about him.
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That's a huge call.
 
Nintendo

Nintendo

Cricketer Of The Year
_00_deathscar said:
That's a huge call.
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Kids got all the shots in the book, a great defensive technique, great conversion rate both from 50 to 100 and 100 to 150-200 scores, Is great under pressure, and is constantly working on his game. Got found out early on vs India and bumrah/Siraj worked him over and got him lbw, so he adapted. Having all of those + a ton of other assets at his age is HUGE, don't think it's that massive a call.
 
Migara

Migara

International Coach
Although never played tests, Mahadevan Sathasivam, Steven Tikolo and Ryan ten Doschate woukd trump many of the above batsmen.
 
Migara

Migara

International Coach
TheJediBrah said:
Really? FC average of 37 and list A of 20. Belong on this list? I doubt it
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Sangakkara's FC averages sans tests is 37 too. He is practically better than all of those on that list. Sl FC pitches are bad. Any FC bowling or batting average should be added 10 to have an idea about it.
 
TheJediBrah

TheJediBrah

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Migara said:
Sangakkara's FC averages sans tests is 37 too. He is practically better than all of those on that list. Sl FC pitches are bad. Any FC bowling or batting average should be added 10 to have an idea about it.
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So what do the good bowlers average in SL first-class cricket? 10-15?

edit: yeah actually I don't buy this at all. I've played with quite a few SL first-class cricketers and every one of them has said that there are too many sides and the standard is pretty bad. A good mate of mine played over 30 FC games in SL in the early-2000s and averaged 35, and he was good but not incredible.
 
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