Australian opening batsmen

[stephen]

How do you rank Australian openers? There have been some good ones over the years.

Warner
Hayden
Langer
Lawry
Simpson
Woodfull
Morris
Ponsford
Trumper

And a few others. Which do you rate most highly and why?

 

[TNT]

How do you rank Australian openers? There have been some good ones over the years.

Warner
Hayden
Langer
Lawry
Simpson
Woodfull
Morris
Ponsford
Trumper

And a few others. Which do you rate most highly and why?

I rate them all higher than any NZ opener in the same time period.

 

[ataraxia]

Off the top of my head I think my ranking is:

Simpson
Morris
Lawry
Trumper
Hayden
Ponsford
Woodfull
Sid Barnes
Warner
Bill Brown
Langer

 

[GoodAreasShane]

I rate them all higher than any NZ opener in the same time period.

Mark Richardson was alright for a while tbf

You would probably quite like his current career I imagine

 

[ataraxia]

http://www.cricketweb.net/forum/cricket-chat/81547-australian-openers.html

 

[Line and Length]

Barnes
Ponsford
Hayden
Morris
Simpson
Trumper
Warner
Lawry
Woodfull
Langer
Brown

Sid Barnes averaged 63 with Hayden next best with 50.7
The rest, apart from Trumper with 39, averaged in the mid to high 40s.
An impressive group!

 

[TheJediBrah]

How do you rank Australian openers? There have been some good ones over the years.

Warner
Hayden
Langer
Lawry
Simpson
Woodfull
Morris
Ponsford
Trumper

And a few others. Which do you rate most highly and why?

Looks like you've ranked them in order of cheater-ness

 

[Red]

Lawry is always underrated somewhat.

 

[mr_mister]

Slater is the true underrated one.

I actually rate him higher than most. Him and Taylor faced the hardest attacks too

 

[Dan]

1. Trumper
2. Daylight
3. Who cares

 

[stephen]

Lawry is always underrated somewhat.

Simpson, Lawry, Ponsford, Woodfull, Morris and even Hayden are all within 5 runs off each other, average-wise. It's really hard to split them.

 

[honestbharani]

1. Trumper
2. Daylight
3. Who cares

Murali Vijay > Trumper

 

[stephen]

Thanks everyone, you've all been a huge help with me figuring out my final draft pick (it was between Ponsford, Lawry, Woodfull and Morris). That last sentence was sarcasm.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Thanks everyone, you've all been a huge help with me figuring out my final draft pick (it was between Ponsford, Lawry, Woodfull and Morris). That last sentence was sarcasm.

this sentence was sarcasm? So it wasn't sarcasm? But if it wasn't sarcasm then it must be sarcasm because you said it was sarcasm?

Bro wtf

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Mind = blown

 

[Red]

Slater is the true underrated one.

I actually rate him higher than most. Him and Taylor faced the hardest attacks too

When I first started noticing Aust we had Marsh and Boon. Then Taylor arrived and Boon went to #3. After Marsh retired Slater came in and formed the partnership with Taylor.

I rate Taylor/Slater higher than I rate Hayden/Langer. Agree with you on the attacks- Taylor (and Slater) were facing Ambrose/Patterson/Walsh/Marshall and Waqar/Wasim/Imran. When SA returned it was Donald and DeVilliers.

 

[the big bambino]

Yeah would rate Slater highly though by the time he debuted the test careers of Patterson, Marshall and Imran were over. He did face some good English bowlers though. Also Bishop I believe.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Yeah would rate Slater highly though by the time he debuted the test careers of Patterson, Marshall and Imran were over. He did face some good English bowlers though. Also Bishop I believe.

People often underrate the English seamers of the 90s. Some of them were very dangerous, especially in England.

 

[Line and Length]

Bill Ponsford was something special. Of all the batsmen to score 10,000 or more first class runs, only Don Bradman (95.14) and Vijay Merchant (72.74) had batting averages superior to Ponsford's 65.18

In the 1926/27 and 27/28 seasons domestic seasons he scored 1,229 @ 122.90 and 1,217 @ 152.12 respectively. During those seasons he scored centuries in 10 consecutive matches.

His test batting average 2,122 @ 48.22 ranks him highly among Australian test openers. He received a battering in the 'Bodyline' series and was dropped twice despite a courageous 85 in the acrimonious 3rd Test in Adelaide. However, his final Ashes series, in England in 1934, saw him score 569 runs @ 94.83

"Ponny" retired prematurely at the age of 34 saying, "I am feeling the strain of the last tour. I am thirty four and when you get to that age you start to lose your keenness. ... Test cricket has become too serious. It is not a game anymore but a battle ... I can remember when it was all quite different to what it is now. I do not want to refer to that "bodyline" business—I am out of all that. Cricket was a different game before bodyline. Naturally I have a tinge of regret ... but it is better to go out of cricket before being dropped."
Arthur Mailey suspected that Ponsford's sensitivity to criticism, especially from the media, was a key factor behind the early retirement.