capt_Luffy
Hall of Fame Member
Vote for the Best Batsman here
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Best English Test Batsman Post Len Hutton
- Thread starter capt_Luffy
- Start date
shortpitched713
Cricketer Of The Year
If you excluded Joe Root, this would be far, far more interesting, as he's winning this by 17 miles.
In such a poll I would pro ably go KP, but as I said could be a lot more interesting.
Edit: Nvm Barrington is there too, so would go him. Still a more interesting poll though, for mine
Johan
Hall of Fame Member
KP is arguably the worst batter here, between him and Cook
shortpitched713
Cricketer Of The Year
Didn't see him, edited post accordingly.
PlayerComparisons
International Captain
Yea deleted mine after seeing your edit lolDidn't see him, edited post accordingly.
PlayerComparisons
International Captain
Barrington has absurd stats but poor longevity by ATG standards
Thala_0710
International Captain
Root easily and as mentioned previously, no 3 after Hutton, Root is the real debate.
Johan
Hall of Fame Member
he's number 5
Thala_0710
International Captain
I meant post war
kyear2
Hall of Fame Member
I think Brook has so much ability and potential, and he genuinely has a chance to be seen as an ATG and filling two vital roles on their AT team. I'm definitely one who's rooting for him.
Just remember the legacy of one Kevin Pietersen, and let's not out the horse ahead of the cart.
He is special though.
Al Salvador
School Boy/Girl Cricketer
Always wondered why you don't talk about Kevin Pietersen. He fits in your idea of perfect batsman. Destructive all conditions player who took on the best bowlers in the world. Strike rate in 60s which is very high for top 4 batsman. Played some of the greatest innings of all time. Agree with your Brook assessment, he can end as ATG. Similar to KP very destructive and likely all conditions player.
Coronis
Hall of Fame Member
He wasn’t a good slip fielder.
govinda indian fan
International Debutant
Kp has atg series winning 186 vs ashwin(through early in his career). Brook failed on turning tracks in pak. Wait till he does something vs quality spin in sc
Johan
Hall of Fame Member
I often say how I think some analysis on Cricket is very often lazy, it usually comes down to the basics – away record like all countries equate toward one skillset and a similar level of difficulty, countries being equated to each other as if attacks and wickets don't change and so forth. For example, averaging 60 in 2010-11 Ashes would be decent overall but nothing all that special, but averaging 60-65 in 2021-22 Ashes would be an ATG effort, because the advancement of the attack and change in the nature of the wickets. On the Inverse, averaging 60 in West Indies in 1998 is a borderline great series but averaging the same in 2008 is not the same.
West Indies was quite an extreme example, but the idea stands, look at the current Shubhman Gill series in England, he has made 610 runs in 3 games and if a real road is serverd for all we know he can go past 800 in the very next game, breaking Steven Smith's 2019 Ashes number but does anyone remotely think his batsmanship has been comparable to that? obviously not, and unlike West Indies, there's no decline in English Cricket, as English Cricket in 2025 is in a far healthier state than it was in 2021 or 2018 but scoring today is substantially easier.
I think a similar concept can be applied to Barrington vs Boycott, Barrington had two tours of Australia, with relatively high batting averages very akin to what you would see in Australia in 2000s or 2010s.
1962-63 – 34.00
1965-66 – 39.79
Overall – 36.58
Geoffrey had many more tours
1965-66 – 39.79
1970-71 – 34.72
1978-79 – 20.68
1979-80 – 25.64
Overall – 29.86
For example, Peter May
1954-55 – 24.96
1958-59 – 25.76
Overall – 25.36
As we can see, Boycott had two tours resembling Barrington's tour levels of difficulty and then two completely different, 1978-79 is quite literally the lowest scoring series in Australia since the 1880s, the 1890s and the 1900s Ashes tours, the 1950s Ashes, 2021 etc are all behind it. Showing us how spicy it was. Boycott near 40 had to cope with those conditions. After the 1970-71 Ashes, Boycott was averaging 68 in Australia and was one of the core causes alongside Snow for England regaining the Ashes in 1970-71, for the first time since 1958-59.
so the question becomes, is Barrington so much better in Australia because he played less and got substantially higher scoring serieses due to the nature of the wickets?
Let's look at the Home Ashes, for Barrington
1961 – 30.43
1964 – 33.17
1968 – 31.67
Overall – 31.66
Now for Boycott
1964 – 35.53
1968 – 27.54
1972 – 21.95
1977 – 27.92
1980 – 43.72 (single test, Boycott made most of the runs)
1981 – 24.33
Overall – 27.71
Not even the biggest Barrington fan would claim that Boycott was inferior in home Ashes, but this leads to more validity to my argument. English pitches atleast somewhat resemble in 1960s and 1970s, Australian pitches from 60s and late 70s are incomparable, they just happen to be the same country, When you look at the two series Geoffrey played where he was in his prime (basically Barrington's whole career), he comes out averaging similar and having arguably superior performance.
Generally, this is kind of my issue when people compare away records like blank slates, the wickets in England under bazball and the wickets in England under Silverwood are incomparably different and they are a few years apart, compare the wickets for the 2017 Ashes and 2021 Ashes and they are again, incomparably different even though few years apart. There is really no way to compare overseas stats without looking into the context of the serieses players played. It could be a Shubhman Gill 600+ in three games vs a Rahul Dravid 2011 for all we know.
Overall, I do think Boycott is perfectly comparable to Barrington, twice as long career, opened, matches his performance in Australia in the high scoring serieses and his average had the unfortunate impact by playing in the lowest scoring series in Australia since 1880s, is clearly better at home too. Think Boycott has a good case to be number 2 or 3 here, depending on how one evaluates May.
West Indies was quite an extreme example, but the idea stands, look at the current Shubhman Gill series in England, he has made 610 runs in 3 games and if a real road is serverd for all we know he can go past 800 in the very next game, breaking Steven Smith's 2019 Ashes number but does anyone remotely think his batsmanship has been comparable to that? obviously not, and unlike West Indies, there's no decline in English Cricket, as English Cricket in 2025 is in a far healthier state than it was in 2021 or 2018 but scoring today is substantially easier.
I think a similar concept can be applied to Barrington vs Boycott, Barrington had two tours of Australia, with relatively high batting averages very akin to what you would see in Australia in 2000s or 2010s.
1962-63 – 34.00
1965-66 – 39.79
Overall – 36.58
Geoffrey had many more tours
1965-66 – 39.79
1970-71 – 34.72
1978-79 – 20.68
1979-80 – 25.64
Overall – 29.86
For example, Peter May
1954-55 – 24.96
1958-59 – 25.76
Overall – 25.36
As we can see, Boycott had two tours resembling Barrington's tour levels of difficulty and then two completely different, 1978-79 is quite literally the lowest scoring series in Australia since the 1880s, the 1890s and the 1900s Ashes tours, the 1950s Ashes, 2021 etc are all behind it. Showing us how spicy it was. Boycott near 40 had to cope with those conditions. After the 1970-71 Ashes, Boycott was averaging 68 in Australia and was one of the core causes alongside Snow for England regaining the Ashes in 1970-71, for the first time since 1958-59.
so the question becomes, is Barrington so much better in Australia because he played less and got substantially higher scoring serieses due to the nature of the wickets?
Let's look at the Home Ashes, for Barrington
1961 – 30.43
1964 – 33.17
1968 – 31.67
Overall – 31.66
Now for Boycott
1964 – 35.53
1968 – 27.54
1972 – 21.95
1977 – 27.92
1980 – 43.72 (single test, Boycott made most of the runs)
1981 – 24.33
Overall – 27.71
Not even the biggest Barrington fan would claim that Boycott was inferior in home Ashes, but this leads to more validity to my argument. English pitches atleast somewhat resemble in 1960s and 1970s, Australian pitches from 60s and late 70s are incomparable, they just happen to be the same country, When you look at the two series Geoffrey played where he was in his prime (basically Barrington's whole career), he comes out averaging similar and having arguably superior performance.
Generally, this is kind of my issue when people compare away records like blank slates, the wickets in England under bazball and the wickets in England under Silverwood are incomparably different and they are a few years apart, compare the wickets for the 2017 Ashes and 2021 Ashes and they are again, incomparably different even though few years apart. There is really no way to compare overseas stats without looking into the context of the serieses players played. It could be a Shubhman Gill 600+ in three games vs a Rahul Dravid 2011 for all we know.
Overall, I do think Boycott is perfectly comparable to Barrington, twice as long career, opened, matches his performance in Australia in the high scoring serieses and his average had the unfortunate impact by playing in the lowest scoring series in Australia since 1880s, is clearly better at home too. Think Boycott has a good case to be number 2 or 3 here, depending on how one evaluates May.
