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Best number 3 of all time?

Slifer

International Captain
Either position actually. Wi had both Viv and Brian at 3 and 4. NZ their best is at 3. Then again India and Australia have their best at 4 and before Kohli, Sachin was at 4. So I'd say both 3 and 4 tend to have the best player.
 

Red

The normal awards that everyone else has
When you’ve got Dravid or Pujara at 3 there’s no logical reason for Tendulkar or Kohli to bat 3
 

Slifer

International Captain
Sachin batted at 4 long before Dravid joined the Indian team. Best batsmalen bat at either 4 or 3 it appears.
 

Immenso

International Vice-Captain
Either position actually. Wi had both Viv and Brian at 3 and 4. NZ their best is at 3. Then again India and Australia have their best at 4 and before Kohli, Sachin was at 4. So I'd say both 3 and 4 tend to have the best player.
This is not the traditional thinking in NZ, though.

NZ is traditionally in the England-style thinking of having a 3rd-opener style player at 3, with the 'best' batsman more protected at 4. Because of the typical traditional (green) conditions.

Not always the case, though. Williamson and Fleming (in parts) and early Geoff Howarth are examples of NZ's best batsman at the time batting 3.

Actually, we just have such a terrible batting heritage that this trend is not easy to spot once you get to our test team ....
 

Slifer

International Captain
Not always. Many openers have been the best batsmen in their teams. Sobers, S Waugh, and Clarke had times of being the best and being at 5, while Vettori was the best for 2-3 years and was at 8!
I respectfully disagree. I can only think of Gavaskar, Hobbs and Hutton who were the best among their teammates. Ditto number 5s like Waugh and Sobers.

For every Sobers there's a : Headley, Lara, Viv, Weekes

For a Waugh/Border: Don, Ricky, Smith, Chappell etc

Pakistan: Javed, Inzi, Younis, Babar

Etc etc
 

thierry henry

International Coach
There seem to be a lot of valid holes that you can poke in Williamson's record - is the fact that his success has been batting #3 in a team who typically had at least one poor opener a bit of a counterpoint?
 

Slifer

International Captain
For openers, Cook, Gooch, Vaughan, Karunaratne, Brathwaite and Anwar have all been their teams best bats at points and opened
No. Gooch wasn't better than Gower, Anwar wasn't better than Inzi and Cook wasn't better than Kevin.

The fact of the matter is, you look at most teams, their best tend to be middle order and particularly 3 and 4. Maybe that's because opening is inherently more difficult idk.
 

Jfry

U19 Debutant
No. Gooch wasn't better than Gower, Anwar wasn't better than Inzi and Cook wasn't better than Kevin.

The fact of the matter is, you look at most teams, their best tend to be middle order and particularly 3 and 4. Maybe that's because opening is inherently more difficult idk.
Gooch was clearly better than Gower towards the end of their careers, Anwar was certainly better in the 90's before average inflation occurred and from 2010-2014 Cook was streets ahead of Kev
 

AndrewB

International Vice-Captain
Barrington has a really top record at 3 and is a much underrated player - nowhere more so than in England.

He's never mentioned in the same terms as the likes of Hammond, May, Hutton, Hobbs and Compton.

Maybe it's due to his style of batting or the fact he was better abroad than at home but the more you analyse his stats, the more impressive a player he looks.
I think it's more a case of he was never mentioned in the same terms as May and Compton - I bet if we had an "England players draft" Barrington would get picked before them.

Besides the issue of stylish batting, you can see why the older England fans in the 1980s (with a bias towards remembering Ashes Tests) would have happier memories of May and Compton, who played in the Ashes wins in 1953, 54/5, 56, than of Barrington, who played in the 5 series in the 60s, none of which England won. Although Barrington was clearly England's top batsman in those series, and has a far better average against Australia than May or Compton, you couldn't say "remember that great innings by Ken which won/retained us the Ashes?" He didn't even play a notable innings in any of the Tests which England won.
 

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