Cricket Web All Time World XI

[Blaze]

Gavaskar and Hobbs, in that order.

Bradman at 3

Sachin at 4

5 is a toughie.

6 would be Sobers/Imran

7 Gilchrist

8, 9, 10, 11....now thats going to be interesting..

Let us not jump the gun

 

[Zinzan]

Gavaskar and Hobbs, in that order.

Bradman at 3

Sachin at 4

5 is a toughie.

6 would be Sobers/Imran

7 Gilchrist

8, 9, 10, 11....now thats going to be interesting..

Some people just can't read or are just plain lazy

 

[Googenheim]

What mate !!!? What'd I do??

 

[Tony Blade]

You were supposed to vote for each position, starting from the top..with everyone.

 

[Boofra]

Sunny Gavaskar

Averaged 51 over 120 Test Matches. Moreover, averaged an astonishing 65 against the West Indies who, during his career, fielded some of the best quicks of all time. Fabulous player; fabulous temperament.

Gavaskar's record vs the West Indies and their great pace attacks is actually one of the great myths in cricket history. Not that im trying to take anything away from Gavaskar as a cricketer, but his numbers vs the great Windies pacemen of the 70's & 80's are very misleading.

His overall record vs the Windies is 27 test played for 2749 runs @ 65.45 with 13 hundreds. However, when you break those numbers down series by series you'll see what im talking about. In ther 1970/71 series, Gavaskar scored 774 runs @ 154 with 4 hundreds. But in this series none of the geat Windies pacemen, of which Andy Roberts was the first to hit the scene, had yet to make their debut.

In the 74/75 series, he only played 2 matches for 107 runs. Andy Roberts played in both matches. During the 75/76 series he scored 390 runs @ 55 with 2 hundreds. Roberts and Holding played in this series.

During the 78/79 series at home, Gavaskar scored 732 runs @ 90 with 4 hundreds. Malcolm Marshall was the only one of the great Windies pacemen to play in this series, however even he didnt play in the matches where Sunny scored 205 & 73 in the 1st test or in the 4th test where Suny scored 120.

During the 82/83 series, Gavaskar scored 240 runs @ 30 from 9 innings with one of those innings being 147* (so the other 8 totaled just 93 runs). This was the only time Gavaskar came up against the West Indies quartet of great fast bowlers - Holding, Roberts, Marshall, Garner.

During the 83/84 series, Gavaskar scored 505 runs @ 50 with 2 hundreds. However, almost half of these were scored when he made 236* in the drawn last test. Take out that one score and he averaged 26 for the series. Holding, Marshall and Roberts played in this series.

So to sum up, when he came up against atleast 2 of the great Windies pacemen he averaged 44.7 with 4 hundreds from 13 tests. When he came up against atleast 3 of the great Windies pacemen he averaged 41 with 3 hundreds from 11 tests. In matches against the Windies containing either 1 or none of their great pacemen he averaged 86 with 9 hundreds.

So there you go, numbers can be very deceiving. Having said all that i still think Gavaskar is one of the greatest openers of all-time. Although i'll nominate Barry Richards for the purpose of this thread as the number 1 opener.

 

[Pratters]

I think Jack Hobbs 61,237 first-class runs and 197 centuries as well as a test average of 56.94 over 61 tests beats Gavaskar

The English season was extended during that time. So the FC runs or centuries really cannot be the criteria to include a player.

 

[SJS]

Gavaskar's record vs the West Indies and their great pace attacks is actually one of the great myths in cricket history. Not that im trying to take anything away from Gavaskar as a cricketer, but his numbers vs the great Windies pacemen of the 70's & 80's are very misleading.

His overall record vs the Windies is 27 test played for 2749 runs @ 65.45 with 13 hundreds. However, when you break those numbers down series by series you'll see what im talking about. In ther 1970/71 series, Gavaskar scored 774 runs @ 154 with 4 hundreds. But in this series none of the geat Windies pacemen, of which Andy Roberts was the first to hit the scene, had yet to make their debut.

In the 74/75 series, he only played 2 matches for 107 runs. Andy Roberts played in both matches. During the 75/76 series he scored 390 runs @ 55 with 2 hundreds. Roberts and Holding played in this series.

During the 78/79 series at home, Gavaskar scored 732 runs @ 90 with 4 hundreds. Malcolm Marshall was the only one of the great Windies pacemen to play in this series, however even he didnt play in the matches where Sunny scored 205 & 73 in the 1st test or in the 4th test where Suny scored 120.

During the 82/83 series, Gavaskar scored 240 runs @ 30 from 9 innings with one of those innings being 147* (so the other 8 totaled just 93 runs). This was the only time Gavaskar came up against the West Indies quartet of great fast bowlers - Holding, Roberts, Marshall, Garner.

During the 83/84 series, Gavaskar scored 505 runs @ 50 with 2 hundreds. However, almost half of these were scored when he made 236* in the drawn last test. Take out that one score and he averaged 26 for the series. Holding, Marshall and Roberts played in this series.

So to sum up, when he came up against atleast 2 of the great Windies pacemen he averaged 44.7 with 4 hundreds from 13 tests. When he came up against atleast 3 of the great Windies pacemen he averaged 41 with 3 hundreds from 11 tests. In matches against the Windies containing either 1 or none of their great pacemen he averaged 86 with 9 hundreds.

So there you go, numbers can be very deceiving. Having said all that i still think Gavaskar is one of the greatest openers of all-time. Although i'll nominate Barry Richards for the purpose of this thread as the number 1 opener.

There is a lot of truth in what you say. It takes a lot of guts to say that in India though

 

[Pratters]

There is a lot of truth in what you say. It takes a lot of guts to say that in India though

It is a known fact people ignore I dont know why.

 

[Jamee999]

Sunil Gavaskar

 

[a massive zebra]

Hobbs with Gavaskar as his partner.

 

[Burpey]

As a pairing, Hobbs and Sutcliffe

 

[Buddhmaster]

David Boon. If not opening, 1st, 2nd or 3rd drop

 

[Barney Rubble]

Jack Hobbs. Gavaskar can partner him.

 

[howardj]

During the 83/84 series, Gavaskar scored 505 runs @ 50 with 2 hundreds. However, almost half of these were scored when he made 236* in the drawn last test. Take out that one score and he averaged 26 for the series. Holding, Marshall and Roberts played in this series.

.

Come off it, mate! You don't just take 236* (against Holding, Marshall and Roberts) out of the equation! It's like saying to God: 'OK so you've created the earth, but what else have you done'!

 

[SJS]

Why not Hutton or Sutcliffe with Hobbs ?

Sutcliffe had a great record as an opener.

 

[SJS]

It is a known fact people ignore I dont know why.

Gavaskar played West Indies in

YEAR.......PLAYED IN........RUNS....AVG......ATTACK QUALITY.......BOWLERS

70-71(4)........Windies............774........154.5.......VERY POOR.........Holder, Shillingford, Sobers
74-75(2)........INDIA...............108.........27.0........Modest.................Roberts, Holder, Boyce
75-76(5)........Windies............390.........55.7........GOOD..................Roberts, Holding,, Julien
78-79(6)........INDIA.............. 732.........91.5.........VERY POOR.........Phillip, Holder, Clark
82-83(5)........Windies............230........30.0.........VERY GOOD........Holding, Roberts, Garner, Marshall
83-84(6)........INDIA...............505.........55.0.........GOOD.................Marshall Holding Roberts, Daniel

So I would say that out of the 2749 runs he scored in 27 tests against them, 1506 runs in 10 matches were scored against very poor pace attacks at an average of 116.0

The first on his debut series was against a Windies side so depleted in bowling resources that Sardesai (with due respects) scored 642 runs on the tour with innings of 45, 75, 112, 150 and 212, while on previous four tours he had averaged 11.7 and on the next two (his last) he averaged 24.1 !!

The second (78-79) was a Packer depleted Windies second XI.

Thus against the average to very good Windies sides, Gavaskar scored 1243 runs in 17 tests at a decent but not phenomenal 42.9 per innings.

His record against Australia is similar.

He first toured Australia during the Packer days. Australia cobbled up a side under Simpson brought out of retirement. Gavaskar averaged 50. Australia toured India in 1979. Again without Lillee and Thomson and Gavaskar averaged 53.3.

He first faced a complete Aussie attack on the tour of 1980-81 and in four tests scored a grand total of 118 runs at 19.6 per innings.

No Sir, Gavaskar's record against serious pace is not what it looks at first go.

 

[honestbharani]

yeah, so my vote goes to Hobbs too.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

JB Hobbs for me.

 

[Jamee999]

Gavaskar.

 

[Pratters]

No Sir, Gavaskar's record against serious pace is not what it looks at first go.

Maybe you misunderstood my statement. I mean that it is a known fact that Gavaskar's record against Windies pace bowling is not as good as some people perceive it to be. But people ignore this I dont know why.