Graham Thorpe

[Moss]

Stewart another one who could slot in at 5th on that list.

Good shout, I think he averaged 46 as an opener/specialist bat as opposed to early 30s when keeping. Vaughan probably belongs in the discussion too though post 2004-05 when the injuries took over the batting output wasn't great IIRC.

 

[kevinw]

Top five bats who daybooed since the 80s

Root......then distance
Thorpe
Cook
Pietersen
Zac Crawley, I mean, Athers. Average hammered by the fact there were about several ATGs taking him down.

 

[kevinw]

Yeah, even just looking at England for the "debuted post 1980" cohort one can make a decent case that our RSA born batting would be at least as good as the native sons of Albion.

Lamb, Smith (R), Pietersen, Trott, Strauss and Prior off the top of my head. Roy, Jennings or Chris Smith to make up the top seven.

Bowling might be a bit thin though, can only think of Dernbach & Meaker, neither of whom (thankfully) got as far as the test XI.

Tom Curran was born in Cape Town of course. Brydon Carse will probably play Tests soon.