Graham Thorpe

[BazBall21]

Oh yes missed Robin Smith a very good player.

Personally despite a lower test average I will take Atherton and Steward above Bell and Trescothick aswell

Stewart and Atherton both definitely ahead of Bell.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

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.

I won't judge. NZ has done very nicely out of players born in Southern Africa too.

 

[trundler]

Younis
Inzimam
Anwar
Yousuf
Babar

Tendulkar
Dravid
Kohli
Sehwag
Laxman

Smith
Ponting
Hayden
Clarke
Hussey

Kallis
De Villiers
Smith
Kirsten
Amla

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Never heard of Jones and Richardson.

You haven't heard of Andrew Jones (NZ's 2nd best no 3 behind Williamson) and Mark Richardson (one of the top openers in the world in the early 2000s)?

 

[trundler]

You haven't heard of Andrew Jones (NZ's 2nd best no 3 behind Williamson) and Mark Richardson (one of the top openers in the world in the early 2000s)?

I think he means that they'd be underwear models if they played for Australia

 

[Burgey]

Well tbf their two best batsmen from 80's and first half of 90's Gooch & Gower are not part of the list as they made their debuts couple of years earlier then the arbitrary cut off date for this thread.

Yeah but in 40 years that’s one bloke who’s (currently) averaging above 50, including through the 2000s, widely regarded as the easiest batting era since the 1930s. It’s borderline embarrassing

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Smith
Ponting
Hayden
Clarke
Hussey

Why no S Waugh? I'd put him 3rd just behind Ponting.

 

[Burgey]

Why no S Waugh? I'd put him equal 3rd just behind Ponting.

Daybooed in 1985/86

 

[trundler]

Why no S Waugh? I'd put him equal 3rd just behind Ponting.

I knew I was forgetting someone big. Gah. Yeah he's third.

 

[Burgey]

I knew I was forgetting someone big. Gah. Yeah he's third.

Doesn’t qualify

 

[trundler]

Doesn’t qualify

Well then shame on FP for making me doubt myself.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Daybooed in 1985/86

This thread is about players since 1980.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Happy birthday for yesterday to Graham Thorpe. Hope we hear some good news on his health soon ?

Not many England players are underrated, but he is certainly underrated. Imo, the second best England test bat out of players that debuted since 1980.

OP above

 

[BazBall21]

Agree with Burge that Post 1981 Ashes has been a borderline embarrassing time for England cricket by and large. But I don’t really associate Root with 2000s bats. 2013-2015 was batsman-friendly, 2022 has been too overall so far. But 2016-2021 was mostly very tough and that too with very little batting support at times.

 

[Xuhaib]

I knew I was forgetting someone big. Gah. Yeah he's third.

Aus also has the most that could be top 5 for other nations

Taylor, Slater,Langer,Boon,Jones, junior, Katto, Usman, Warner could be one or two more.

 

[Tom Flint]

Pretty similar to NZ in the same time frame:

Williamson/Crowe < Root
Crowe/Williamson > KP
Taylor < Cook
Jones > Thorpe
Richardson > Tresc & Bell

I expect Conway and possibly Mitchell to challenge positions 4 and 5 in a few years. Latham could if he scored runs against top pace attacks.

Mitchell was barely first choice before the last 3 tests wasn't he?

 

[Himannv]

You haven't heard of Andrew Jones (NZ's 2nd best no 3 behind Williamson) and Mark Richardson (one of the top openers in the world in the early 2000s)?

Never heard of them. They could make it big as underwear models if they were Australian I reckon.

 

[Burgey]

Agree with Burge that Post 1981 Ashes has been a borderline embarrassing time for England cricket by and large. But I don’t really associate Root with 2000s bats. 2013-2015 was batsman-friendly, 2022 has been too overall so far. But 2016-2021 was mostly very tough and that too with very little batting support at times.

Oh yeah, wasn’t referring to him so much as to the lack of options to fill the other spots. Woeful.

 

[BazBall21]

Oh yeah, wasn’t referring to him so much as to the lack of options to fill the other spots. Woeful.

Yeah, always gonna be a depressing top 5 no matter which options are taken.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Mitchell was barely first choice before the last 3 tests wasn't he?

No, he wasn't but now he and Conway are battling it out to be the fastest NZ players to 1,000 runs in test cricket (currently 20 innings by Mark Richardson and John F Reid). Conway has 918 runs in 18 innings (0 not outs) while Mitchell has 941 runs in 17 innings (2 not outs). After 17 innings he is averaging more than Voges (62), so if Mitchell plays 35 tests and averages high 40s he will have to be in the mix.