It also really depends on the pitch, for example sometimes in Asia the thread is the old ball IE reverse swing and the spinners, a batsman is at the most vulnerable at the start of his innings so when a middle order batsman comes to bat at number 4 or 5, it's very likely the ball is old and perhaps reverse is going to come into play, but more importantly the spinners have already found their line and length, and therefore the MO batsman have a very big challenge. Comparatively, the opener had to face early swing but it's minimal generally, of course there are exceptions such as Eden Gardens and Kandy but generally the opener gets to get his eye in and read the pitch, understand the bounce and so forth. I think playing middle order in Asia should get more credit than it deserves, so guys like Younis Khan and VVS Laxman should get more credit, the pitches being more worn out and having to face the spinners from ball one, reverse too but not always.
in SENA, that dynamic reverses, as we saw here, even in 2025 on a flat road of a wicket, with extremely short boundaries, with the current batch of Duke balls, we see how a competent seamer like Akash Deep basically ripped England apart with the new ball but the old ball did literally nothing. It's pretty much the same with South Africa and New Zealand as well, even if the pitch is a road the new ball is an absolute weapon, due to more conventional swing movement and seam friendly wickets. So generally, I think the same way Asian middle order bats deserve a lot more credit for countering spin from ball one, people like Boycott or Lawry or maybe even Cook deserve a lot more credit because even on the flattest pitch, they had some work to do and obviously older dukes were much more durable than the modern bazball ones, opening on a green wicket with a duke or reinforced kookabura out against competent seamers might be the single hardest job in Cricket. +10 sounds a little absurd but countries that have consistently bowler friendly wickets I think you can give +4/5?
