Taylor. Langer. Khawaja.

[DrWolverine]

Rank them.

 

[vidiq]

Khawaja is better than other 2

 

[Coronis]

Smith’s attempt at opening seems justified now that I think about it. Australia has a storied history of middle order batsmen moving up to open and improving.

Simpson, Langer, Katich, Khawaja.

Didn’t make the Langer-Khawaja connection myself til now tbh.

 

[Coronis]

Successful Aussies who changed to opening mid career

Opening vs not opening
Langer 5112 @ 48.22 vs 2584 @ 40.37
Simpson 3664 @ 55.51 vs 1205 @ 31.71
Khawaja 3289 @ 52.20 vs 2641 @ 39.41
Katich 2928 @ 50.48 vs 1260 @ 36.00
Stackpole 2390 @ 40.50 vs 417 @ 26.06

 

[Thala_0710]

Khawaja > Langer > Taylor for me

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Rank them.

Is this just on batting, or as overall cricketers?

If the ranking is as cricketers,Taylor is a long way ahead due to captaincy and slip fielding.

 

[Coronis]

Also are we talking rank them as openers? Or their whole batting career?

 

[BazBall21]

I assume overall careers.

 

[Coronis]

Its interesting. Langer had his tough stretch in a more difficult era, and his peak during an easy era. Taylor played in a difficult era but had a short career timewise, basically a 5 year peak followed by a 5 year decline. Khawaja had his tough stretch in an easy era and his peak in the toughest era of all of them. Specifically, out of all the Australians he’s the one who’s really succeeded away, with tons everywhere bar NZ.

Close between Langer and Khawaja for me. Hope Khawaja plays this Ashes and can retire on a high.

 

[Gob]

It's weird looking back now that Usman may not have gotten the late career flourish he did had Travis Head not went down with covid all those years ago. Marcus ****ing Harris

 

[Thala_0710]

Its interesting. Langer had his tough stretch in a more difficult era, and his peak during an easy era. Taylor played in a difficult era but had a short career timewise, basically a 5 year peak followed by a 5 year decline. Khawaja had his tough stretch in an easy era and his peak in the toughest era of all of them. Specifically, out of all the Australians he’s the one who’s really succeeded away, with tons everywhere bar NZ.

Close between Langer and Khawaja for me. Hope Khawaja plays this Ashes and can retire on a high.

The peak in the tough era swung it for me alongside Khawaja being a much better player of spin whereas both are similar vs pace imo, with langer having a bit of an edge. Both quite close though.