The best English batsmen ever.

[Cameron-Moss]

Well I was wondering who was the best English batsmen ever, I was thinking Dr. WG Grace.

 

[Matteh]

Nick Knight imo.

 

[nightprowler10]

Mark Ramprakash ftw.

 

[steds]

Geoff Pullar

 

[neville cardus]

W.G. for me.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Thomas Hobbes

 

[DCC_legend]

Bill "fatty" Foulke

 

[Richard]

Either Sir JB Hobbs, Sir Leonard Hutton or Walter Hammond for me.

And yeah, Geoff Pullar wasn't bad either. Sad he only had a bit-part Test career.

WG Grace was peerless in the game he played, but it's not really possible to say for certain how he'd have gone had he played the game of Hobbs, Hutton, Sutcliffe, Barrington, Compton et al.

 

[silentstriker]

Hobbs.

 

[JBMAC]

Based on what I have read and seen

1. Grace

2 Dexter

3. Barrington

4. May

5. Cowdrey

6. Graveney

7. Hobbs

8. Hutton

9. D'Oliviera

10. Ranjitsinhji

 

[Julian87]

Boycott.

 

[Anil]

has to be hobbs...

 

[Matt79]

Tempted to say Grace, but I'll go with Hobbs. Hammond and Hutton are not that far behind either...

 

[pasag]

Abit of a Hammond fan here.

 

[adharcric]

Hobbs or Hammond.

 

[The_Bunny]

Sir Jack Hobbs

 

[Richard]

Abit of a Hammond fan here.

Oops, forgot about him.

Have edited in alongside Hobbs and Hutton.

As WI had the three Ws, England have the three Hs.

(And yeah - the three Ws even played together!)

 

[Richard]

Based on what I have read and seen

1. Grace

2 Dexter

3. Barrington

4. May

5. Cowdrey

6. Graveney

7. Hobbs

8. Hutton

9. D'Oliviera

10. Ranjitsinhji

How on Earth can Edward Dexter, Tom Graveney, Peter May and Colin Cowdrey be better than Hobbs and Hutton? What's more, how can we say conclusively that D'Oliveira is in a top-10 when he only made his Test debut in his mid-30s. Sure, he quite possibly might have been had he come over to England 10 years before he did, but that's mere conjecture - as things happened, he was no more than a hero who conquered adversity and a good Test batsman.

Hobbs and the like's deeds on stickies in Australia in the 1920s always stand-out above virtually anything for me. How anyone survived, never mind batted well, on such wickets is beyond me, and would quite possibly be beyond any modern players.

 

[stumpski]

As WI had the three Ws, England have the three Hs.

They didn't all play in the same side, though Hammond played alongside Hutton between 1937 and 1946-47 and Hobbs toured Australia with Hammond in 1928-29 (averaging over 50 at the age of 46!). Later came the three Gs, who did play together many times for England.

My ten would be:

Grace
Hammond
Hobbs
Hutton
Compton
Gooch
Sutcliffe
Hendren
May
Gower


Interesting to see the lack of left-handers there,considering how prominent they are nowadays.

It's always tempting to leave Grace out of the equation,as he was primarily a 19th century player, but he did play what we would consider to be 'modern' cricket (overarm bowing, Test matches) compared with earlier greats like Pilch and Mynn, and he, like Bradman, was way ahead of the field in his time. He managed to make 1000s of runs on pretty ropey wickets, after all.

 

[Richard]

I'm always reluctant to compare Grace to 20th-century stuff, TBH. His real heyday (the 1870s) was only just after overarm bowling had been legalised, never mind become commonplace. He did play on for ages afterwards, but that was into times when things became rather more dubious on his part.

And yeah, I know the three Hs didn't play together as the three Ws did. Should've (and will edit now) mention it.