Who is the best post war English opening batsman?

[a massive zebra]

Who is the best post war English opening batsman? I have only included those who debuted post war so Hutton is not eligible.

For me it is a straight shoot out between Boycott and Cook.

 

[fredfertang]

Gooch - Headingley '91 the finest innings ever, by a distance imo

 

[grecian]

Gooch - Headingley '91 the finest innings ever, by a distance imo

Yes it was, but we're going to ignore the countless dismissals to boring medium-pacers, that just bowled a decent line and length. Bannerman better than Bradman by dint of people keeping on going on about this one great innings.

I voted Cook Btw, but Boycott massively ahead of Gooch too.

 

[Red]

Gooch is such an interesting player. Averaged 40+ as an opener in the 80s vs the WIs quartet (did anyone else do that over a sizeable amount of tests?), was outstanding against spin, averaging 50+ IN India, and seemed to be one of the only ones to grasp playing Warne successfully, but could go out to strange, in the middle things, consistently.

FWIW, if England had have got their selections right in the 90s, Stewart probably would have been a 50+ averaging opener and near an ATG. Instead they ****ed him around and made him bat low and keep. Averaged 45 as an opener and 46 when he wasn't made to have the gloves.

 

[grecian]

Gooch is such an interesting player. Averaged 40+ as an opener in the 80s vs the WIs quartet (did anyone else do that over a sizeable amount of tests?), was outstanding against spin, averaging 50+ IN India, and seemed to be one of the only ones to grasp playing Warne successfully, but could go out to strange, in the middle things, consistently.

FWIW, if England had have got their selections right in the 90s, Stewart probably would have been a 50+ averaging opener and near an ATG. Instead they ****ed him around and made him bat low and keep. Averaged 45 as an opener and 46 when he wasn't made to have the gloves.

In the end Gooch failed to the medium-pace bowling on a length because of his technique and backlift. In the end players brought up in the 70s had the high backlift, because the rule was you could not be LBW to a ball pitching outside off-stump, so the defensive way to deal with any ball pitched slightly outside was to thrust your pad at it, having your bat far away helped things.

When they rightly changed the rule, it meant that the likes of Gatting, Gooch, Smith kept on getting out padding up or just leaving the bal and bowled. medium pace with a little in-swing became their kryptonite.

I agree about Stewart BTW, but I remember at the time I advocated him 'keeping, but think now I was an idjit.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

It's a frighteningly ordinary list. I voted for Boycott. It was him or Cook but Cook looks too much like Freddie Mercury.

 

[S.Kennedy]

Boycott
Gooch
Cook
Atherton for that rearguard v South Africa
Rest? Who cares. Vaughan was superb in 2002-03 so I'd probably have him next.

None of them are going to clear a bar out, that is one thing.

 

[bagapath]

Gooch most inspiring
Cook most prolific
Boycott best overall

 

[Coronis]

Boycs

 

[S.Kennedy]

It is slim pickings indeed for a country which was famous for producing great opening bats, your Hobbs, Sutcliffes and Huttons.

 

[Slifer]

Anybody here thinks Atherton would've averaged 45+ had he debuted around 2000 or so??

 

[SeamUp]

Boycott & then not a lot between the two Essex boys but liked watching Gooch more.

 

[fredfertang]

Amazed at the level of love for Sir Geoffrey here - not one to accuse the man of cowardice, but even given the cause probably was a problem between the ears he still ducked Lillee and Thomson, and the non-grovelling 1976 West Indians

 

[watson]

Initially going for Gooch but then remembered that he always had a problem against Australia although he was superb against the Windies. If you put 'played against Dennis Lillee' as a selection criteria into Statsguru then you get 10 Tests, Average 18.60. His overal Average against Australia is 33. Not bad, but not great either.

Got to be Geoff Boycott.

 

[watson]

Amazed at the level of love for Sir Geoffrey here - not one to accuse the man of cowardice, but even given the cause probably was a problem between the ears he still ducked Lillee and Thomson, and the non-grovelling 1976 West Indians

West Indies in England 1980 - Average 40

England in West Indies 1980/81 - Average 42

Not bad for an old bloke against Holding in his prime. Not sure of the reason that he didn't play from 74-76 but it certainly wasn't cowardice.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Cook's the better player of spin by quite a distance, and that should count for a bit.

 

[fredfertang]

Plenty did say Boycs was yellow, but I was never one of them, if for no other reason than when England travelled to Australia in 74 Lillee was considered to be finished by injury and Thommo was a nobody whe'd played one Test and taken 0 for plenty at just above medium pace (he was so delighted to be picked he decided not to tell the selectors he had a broken foot)

Boycs' story was that he had to concentrate on his beloved Yorkshire, which was utter bollocks - the truth was he spat the dummy when England made Mike Denness skipper rather than him - Boycs of course was a much better batsman than Denness ever was, but as his 'achievements' as captain of Yorkshire show he was a dreadful leader

 

[weeman27bob]

Boycott
Gooch
Cook
Atherton for that rearguard v South Africa
Rest? Who cares. Vaughan was superb in 2002-03 so I'd probably have him next.

None of them are going to clear a bar out, that is one thing.

What's your obsession with clearing out bars?

 

[Slifer]

Cook's the better player of spin by quite a distance, and that should count for a bit.

Yeah but you could probably count the number very good to great spinners Cook has faced on one hand. I'm guessing murali, Warne, Ashwin/Jadeja / Herath (at home only). Most of the stronger teams (outside of Oz) have attacks centered around pace. Gooch for example would've faced: Wasim, Waqar, Imran, Hadlee, Dev, WI, I believe Donald etc.

 

[andruid]

Not gonna vote in this poll, but I have to point out that of the English opening batsmen I have seen, Vaughan had to be the most beautiful when in full flow. So artful and technically correct at the same time.