Are there any batsmen that posters are genuinely surprised missed out. Obviously there's the aforementioned Hussey, who came 105th. I thought Dave Boon's strong peak would get him in. Low strike rate can't have helped him, nor would his poor record against Pakistan have helped his Top-Opposition numbers.
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Top 100 Test Batsmen countdown (revised and updated)
- Thread starter Days of Grace
- Start date
Two short legs
Cricket Spectator
Another side-effect of batsmen's scores being so close was that tweaking the weightings for entirely supportable reasons, could have big effects on rankings.
So Herbie Taylor rose to 55th (from 96th in 2019), and George Headley to 7th from 27th. While conversely, Mike Hussey fell from 48th to 100-plus, and Michael Clarke from 37th to 73rd.
So Herbie Taylor rose to 55th (from 96th in 2019), and George Headley to 7th from 27th. While conversely, Mike Hussey fell from 48th to 100-plus, and Michael Clarke from 37th to 73rd.
Two short legs
Cricket Spectator
Perhaps Arthur Morris and Bill Ponsford ? Although I can sort of understand why.
The Sean
Cricketer Of The Year
I think Morris made it into the 101-110 group didn't he?
ashley bach
International Coach
Glenn Turner please. Thanks in advance for that and for your sterling efforts in this thread.
Johan
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
well Denis Compton was a singular man so therefore he can't be a great batsmen. If you're asking if he was a great batsman, then Yeah, obviously. Best English Test batsman after the big five.
DrWolverine
Cricketer Of The Year
capt_Luffy
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Think he meant Root for Grace, as he said Test
Two short legs
Cricket Spectator
Morris was 81st in 2013, then 82nd in 2019, and is now 104th.
Ponsford was 80th in 2013, and is now gone.
But of course every time a current batsman is added for his recent performances, it has to be at the expense of a retired one.
Johan
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I said Test so it starts with Hobbs.
Jack Hobbs, Herbert Sutcliffe, Walter Hammond, Len Hutton, Joe Root.
Surely Root has done enough to distinct himself from the Comptons/Barringtons/Boycotts/Ranjis/Mays of the world.
Yeah he did. I've personally never liked that he made hay when Australia had a near-monopoly on World-Class bowlers then dropped off rapidly while still young when other attacks started to catch up. It doesn't inspire confidence to me in terms of an ATG XI selection. Going roughly chronologically I'd have all of Bardsley, Ponsford, Lawry, Simpson, Taylor, and Hayden ahead of him as Aus openers.
Others like Trumper, Woodfull, McDonald, Redpath, Boon, Slater, Langer, Warner and Khawaja are more marginal and I'd probably have Morris ahead of most of them. Barnes could come into this discussion too but his low number of Tests combined with his late 40s output having the same problems as Morris' are problematic to me. Trumper is a bit moot given he'd already have made my Australia 2nd or 3rd XI as a middle order bat.
Two short legs
Cricket Spectator
No, and he was 80th in 2013.
A lot of 2026 list debutants weren't around 13 years ago, and have now made it perhaps at Ponsford's expense.
Although ironically, other 2026 debutants include Umrigar, Hazare, Macartney, Stewart and Leyland.
Days of Grace
International Captain
Hobbs would have gotten 910 points if he had finished playing test cricket in 1929.
After the war, Bradman's record was:
Adj. Ave: 82.01 (105.72)
Adj. RPI: 64.18 (82.74)
Adj. S/R: 56.27 (54.65)
So the opposition was a lot easier, hence the sizable decrease in adjusted average, but Bradman also scored his runs at a slower pace, perhaps reflecting his age, lack of nimbleness, and less of an appetite for taking risks?
Of these, I was particularly happy to see Leyland make the top 100. He was one of those 'players of great innings' type batsmen whose output wasn't good enough overall to get a high ranking but had a level of importance to the teams he played for that was greater than the raw numbers suggest. More recent examples of the same sort of batsman include VVS Laxman and Kevin Pietersen.
That's fair enough. At least you're not having him open in your first XI. I personally think he's pretty overrated though.
Johan
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Hutton would've been 911, Hobbs would be 910 and probably 911 if the first match of the 1930 Ashes is considered as that was Hobbs's last great time. I'm vindicated for thinking these two are qualitatively the BAB
My personal first 7 Australian opening pairs (players who would already have middle-order spots in brackets where they would be otherwise):
Hayden/Simpson
Lawry/Ponsford
Taylor/Woodfull
Bardsley/(Trumper)/Morris
McDonald/Langer
Slater/Redpath
(Boon)Warner/Khawaja
I've reassessed slightly regarding Bardsley given some of his pre-WWI output was in the middle-order. I do think people sleep on those few years before the war though. He obviously wasn't the same player after it though.
I definitely think McDonald is underrated. Plenty of hard runs in tough series'. Non-Home and strike rate wouldn't help him much in this thread, though his average would likely go up a fair bit and Top-Opposition would go quite well too. He cashed in on that one tour to WI when nearly every established batsman cashed in to some degree (Worrell the exception). Other than that it was mostly hard runs. I actually have all of McDonald, Langer, Slater and Redpath pretty much equal though.
Hayden/Simpson
Lawry/Ponsford
Taylor/Woodfull
Bardsley/(Trumper)/Morris
McDonald/Langer
Slater/Redpath
(Boon)Warner/Khawaja
I've reassessed slightly regarding Bardsley given some of his pre-WWI output was in the middle-order. I do think people sleep on those few years before the war though. He obviously wasn't the same player after it though.
I definitely think McDonald is underrated. Plenty of hard runs in tough series'. Non-Home and strike rate wouldn't help him much in this thread, though his average would likely go up a fair bit and Top-Opposition would go quite well too. He cashed in on that one tour to WI when nearly every established batsman cashed in to some degree (Worrell the exception). Other than that it was mostly hard runs. I actually have all of McDonald, Langer, Slater and Redpath pretty much equal though.