Alastair Cook’s 39 yesterday at the SCG on the opening day of the fifth Ashes Test took the Englishman further out of sight as the world’s leading opening batsman.
Not only is he the only one with five figures (11,368), but the closest current batsman – Chris Gayle with 7028, and David Warner’s 6051 – have a long way to go, and not much time to catch him.
The following table has thrown up some fascinating facts.
Few Australian fans would realise Matthew Hayden, and former skipper Mark Taylor, feature so strongly.
Hayden, so unfairly knocked throughout his stellar career as a flat track bully, is fourth among the all-time greats, with Taylor eighth.
And they are the only two batsmen in the top ten to never bat anywhere other than open.
Other Australians to figure:
David Warner is 15th with 6051 at 49.60.
Michael Slater 20th with 5312 at 42.84.
Bill Lawry 23rd with 5234 at 47.15.
And Justin Langer 25th with 5112 at 48.23.
There’s no argument Bobby Simpson has been one of the great opening batsman but during his two-prong career, he’s batted in every position down to number eight so his opening stats are limited to 3664 at 55.51.
Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenidge are the most successful opening batting combination in Test history, with the latter the most successful of the two in a photo finish.
Greenidge scored 7488 to Haynes’ 7472, but Greenidge batted 19 less times.
The legendary English openers Sir Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe are well down the list, but in their era Test matches were sparse.
Sir Jack (5130 at 56.37) batted only 97 times, and Sutcliffe’s 4522 at 48.23 was the result of just 83 visits to the crease.
Andrew Strauss (6741 at 40.85), just pipped Sir Leonard Hutton (6721 at 56.48), but Strauss batted 40 times more.
The top ten opening batsmen in Test cricket history, with their other career batting positions.
(1) Alastair Cook – 261 innings, 14 not outs, 11368 runs at 46.02.
Batting 3 and 7: 13 – 2 627 – 57.00
(Photo by Morgan Hancock/Action Plus via Getty Images)
(2) Sunil Gavaskar – 203 – 12 – 9607 – 50.30.
Batting 2/4/5/6/7/8/9: 11 – 4 – 515 – 73.57.
(3) Graeme Smith – 196 – 12 – 9034 – 49.08.
Batting 3/4/5/8/11: 8 – 1 235 – 33.57.
(4) Matthew Hayden – 184 – 14 – 8625 – 50.74.
Batting elsewhere – none.
(5) Virender Sehwag – 170 6 – 8207 – 50.04.
Batting 3/6/7: 10 – 0 – 379 – 37.90.
(6) Geoff Boycott – 191 – 23 – 8091 – 48.10.
Batting 4: 2 – 0 – 23 – 11.50.
(7) Graham Gooch – 184 – 6 7811 – 43.88
Batting 3/4/5: 31 – 0 -1089 – 35.13.
(8) Mark Taylor – 186 – 13 – 7525 – 43.50.
Batting elsewhere – none.
(9) Gordon Greenidge – 182 – 16 – 7488 – 45.11.
Batting 4: 3 – 0 – 70 – 23.30.
(10) Mike Atherton – 197 – 6 – 7476 – 39.14.
Batting 3/6/7: 15 – 1 – 252 – 18.00.
The leading opening batting centurions:
33 – Gavaskar.
30 – Hayden, Cook.
27 – Smith.
22 – Boycott, Sehwag.
21 – Warner.
20 – Strauss.
19 – Hutton, Greenidge, Taylor.
Kanga
Guest
Greenidge Haynes Boon Taylor Haydon Langer Boycott Gavaskakar Just off the top of my head are better then cook They faced much better bowling attacks and didn’t get to bat on roads with tiny boundaries
Frankie Hughes
Guest
David, come on Cook's run total is simply down to England averaging 12 Tests per year. Had Sunny Gavaskar, Marty Hayden or Graeme Smith played as much cricket they'd have scored plenty more than Cook.
Barmyfarmer
Guest
Class, style and entertainment value are completely subjective. 11k runs and the most prolific test opener in history are facts. Cook just like Steve Smith knows where he is strong and more importantly where he is weak, he then battles mentally to stay away from those danger zones and cashes in when it’s in his strike zone. I’d say the ability to mentally manage your technique and skill set to gather so many runs is a much greater feat than “more talented” players racking up a higher average over far fewer games by throwing that bat beautifully at everything. Just a shame England and the rest of the world no longer encourage or value patience, longevity and discipline in test cricket.
GWSINGAPORE
Guest
All academic. If Bill Ponsford and Jack Hobbs had played tests in the numbers modern players do, how many runs might they have gotten?
Mickey of mo$man
Guest
If Bancroft scores a ton next innings he earns one test in SA, but unfortunatley that seems improbable in which case I'd move usman or marsh to open, marsh or khawaha first drop, bring maxy in to the side. They have dropped maxwell from white ball cricket, asked him to score red ball runs and has done so. What more can he do. With Mitch marsh in the team we don't need his bowling
AndyFNQ
Guest
Agree, if this was saying who is the most durable (not the most consistent, because captains aren't dropped to find form at County level) I would happily argue Cook. But that's not the article's premise - it Read your own stats, David. Cook is not the best opener ever - in fact, he is claims he is test cricket's leading opener", and that just can't be justified based on the stats provided - to say nothing of the value of an opener who can take the game from an opponent early, like Hayden, Gilchrist, Sewag and Warner - a dominance only recorded by strike rate. Test cricket's leading opener? Based on total runs and games played, yes. On skill and the ability to shape a match, a long way down the list.
JGK
Roar Guru
Speaking of openers, who the hell is going to open for Aust in the South Africa series?
AndyFNQ
Guest
Agree, definitely put KP in a class above Cook And I could list 10 fast bowlers I would pick before Anderson easily. like Cook, good but not a great.
AndyFNQ
Guest
Cook seems a lovely bloke, but he's been a spent force for years now, taking a spot that should go to developing a new player. He was always limited in his shot selection, and his recent record shows that unless he gets well set on a road of a pitch he is unlikely to crack 50. Whilst his durability is without question, having the captaincy protected him from getting dropped for form a number of times. This explains why his average is not as good as many other players who played less tests but were still champions with celebrated careers. His score at Melbourne was a laudable effort in concentration but it is critical to note both the state of the pitch and the loss of Australia's number one strike bowler. When was the last time he produced an innings of real quality against a genuinely threatening bowling unit? I'd take any of Hayden, Gilchrist or Warner ahead of Cook any day and at any point of his career. Also throw in Greenidge and Gavaskar for afters before Cook. Good on his day and one of the most durable cricketers ever, but not one of the best openers.
DavSA
Guest
Actually David the best opener in the history of the game imo of course was a certain Barry Richards but ....sadly only played 4 tests . ....Why do I say that ? well if you were ever live on the park watching him bat you would have difficulty disagreeing.
Duncan Smith
Guest
My best opening combo for entertainment value would be Boycott and Tavare, with Slasher Mackay at first drop.
Liam
Guest
... over time. You'd surely prefer Gavaskar to bat for your life. Cook's been good, but these articles about him and Anderson trying to argue their longevity makes them superior to clearly better players is just silly, arguing for arguing's sake. Cook's been a good player, for a long time, and his aggregate is clearly to be respected. But KP was a better bat than he was, and I'd argue that Ian Bell was as well at times of his career.
not so super
Guest
comical writing
David Lord
Expert
Frankie, an opener's job is to overcome the new ball and stick around to launch and sustain the innings. From a team point of view, nobody has done it better than Alastair Cook.
jameswm
Guest
No he's not. He averages 46. That is good for a test opener. Not as good as most of the others featuring, but still good. The thing about this list is it is more longevity based than quality based.
Frankie Hughes
Guest
Alastair Cook is just about quantity over quality. It beggars belief that he's ahead of Gavaskar and Hayden both of whom average 50+ as openers. Cook is the kind of batsman that ends a youngster interest in cricket. Boring