How can you even be famous for the amount of runs you scored, if the scheduling was poor during the era. Had he played for England without the world war he would have scored as many runs as Sachin, Ponting, Kallis, Rahul, Lara, Shiv, Border, Amla & Steven Waugh. Eventual run tallies of Amla, Kane, Steven, Root, Kohli & Shaw. He would have played 2 times as many games.

Why would he even replace Hobbs, Hutton or Herbert he was never an opener. Would you expect Kohli, Sachin, Clarke, Greg, Border, Steven Waugh, Steve Smith, Kane, Ponting, Lara, Shiv, Laxman etc to open to innings if the openers in the team are poor. They would only play in middle order their favorite position. Besides England had 3 all time greats as openers during the era, there was never any need to open the innings.

It would be ridiculous to think that Sir Donald wouldn’t have scored as many runs as he did if he had legends playing with him in the team. The opposition wouldn’t obsess over your wicket, if they focused too much on him. Hutton, Sutcliffe, Compton & Hammond would have taken incredible advantage of it. If you are the only great player on your team, focus of all the players whether it is in team meetings & during match would be on how to make sure that you fail to perform well during the match so that they can win it easily, to ensure you don’t have much influence over the result of the match.

Muralitharan, Richard Hadlee, Kapil Dev, Andy Flower, Graeme Pollock 1964-1969, Shivnarine post 2006, Sunil Gavaskar during the 1970s, Eoin Morgan in Ireland, Sachin during 1991-1996 period, Brian Lara, Allan Border 1984-1992 & Hobbs before 1923 would have performed even better if they were not scrutinized so much. It is extremely tough to be the only great player on your team contrary to popular belief.

It would be like saying that when you are studying in High School or College you have one incredibly tough exam but others are easy. Ofcourse, you will spend most of your time, concentration, dedication & hard work on how to clear that main exam, since you will get good marks anyways on other exams since they don’t provide any major challenge. If however, you have 4 or 5 very tough exams, your resources & strategy will be spent on a even way so that you get good marks on all of them. So that you don’t pass 1 exam with A grade & fail in others. Bradman’s teammates took advantage of the fact that the focus of everyone whether it is opposition, media or fans was not on them, they weren’t studied rigorously to find out any weakness in their game that existed which could be exploited. So they performed much better.

There wouldn’t have been extreme pressure on Sir Donald to perform well in every innings to make his team wins. Even if he failed, Hutton, Hammond, Herbert & Denis would have tried their best not to let his failure have too much influence over the match. Eg if Murali failed to perform well, the pressure on his teammates would have been extreme, morale would have taken a major beating & opposition would have taken advantage of your failure so they win the match easily. If Shane Warne failed Aus still had Ponting, Hayden, Langer, McGrath, Gilchrist, Gillespie & Lee to ensure that the team would still win the match. His failure would have nowhere near the massive impact that Murali had.

If Sachin failed during 1991-1996 period India lost majority of the matches easily. Even If Kohli fails he still has Pujara, Shaw, Hardick, Ishant, Shami, Rahane, Bhuvi, Bumrah, Jadeja & Mayank who are enough to win India most of the matches in Tests, even in ODIs if he fails team still has Dhawan, Rohit, Dhoni, Pandya, Jadeja, Kuldeep, Chahal, Bhuvi & Bumrah. Since there are so many future BCCI lifetime achievement award winners in the team his failure wouldn’t have a major influence in the match if others perform well. India will still be the best team in the world in either format without Kohli but Australia was absolutely nothing without Sir Donald, New Zealand without Hadlee, Zimbabwe without Andy Flower & Sri Lanka without Murali. You are the messiah of the team, the saviour who leads from the front. Your very failure means eventual defeat.

Sir Donald would have received great freedom had he played for England. Without incredible pressure to perform & with opposition not obsessed about him. He would have batted smoothly with great dedication without major anxiety of his teammates failing at the other end to ruin his mood & morale. He would have recieved great support to bat till the dawn of the time.

In Australia whenever the top & middle order failed to perform, there was lot of pressure to dominate the strike & score quickly so that the team can atleast have good total on the board before they lose the 10th wicket, which often leads to mistakes, trying up the run rate. Since he wouldn’t have the luxury of depending on bowlers since they were very poor with the bat. Without these he would have averaged lot more. Team Innings last a lot longer & less pressure.

It would be ridiculous to mention Adam Voges to be in the same league as all-time greats of County Cricket – Herbert Sutcliffe, Leonard Hutton, Jack Hobbs, Phil Mead, Patsy Hendren, Wally Hammond, WG Grace, KS Ranjitsinhji, CB Fry, Denis Compton, Geoff Boycott, Graham Gooch, Graeme Hick, Peter May, Kenneth Barrington & Mark Ramprakash who holds the record for 2nd fastest to 10,000 FC Runs in Innings with 142 after Sir Donald 99 which he made during the Strictly Come Dancing era after his England career had come to an end, unleashing his frustration of an extremely poor England career on county bowlers when he reached the stage of a battlehardened veteran.

In the case of Adam Voges, he was extremely lucky that he faced a middle school level West Indies line-up. When it came to succeeding against tougher attacks he was a washout he was like the Ravi Jadeja of Australia, brilliant against domestic teams that he scores 300s for fun but can hardly bat for India, with his bowling being among India’s finest he should have challenged the greatest allrounders in history WG Grace, Warwick Armstrong, Tony Greig, Ian Botham, Garry Sobers, Keith Miller, Monty Noble, Mike Procter, Imran Khan, Aubrey Faulkner & Jacques Kallis if he was that good. Adam Voges knew that if he played for long he wouldn’t have been able to maintain that batting average unlike the great Sutcliffe so he was literally forced to retire otherwise he would have collapsed. In case of Voges, it is brilliant against poor teams but a debacle against world-class attacks.

Herbert Sutcliffe was an outstanding batsman but he played like Rahul Dravid, Kenneth Barrington, Graham Gooch, Geoff Boycott, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Steven Waugh, Sunil Gavaskar, Alastair Cook, Allan Border & Jacques Kallis in the strike rate of the early 40s which is why he is highly underrated though Hutton & Hobbs were clearly better but he is easily an all-time great but slow strike rate dooms you to life of being easily forgotten compared to those who bat at much higher strike rate. Voges will never make it to even top 6 Australia Test X1’s while Sutcliffe is a mandatory member of England team that’s the difference between a talented batsman & an all-time great. He was a lot better than the overrated George Headley. Herbert would have averaged in the early 50s against major teams in 250 plus innings long career had he played in Ponting era.

I would disagree with that since Pujara only performs great at home he is mediocre overseas. Even on the Australian tour in 2014 where batting was as ridiculously easy and safe as driving in Sweden he only scored 201 in 6 in the same series that Kohli scored 692 in 8. Ajinkya Rahane is the modern Mohinder Amarnath who was great overseas but a debacle fiasco at home.

In the Same Tour(s)

New Zealand

1. Ajinkya Rahane 162 in 3 at 54
2. Shikhar Dhawan 215 in 4 at 53.75
3. Virat Kohli 214 in 4 at 53.50
4. MS Dhoni 117 in 3 at 39
5. Rohit Sharma 122 in 4 at 30.50
6. Ravindra Jadeja 82 in 3 at 27.33
7. Zaheer Khan 53 in 3 at 17.66
8. Cheteshwar Pujara 60 in 4 at 15
9. Murali Vijay 48 in 4 at 12

Australia

1. Virat Kohli 692 in 8 at 86.50
2. Murali Vijay 482 in 8 at 60.25
3. Ajinkya Rahane 399 in 8 at 49.87
4. Cheteshwar Pujara 201 in 6 at 33.50
5. Lokesh Rahul 130 in 4 at 32.50
6. Rohit Sharma 173 in 6 at 28.83
7. Shikhar Dhawan 167 in 6 at 27.83
8. Ravichandran Ashwin 113 in 6 at 18.83
9. Wriddhiman Saha 73 in 4 at 18.25
10. MS Dhoni 68 in 4 at 17
11. Mohammad Shami 67 in 4 at 16.75

South Africa

1. Cheteshwar Pujara 280 in 4 at 70
2. Virat Kohli 272 in 4 at 68
3. Ajinkya Rahane 209 in 4 at 52.25
4. Murali Vijay 148 in 4 at 37
5. MS Dhoni 87 in 4 at 21.75
6. Shikhar Dhawan 76 in 4 at 19
7. Rohit Sharma 45 in 4 at 11.25

West Indies

1. Lokesh Rahul 236 in 3 at 78.66
2. Virat Kohli 251 in 4 at 62.75
3. Ajinkya Rahane 243 in 4 at 60.75
4. Ravichandran Ashwin 235 in 4 at 58.75
5. Wriddhiman Saha 205 in 4 at 51.25
6. Amit Mishra 74 in 2 at 37
7. Shikhar Dhawan 138 in 4 at 34.50
8. Cheteshwar Pujara 62 in 2 at 31
9. Rohit Sharma 50 in 2 at 25

Sri Lanka

1. Shikhar Dhawan 520 in 6 at 86.66
2. Cheteshwar Pujara 454 in 6 at 75.66
3. Harddick Pandya 178 in 3 at 59.33
4. Ajinkya Rahane 407 in 10 at 40.70
5. Virat Kohli 394 in 10 at 39.40
6. Abhinav Mukund 95 in 2 at 47.50
7. Ravindra Jadeja 85 in 2 at 42.50
8. Murali Vijay 82 in 2 at 41
9. Rohit Sharma 202 in 6 at 33.66
10. Lokesh Rahul 268 in 8 at 33.50
11. Wriddhiman Saha 230 in 7 at 32.86

England

1. Murali Vijay 402 in 10 at 40.20
2. MS Dhoni 349 in 10 at 34.90
3. Ajinkya Rahane 299 in 10 at 29.90
4. Ravichandran Ashwin 106 in 4 at 26.50
5. Bhuvneshwar Kumar 247 in 10 at 24.70
6. Cheteshwar Pujara 222 in 10 at 22.20
7. Ravindra Jadeja 177 in 8 at 22.12
8. Shikhar Dhawan 122 in 6 at 20.33
9. Stuart Binny 118 in 6 at 19.66
10. Virat Kohli 134 in 10 at 13.40
11. Mohammad Shami 79 in 6 at 13.16

Overseas excluding England & Australia (Involving both)

1. Virat Kohli 930 in 16 at 58.12
2. Cheteshwar Pujara 856 in 16 at 53.50
3. Lokesh Rahul 304 in 5 at 60.80
4. Harddick Pandya 178 in 3 at 59.33
5. Shikhar Dhawan 760 in 15 at 50.66
6. Ajinkya Rahane 742 in 15 at 49.46
7. Amit Mishra 172 in 4 at 43
8. Ravichandran Ashwin 329 in 9 at 36.55
9. Wriddhiman Saha 186 in 5 at 36.20
10. MS Dhoni 204 in 7 at 29.14
11. Ravindra Jadeja 175 in 7 at 25
12. Rohit Sharma 243 in 10 at 24.30
13. Murali Vijay 203 in 9 at 22.55

England & Australia (Involving both)

1. Murali Vijay 804 in 16 at 50.25
2. Ajinkya Rahane 647 in 16 at 40.44
3. Virat Kohli 633 in 16 at 39.56
4. MS Dhoni 417 in 14 at 29.78
5. Cheteshwar Pujara 423 in 16 at 26.44
6. Bhuvneshwar Kumar 247 in 10 at 24.70
7. Shikhar Dhawan 289 in 12 at 24.08
8. Ravindra Jadeja 177 in 8 at 22.12
9. Ravichandran Ashwin 168 in 8 at 21
9. Stuart Binny 118 in 6 at 19.66
10. Rohit Sharma 115 in 6 at 19.16

India vs Major Teams Including Bangladesh excluding West Indies at Home

1. Chiteshwar Pujara 2751 in 47 at 58.53
2. Virat Kohli 2453 in 46 at 53.32
3. Karun Nair 369 in 6 at 61.50
4. MS Dhoni 700 in 15 at 46.66
5. Murali Vijay 1520 in 34 at 44.70
6. Lokesh Rahul 683 in 16 at 42.69
7. Shikhar Dhawan 457 in 12 at 38.08
8. Jayant Yadav 228 in 6 at 38
9. Rohit Sharma 366 in 10 at 36.60
10. Gautam Gambhir 417 in 13 at 32.07
11. Ajinkya Rahane 914 in 29 at 31.52
12. Virender Sehwag 408 in 13 at 31.38
13. Ravichandran Ashwin 883 in 36 at 24.53
14. Wriddhiman Saha 522 in 22 at 23.73
15. Sachin Tendulkar 367 in 16 at 22.94
16. Ravindra Jadeja 730 in 32 at 22.81