5 Greatest Test batsmen of all time
Cricket is quite possibly the only sport in the world that is played across three different formats at the highest level. ODIs and T-20s are not bad for generating temporary excitement, but Test cricket is unparalleled in terms of judging a player’s true quality.
It has always been the connoisseur’s delight and the purist’s choice. No cricketer can be called truly great unless he has performed well in test cricket, howsoever good his record in limited overs cricket might be.
Batting in tests is far more difficult than in ODIs or T-20s. A batsman has to be technically perfect as well as have enough strokes to be consistently successful in Tests. Moreover, he has to have the temperament to succeed in all kinds of playing conditions.
A great Test batsman should be comfortable playing against both pace and spin bowling. However, there have been a lot of great batsmen in the history of the game and it is not easy to pick the top 5 ones out of them. We would try to do the same in this article.
#5 Sir Garfield Sobers (West Indies)
Sir Gary, as he was famously known as, was the most complete cricketer of all times. In 93 tests, he scored 8032 runs at a very healthy average of 57.78. He was a brilliant left-handed middle-order batsman, who could tackle pace and spin bowling with equal ease.
There has never been a more complete cricketer than him and he also remains the greatest allrounder the game has ever seen.
Sobers also held the record of the highest score made by a player in an innings as he scored 365 not out against Pakistan. That record stood for more than 3 decades till his countryman Brian Lara broke it in 1994. He also destroyed Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson to score a memorable double-century in Australia, which still remains one of the finest knocks played in cricket history.
Sobers made 26 centuries and 30 half-centuries. His hooks and pulls against top-quality pace bowling were exemplary and h also drove very well against the spinners. Sobers could also score runs very quickly with his wide range of strokes. The great man retired in 1974 and the sport has not quite seen anybody like him since then.