Top 5 left-handed openers from New Zealand

4 Bert Sutcliffe

Bert Sutcliffe

The left-hander was one of New Zealand's earliest top order mainstays back in the late 1940s and 1950s.

Bert Sutcliffe played 42 Test matches in total for New Zealand and out of those, he played as an opening batsman in 23. Sutcliffe was an excellent stroke-player and although he was perhaps not as defensively solid as many would have liked, he still managed to get over that slight handicap to emerge as one of the New Zealand cricket's early greats.

Sutcliffe made a total of 1763 runs in total as an opening batsman and averaged a superb 45.20 in those innings, which is why it is not surprising that he is rated so highly. He scored 4 centuries and 7 half-centuries during his stint as New Zealand's opening batsman.