4 Opening batsmen who changed the course of Test match batting

Test cricket is an ultimate reflection of life. A cliche as it may seem, it proceeds to test a batsmen's patience, perseverance, tenacity to the hilt. But, more importantly, it proceeds to test the character of a cricketer.

Among the many challenges that Test cricket poses, the most prudent of them is opening the batting on fresh pitches, hostile conditions and menacing fast-bowlers with the ball seaming around off the deck.

Back in the day, coaches would tell the young prodigies to respect the playing conditions, bowlers and play conventional textbook cricket. The likes of Gavaskar, Cook, Taylor, Atherton belong to that school of thought, who used to grind it out in tough conditions while settling into a rhythm when the conditions eased off.

Gavaskar, in particular, was the perfect example of that 'school of thought'. The right-handed batsmen had a plethora of patience as well as tenacity at his disposal. And if you take into account the quality of bowlers that he had to face, the term 'tenacity' means in every literal sense of the world.

But, of course, just as in life, different individuals react to situations differently and have their own way of going about their business. Apart from the aforementioned skills required to succeed in Test Cricket, there is one more term which is often misconstrued by the cricketing folklore- playing positive cricket. Playing positive cricket does not mean going hammer and tongs from the word go. But, it is a reflection of an innate self-confidence in a cricketer, ready to take on the opposition and play in a manner that upsets the plans as well as the mental composure of the opposition.

In the past 50 years, there have been few openers in Test cricket who, with a plethora of talent at their disposal and immense self-confidence in their ability defied textbook stuff and consequently brought about a revolution in Test match batting in their respective era. Having said that, today, in this slider, we'll have a look at opening batsmen who changed the course of Test match batting

Having said that, today, in this slider, we'll have a look at opening batsmen who changed the course of Test match batting.

#4 Virender Sehwag (2001-2013)

Few batsmen in the history of the game have changed the way at which Test match batting especially in Indian Cricket. None better than Virender Sehwag.

Few batsmen in the history of the game have changed the way at which Test match batting especially in Indian Cricket. None better than Virender Sehwag.

Sehwag started his career as a middle-order batsman and celebrated his Test debut with a scintillating 105 at Bloemfontein against the likes of Donald, Pollock, and Ntini. But his success as an ODI opener prompted Ganguly to push Sehwag the Delhi marauder to the opening slot against England in the summer of 2002; the rest as they say his history.

A hundred in Trent Bridge was followed by a 195 at the MCG (2003), 309 at Multan which led to him being designated as the 'Multan of Sultan'.With Sehwag it was not about the Brobdingnagian numbers, it was about the pace at which he got 'em.

The erstwhile notion of seeing off the new ball and giving respect to the bowlers as well as conditions was defied by the Nawab of Najafgarh and accentuated as to how a modern opening batsman could bat.

While he may have scored a multitude of triple and double hundreds, the sheer value and the impact Sehwag was for the Indian team was exemplified to the hilt when he scored an enthralling 83 off 68 balls against England in December 2008.

India was faced with an incredibly difficult target of 387 on a typical fourth day Chennai turned. But Sehwag threw caution to the wind and hammered a breathtaking 83 and all of a sudden, India were right back into the game. India went on to win the game on the last day thanks to a Tendulkar 100, and Sehwag was deservingly declared 'Player of the Match'.

Sehwag bowed out of Test cricket in 2013 following an extended lean patch but not before he's enthralled the cricketing fans with.

#3 David Warner (2011-Present)

The best Test opener of the current era

The first cricketer since 1877 to be awarded the coveted baggy green, without having played any first-class cricket, David Warner is well and truly the leading Test opening batsman of the current era.

David started as a marauder of a cricket ball, a skill he displayed with disdain in his T20I debut against South Africa (89 off 43 balls) back in 2009, but it was only when he made his Test debut against the Kiwis in 2011, that he started to establish himself as a modern day great who made batting look sexy. A debut hundred in a losing cause at Hobart 2011 was followed by a breathtaking assault on the Indian bowlers, as he racked up 180 at the WACA in early 2012.

The only opener to smash a hundred in an opening session of the Test match, Warner has stamped himself as one of the leading Test openers of the current era, with 21 hundred at an average of 48.2 in 74 matches.

While he may be out of cricket for a period of twelve months following the ball-tampering scandal, he is certainly the torch-bearer of change as to how opening batting is perceived in this decade.

#2 Matthew Hayden (1993-2009)

The destructive monk

A farrago of destruction and consistency, Matthew Hayden was a bully as an opening batsman. After spending seven years in the wilderness in the shadow of Michael Slater and Mark Taylor, Hayden announced himself to the cricketing folklore with path-breaking performances in the 2001 Indo-Aus Border Gavaskar Trophy.

The swashbuckling opener who achieved the distinction of scoring at least a thousand runs a year between the period of 2001 to 2005, accumulated 549 runs including a sublime double-hundred in Chennai (203) against a rampaging Harbhajan Singh.

Hayden, in few years time would go on smashing the then highest Test score in International cricket when he (380) clobbered an insipid Zimbabwean bowling attack in the summer of 2003. One of Hayden's most endearing quality was to never let the opposition bowlers get on the top of him irrespective of the format of the game. There was off-course a lot of preparation that went into it.

Hayden would spend long hours before the start of a Test to visualize every minute detail of opposition's strengths and weaknesses. It was essentially the involvement of himself- mind, body, and spirit, in a bid to execute the process.

In a pulsating 16-year-old career, Hayden formed an enviable opening partnership with Justin Langer, a perfect blend of fire and calm. The Hayden-Langer combo opened the innings for Australia on 113 occasions and finished as the second greatest opening pair in the history of the game, having amassed 5655 runs at an average of 51.88.

Hayden finished his career in 2009 with 8625 runs to his name at an average of 50.73. While an average above 50 is considered as a benchmark of greatness, Hayden's true legacy lies in the paradigm shift that he triggered along with Sehwag in the first decade of the 21st century.

#1 Gordon Greenidge (1976-1991)

A brooding assassin

If Sehwag, Hayden, and Warner are the modern-day gladiators when it comes to Test match opening, one of the greatest openers in the history of the game, and one half of the Haynes-Greenidge pair, Gordon Greenidge was a brooding assassin and an instigator of a whirlwind change in how opening batting was perceived in an era where cricket was still being played on uncovered pitches.

Greenidge started his Test career against India in 1974 along with a certain Sir Vivian Richards and immediately turned heads with a 107 and 93 to help Windies topple India by a massive 267 runs. But it was in the English summer of 1976, that Greenidge finally established his credentials as a Test match opener, having amassed 591 runs in five games which included three centuries.

While he possessed an immaculate back-foot play, pulling the ball with ferocious ease, Greendige was equally ominous when it came to driving on the up and hitting in the 'V'. In a 108 Test match career that saw the West Indian score 7558 runs at an average of 44.72 and a jaw-dropping strike-rate of 60.28, Greenidge enthralled the cricketing folklore with his immaculate talent and the death-defying ease with which he used to handle top quality bowlers. The testimony to it is his stunning 214 against England in West Indies 5-0 'Blackwash' of England, and his 226 in his farewell series against Australia in 1991.