4 Opening batsmen who changed the course of Test match batting

#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.