The Greatest Player of Every Decade

The 1920s:

Hobbs And Sutcliffe: The greatest opening pair in history

Herbert Sutcliffe (ENG)

The 1920s saw a sharp rise in the runs batters were scoring, as in this decade batsmen averaged 33.25 in Tests, compared to just 26.90 in the 1910s.

England played a big roll in this, as they fielded a particularly strong batting line-up for much of this decade. Their strongest asset was their two openers: Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe.

From 1924 to 1930, this pair opened 38 innings for England, with their average opening stand being a phenomenal 87.81. This greatly eclipses the average opening stand of other acclaimed opening pairs. Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden, for example, averaged 51.41, while Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes averaged 46.63.

Hobbs and Sutcliffe's unparalleled record shows them to be the strongest opening partnership Test cricket has seen, by some distance too.

It is no surprise then that the two scored more runs in the 1920s than any other batsmen, with Sutcliffe amassing 2960 at 64.34 over the decade, and Hobbs scoring 2644 at 61.48.

Over this time, Sutcliffe scored 12 Test centuries, and Hobbs 10, when no other batsman managed more than six. They were purely dominant.

Their finest moment as an opening pair was their 283 run partnership against Australia in 1925. This game emphasized their class as they shone, despite the rest of their team struggling greatly. But even with their brilliant first innings partnership and the fact Sutcliffe also made 127 in the second innings, England lost by 81 runs.

Sutcliffe was viewed as a complete batsman. He not only had a flawless technique but was able to adapt his game to make runs on the most difficult of wickets and against the best of bowlers.

While Hobbs could also have been named the finest cricketer of this decade, Sutcliffe's statistics are slightly better than his counterpart. But there is no doubt that neither player can be properly assessed without a particular note being paid to the duo's effectiveness as an opening pair.