Top 10 left handed openers with most runs in Test cricket

#2 Graeme Smith

Graeme Smith

Graeme Smith is arguably South Africa’s most successful opener in Test cricket. Smith who donned the captaincy role at a tender age of just 22 went onto become one of Proteas' most accomplished opening batsman in the longer format. Smith wasn’t the most elegant left-hander with flair and panache but had a lot of grit and tenacity to become a prolific run scorer.

Smith certainly had his set of technical flaws but hung in there to overcome all odds. Smith had a penchant to score big hundreds and once he got his eye in, he made the opposition pay with some mammoth double tons.

As an opener, he forged successful partnerships with Herschelle Gibbs and Hashim Amla to provide dependability to South Africa up the order. With over 9000 Test runs at just under the 50 mark average, the left-handed opener had certainly established himself as one of the modern-day batting great.

Graeme Smith's record as Test opener

Matches: 114; Runs: 9030; Avg: 49.07; 100s: 27; 50s: 36