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12 best Test innings ever by Asian opening batsmen?

Harsh Thakor

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My list in order of merit of the best test innings ever by an Asian opening batsmen

1.Sunil Gavaskar 96 at Bangalore v Pakistan in 1987


2.Sunil Gavaskar 221 at the Oval in 1979


3.Majid Khan 167 at Georgetown in 1977


4.Hanif Mohammad 337 at Bridgetown in 1957-58


5.Saed Anwar 188 n.o at Kolkata in 1999


6.Virendra Sehwag 309 at Multan in 2004


7.Mohsin Khan 200 at Lords in 1982


8.Sannath Jayasuriya 267 v Australia


9.Virendra Sehwag 158 v Australia in 2004 at Chennai


10.Sunil Gavaskar 90 v West Indies at Ahmedabad in 1983-84


11.Amir Sohail 201 at Old Trafford in 1992


12.Mudassar Nazar 231 at Rawalpindi in 1982-83.


Placed Gavaskar's innings at the top because of his brilliance at Bangalore on the worst of cricket pitches with the ball turning square.Reminiscent of a surgeon performing an operation.At the Oval he took batting perfection to heights of divinty,morally winning a game for India from the depths of despair.

Majid Khan ressurected Pakistan from the grave with a calculated counterattack in a resolute stand of 166 with Zaheer Abbas.Abobe all against a great pace quartet.

Hanif Mohammad was the epitome of batting perfection at Barbados occupying the crease for 970 mins.

Sehwag took cricketing domination to heights of the sublime when making a triple century.Perhaps the most swashbuckling of cricketing triple centuries.


Saed Anwar was virtually a one man army giving a scintillating display of strokeplay on the most difficult of wickets.,which won the game for Pakistan.

Mohsin Khan exhibited subtle grace in his match-wining double century at Lords .
 
Sehwag’s double-century in Sri Lanka in 2008 deserves a mention. He carried the bat and completely dominated Muralitharan and Mendes, who was unplayable at the time.

Without him India would have been dismissed for less than hundred runs and would have comfortably lost the match.
 
It will take quite time to analyse all innings, but for me Gavaskar's 96 in not no.1. because A) Match was played in India and B) India lost the game still.
 
It will take quite time to analyse all innings, but for me Gavaskar's 96 in not no.1. because A) Match was played in India and B) India lost the game still.

Sir,please see the video.It is hard to even visualize such an innings.On a treacherous pitch Gavaskar was reminiscent of a surgeon performing an operation on patient considered incurable.I doubt even Bradman or Sachin or Viv would equal this effort in such conditions.
 
Sehwag's best inning was the one at Galle. It shout be mentioned ahead of his triple hundreds and other innings.
 
Sir,please see the video.It is hard to even visualize such an innings.On a treacherous pitch Gavaskar was reminiscent of a surgeon performing an operation on patient considered incurable.I doubt even Bradman or Sachin or Viv would equal this effort in such conditions.
I agree. Even slow bowlers balls were going above wicketkeeper's head in that game.
 
My list in order of merit of the best test innings ever by an Asian opening batsmen

1.Sunil Gavaskar 96 at Bangalore v Pakistan in 1987


2.Sunil Gavaskar 221 at the Oval in 1979


3.Majid Khan 167 at Georgetown in 1977


4.Hanif Mohammad 337 at Bridgetown in 1957-58


5.Saed Anwar 188 n.o at Kolkata in 1999


6.Virendra Sehwag 309 at Multan in 2004


7.Mohsin Khan 200 at Lords in 1982


8.Sannath Jayasuriya 267 v Australia


9.Virendra Sehwag 158 v Australia in 2004 at Chennai


10.Sunil Gavaskar 90 v West Indies at Ahmedabad in 1983-84


11.Amir Sohail 201 at Old Trafford in 1992


12.Mudassar Nazar 231 at Rawalpindi in 1982-83.


Placed Gavaskar's innings at the top because of his brilliance at Bangalore on the worst of cricket pitches with the ball turning square.Reminiscent of a surgeon performing an operation.At the Oval he took batting perfection to heights of divinty,morally winning a game for India from the depths of despair.

Majid Khan ressurected Pakistan from the grave with a calculated counterattack in a resolute stand of 166 with Zaheer Abbas.Abobe all against a great pace quartet.

Hanif Mohammad was the epitome of batting perfection at Barbados occupying the crease for 970 mins.

Sehwag took cricketing domination to heights of the sublime when making a triple century.Perhaps the most swashbuckling of cricketing triple centuries.


Saed Anwar was virtually a one man army giving a scintillating display of strokeplay on the most difficult of wickets.,which won the game for Pakistan.

Mohsin Khan exhibited subtle grace in his match-wining double century at Lords .

In recent times - Shan Masoods 124 vs SL in 2015 stands out. That too on a 4th day / innings Pakallele pitch.
 
Azhar Ali's 205* vs Aus in Melbourne was also a pretty solid knock and one of the best by Asian openers in Aus.
 
My list in order of merit of the best test innings ever by an Asian opening batsmen

1.Sunil Gavaskar 96 at Bangalore v Pakistan in 1987


2.Sunil Gavaskar 221 at the Oval in 1979


3.Majid Khan 167 at Georgetown in 1977


4.Hanif Mohammad 337 at Bridgetown in 1957-58


5.Saed Anwar 188 n.o at Kolkata in 1999


6.Virendra Sehwag 309 at Multan in 2004


7.Mohsin Khan 200 at Lords in 1982


8.Sannath Jayasuriya 267 v Australia


9.Virendra Sehwag 158 v Australia in 2004 at Chennai


10.Sunil Gavaskar 90 v West Indies at Ahmedabad in 1983-84


11.Amir Sohail 201 at Old Trafford in 1992


12.Mudassar Nazar 231 at Rawalpindi in 1982-83.


Placed Gavaskar's innings at the top because of his brilliance at Bangalore on the worst of cricket pitches with the ball turning square.Reminiscent of a surgeon performing an operation.At the Oval he took batting perfection to heights of divinty,morally winning a game for India from the depths of despair.

Majid Khan ressurected Pakistan from the grave with a calculated counterattack in a resolute stand of 166 with Zaheer Abbas.Abobe all against a great pace quartet.

Hanif Mohammad was the epitome of batting perfection at Barbados occupying the crease for 970 mins.

Sehwag took cricketing domination to heights of the sublime when making a triple century.Perhaps the most swashbuckling of cricketing triple centuries.


Saed Anwar was virtually a one man army giving a scintillating display of strokeplay on the most difficult of wickets.,which won the game for Pakistan.

Mohsin Khan exhibited subtle grace in his match-wining double century at Lords .

I would also argue Sehwags 254 vs Pak in 2006 was better than his Multan triple hundred.

2nd fastest double hundred ever and that too with scoreboard pressure!
 
I would also argue Sehwags 254 vs Pak in 2006 was better than his Multan triple hundred.

2nd fastest double hundred ever and that too with scoreboard pressure!

Also Alistair Cooks double hundred vs Pakistan in 2015!

One of the best knocks by a foreign batsman in the UAE!
 
Sehwag was a beast in SC, completely destroyed Murali who was the bowling version of Bradman at home.
 
Will definitely consider.Thanks.very valid contribution by you .

I would also like to mention Gautam Gambhir's hundred at Napier, which was truly one of the most epic hundred I have seen by an Asian batsmen. It was an inning in which he displayed tremendous discipline, perseverance and mental strength, batted for almost 450 balls to save a test match from an improbable situation.

He was not a great cricketer but did played one absolute class knock in each of the format which can't be ignored at any level simply due to the quality and the stage of those knocks.
 
I would also like to mention Gautam Gambhir's hundred at Napier, which was truly one of the most epic hundred I have seen by an Asian batsmen. It was an inning in which he displayed tremendous discipline, perseverance and mental strength, batted for almost 450 balls to save a test match from an improbable situation.

He was not a great cricketer but did played one absolute class knock in each of the format which can't be ignored at any level simply due to the quality and the stage of those knocks.

Thanks immensely for contribution sir very valuable
 
Didn’t Hafeez score a match winning 180 odd at Perth some years ago v Australia ? Just trying to remember if that innings was before or after his marathon 252 v South Africa at Durban , where he made Steyn look ordinary after smashing him for five consecutive cover drives for 4.
 
Afridi's 141 surely deserves a place in the list somewhere.
A truly great innings.
 
Did Azharuddin, Tendulkar.... Javed Miandad never play an innings as good as those mentioned?

They weren's as dominant or noteworthy as the ones mentioned. Sehwag has lots of mentions since he's argubaly the greatest player of spin bowling in history, has destroyed every single spinner he ever came across, on both flat pitch and rank turners, home and away.
 
My list in order of merit of the best test innings ever by an Asian opening batsmen

1.Sunil Gavaskar 96 at Bangalore v Pakistan in 1987


2.Sunil Gavaskar 221 at the Oval in 1979


3.Majid Khan 167 at Georgetown in 1977


4.Hanif Mohammad 337 at Bridgetown in 1957-58


5.Saed Anwar 188 n.o at Kolkata in 1999


6.Virendra Sehwag 309 at Multan in 2004


7.Mohsin Khan 200 at Lords in 1982


8.Sannath Jayasuriya 267 v Australia


9.Virendra Sehwag 158 v Australia in 2004 at Chennai


10.Sunil Gavaskar 90 v West Indies at Ahmedabad in 1983-84


11.Amir Sohail 201 at Old Trafford in 1992


12.Mudassar Nazar 231 at Rawalpindi in 1982-83.


Placed Gavaskar's innings at the top because of his brilliance at Bangalore on the worst of cricket pitches with the ball turning square.Reminiscent of a surgeon performing an operation.At the Oval he took batting perfection to heights of divinty,morally winning a game for India from the depths of despair.

Majid Khan ressurected Pakistan from the grave with a calculated counterattack in a resolute stand of 166 with Zaheer Abbas.Abobe all against a great pace quartet.

Hanif Mohammad was the epitome of batting perfection at Barbados occupying the crease for 970 mins.

Sehwag took cricketing domination to heights of the sublime when making a triple century.Perhaps the most swashbuckling of cricketing triple centuries.


Saed Anwar was virtually a one man army giving a scintillating display of strokeplay on the most difficult of wickets.,which won the game for Pakistan.

Mohsin Khan exhibited subtle grace in his match-wining double century at Lords .

I take that you sir, have not seen Inzamam Ul Huq bat
 
Gavaskar 96 can be taken off this list because it wasn't a human effort, God himself entered his body that day to resist the Pakistani bowling on that unplayable surface. It's arguably the greatest ever display of batsmanship in a test match ever and something only Gavaskar could have pulled off. What a player! People often talk about Sachin and Smith being Don Bradman's predecessors but Gavaskar is probably the best ever test batsman since him.
 
I won't rate knocks by Asian openers in Asia that highly because they get the easiest conditions to bat, relatively speaking. In SENA and West Indies however the opposite.
 
No mention of saeed Anwars 118 vs SA on a very difficult durban wicket vs donald, pollock, de villiers and kluesener.

:facepalm:
 
Taufeeq Umar 135 vs South Africa in Cape Town in 2003. It was a typically embarrassing tour for Pakistan where all our greats (Younis, Yousuf, Inzi) failed and Taufeeq lead the run charts. Shame that Woolmer never warmed to him and decided to take the ever disgraceful Imran Farhat to Australia in 2004.
 
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