Jacques Kallis vs Alastair Cook - Who was a better Test batsmen?

[Ted123]

Stats:-

Kallis
Matches 166
Runs 13289
Avg 55.37
100s 45

Cook
Matches 161
Runs 12472
Avg 45.35
100s 33

While Kallis wins statistically, Cook was an opener who played his home matches in the toughest conditions for batting i.e. England. The comparison is just on batting. Kallis bowling is excluded here.

Who is a better batsmen according to PP? Discuss!

 

[Ab Fan]

Kallis by a mile, lol, is this even a comparison.

One averages 55 with 45 hundreds and other averages 45 with 33 hundreds. A farcical comparison really.

 

[Joseph Gomes]

Kallis easily lol. Opener or not Cook isn't an ATG in the only format he played.

 

[Titan24]

Bro is this a trick thread?

Kallis is a legend

 

[Justcrazy]

Kallis is better batsman than Cook , and probably biggest all rounder of this era.

 

[Hitman]

Is this a joke? I never enjoyed watching either one of them bat, but this is not even a contest. I can simply ask people to guess my pick, and they'll all guess the right one.

 

[hafizexpress]

South Africa isn't the easiest place to bat in either as you said for England. Kallis absolutely wipes the floor with Cook!

 

[Walid88]

kallis is better test batsman than Tendulkar

 

[Ab Fan]

Leave Kallis, it could very well be argued that Smith, de Villiers and Amla are also better test batsmen than Cook.

Kallis is a level ahead of all of them.

 

[James]

As much as I respect Cook, 10 extra runs per innings in a 160-Test career is not so much a gap as a chasm.

Kallis was clearly the better batsman and (responding to the opening the innings point) I also believe that he would have averaged 50 as an opener, not his upper-middle order average of 55 sure, but 50 would have been probable.

I would consider Kallis an ATG batter and Cook as a “merely” great batter.

 

[Robert]

It would have been interesting to see Kallis had he been born English.

Given the lack of a Donald, Pollock or Steyn I think he would have opened the bowling, or done a lot of bowling as third seamer, and less batting. He would have more wickets and fewer centuries.

 

[Mamoon]

Cook is one of all-time favorites and I do not think much of Kallis, but this is not much of a comparison. Kallis was comfortably better.

 

[Joseph Gomes]

It would have been interesting to see Kallis had he been born English.

Given the lack of a Donald, Pollock or Steyn I think he would have opened the bowling, or done a lot of bowling as third seamer, and less batting. He would have more wickets and fewer centuries.

There is no room for imagination. Kallis would be easily be the greatest English batsman of all time if he was born there. He is far above the likes of Hammond, Sutcliffe, Hobbs, Hutton and Barrington. Kallis averaged 57.35 after 157 tests.

 

[Hasan123]

This isn't really a battle . Kallis win this one easily.

 

[Buffet]

Lopsided comparison.