Tests - Best Kiwi Opening Batsmen

Top 10 New Zealand Opening Batsmen in Tests

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All Test Ratings on the website are from 01/01/1950 onwards (Know Why). They are updated till 2026-02-05. Brief explanation of the ratings is given before each section (Detailed Explanation) and in the last section. Here are the Top 10 Kiwi opening batsmen in Test Cricket since 1950.

CONTENTS
1. THE CRITERIA
2. QUALIFICATION
3. PRIMARY CRITERIA
3.1. PROLIFIC
3.2. CONSISTENT
3.2.1. Against All Teams
3.2.2. Against Top Teams
3.3. ATTACKING
3.3.1. Against All Teams
3.3.2. Against Top Teams
3.4. BIG INNINGS POTENTIAL
3.4.1. Against All Teams
3.4.2. Against Top Teams
3.5. PRIMARY RATING
4. CONDITIONS CRITERIA
4.1. HOME/AWAY
4.1.1. At Home
4.1.2. Away From Home
4.2. FAMILIAR/UNFAMILIAR CONDITIONS
4.2.1. Familiar Conditions Rating
4.2.1.1. Non Asians Outside Asia
4.2.2. Unfamiliar Conditions Rating
4.2.2.1. Non Asians In Asia
4.3. CONDITIONS RATING
5. SECONDARY CRITERIA
5.1. LOW SCORING INNS
5.2. TOP FORM
5.3. IMPACT INNS
5.4. SECONDARY RATING
6. OVERALL RATING
6.1. BRIEF EXPLANATION
6.1.1. Dynamic Nature
6.1.2. Trend Setter (TS)
6.1.3. Top Teams (TT)
6.1.4. Abbreviations
Nations Filter

This rating filters the OVERALL Rating to show players only from New Zealand.

  • The Rating of the players from New Zealand remains the same as in the original OVERALL Rating.
  • Thus the Trend Setter can be from any nation and is not necessarily from New Zealand.
Position Filter

This rating filters the OVERALL Rating to include performances of opening batsmen. Innings played only at the specified position are counted in this rating.

THE CRITERIA

CRITERIA CONSTITUENTS
Primary Runs, Average, Strike Rate, Top Inns
Conditions Home, Away, In Asia, Outside Asia
Secondary Top Form, Low Scoring Inns, Impact Inns

QUALIFICATION

Min Innings (TT) 25
Min Runs 500

PRIMARY CRITERIA

The Primary Rating is divided into 4 main sections:-

CRITERIA STAT POINTS
Prolific Runs Scored 250.00
Consistent Average 400.00
Attacking Strike Rate 100.00
Big Innings Potential Top Inns (Runs) 250.00

PROLIFIC

The Eras

The time period from 1950 to present is divided into eras for this section. This is because less cricket was played earlier. To make it fair for earlier players they are compared with players of the same period with a slight reduction in points. Know More About Eras.

Era 1 MP before 1976
Era 2 MP between 1975 And 1996
Era 3 MP between 1995 And 2016
Era 4 MP greater than 2015

Criteria: Points For Runs Scored

RANK ERA 1 NAT FP LP MP INNS RUNS RAT
TS G Boycott ENG 1964 1982 1973 191 8091 230.00
1 GT Dowling NZ 1961 1972 1966.5 71 2177 61.88
RANK ERA 2 NAT FP LP MP INNS RUNS RAT
TS SM Gavaskar IND 1971 1987 1979 203 9607 240.00
1 JG Wright NZ 1978 1993 1985.5 144 5260 131.40
2 GM Turner NZ 1969 1983 1976 67 2828 70.65
3 BA Edgar NZ 1978 1986 1982 65 1898 47.42
RANK ERA 3 NAT FP LP MP INNS RUNS RAT
TS AN Cook ENG 2006 2018 2012 278 11845 250.00
1 MH Richardson NZ 2000 2004 2002 64 2770 58.46
2 BA Young NZ 1993 1999 1996 67 2024 42.72
3 MJ Horne NZ 1997 2003 2000 54 1525 32.19
4 BB McCullum NZ 2004 2014 2009 35 1316 27.78
RANK ERA 4 NAT FP LP MP INNS RUNS RAT
TS DA Warner AUS 2011 2024 2017.5 202 8747 240.00
1 TWM Latham NZ 2014 2025 2019.5 161 6197 170.03
2 DP Conway NZ 2021 2025 2023 48 1994 54.71

CONSISTENT

R Ave

Relative Average (R Ave) is a more accurate type of average. Know How It Is Calculated. Briefly, it takes into account:-

  • Strength of Opposition.
  • Positions at which a batsman has played.
  • Venues at which he has played.
  • Time Period in which he has been active

Criteria: Points For Relative Average

Min Qualification For TS
Min Runs 1000
Min Runs (TT) 800

Against All Teams

RANK BATSMAN INNS NO RUNS AVE R AVE RAT
TS RB Simpson 70 4 3664 55.52 58.31 160.00
1 GM Turner 67 5 2828 45.61 47.25 129.63
2 DP Conway 48 2 1994 43.35 47.16 129.40
3 MH Richardson 64 2 2770 44.68 45.84 125.77
4 TWM Latham 161 5 6197 39.72 41.07 112.68
5 BB McCullum 35 2 1316 39.88 39.84 109.31
6 JG Wright 144 6 5260 38.12 39.51 108.42
7 GT Dowling 71 2 2177 31.55 33.91 93.05
8 BA Young 67 4 2024 32.13 33.62 92.24
9 BA Edgar 65 3 1898 30.61 33.06 90.70
10 MJ Horne 54 2 1525 29.33 31.36 86.05

Against Top Teams

RANK BATSMAN INNS NO RUNS AVE R AVE RAT
TS RB Simpson 45 4 2199 53.63 60.03 240.00
1 GM Turner 46 4 2172 51.71 53.46 213.72
2 MH Richardson 50 1 2124 43.35 46.93 187.60
3 DP Conway 28 1 1046 38.74 44.17 176.58
4 BB McCullum 27 2 1048 41.92 42.64 170.46
5 JG Wright 97 3 3250 34.57 37.90 151.51
6 BA Edgar 47 2 1456 32.36 36.28 145.06
7 TWM Latham 103 2 3159 31.28 34.73 138.86
8 BA Young 37 1 992 27.56 31.28 125.06
9 MJ Horne 34 1 905 27.42 30.70 122.75
10 GT Dowling 37 1 900 25.00 27.67 110.62

ATTACKING

R SR

Relative Strike Rate (R SR) is calculated using the same method as R Ave with average being replaced with SR. Batsman who were active in earlier times benefit from this as SR was generally low earlier.

R4BF

Balls played by batsmen for many inns is not available for earlier times. When such is the case, we have used Runs For Balls Faced (R4BF) to determine the Strike Rate. This is the runs scored by the batsman for the available data of balls.

Criteria: Points For R SR

Min Qualification For TS
Min Runs 1000
Min Runs (TT) 800
Min Average 25

Against All Teams

RANK BATSMAN R4BF BF SR R SR RAT
TS V Sehwag 8207 9875 83.11 82.03 40.00
1 BB McCullum 1316 2168 60.70 59.34 28.94
2 DP Conway 1994 3655 54.56 50.99 24.86
3 GT Dowling 422 1143 36.92 47.98 23.40
4 TWM Latham 6197 12968 47.79 45.94 22.40
5 MJ Horne 1525 3740 40.78 45.47 22.17
6 BA Young 2024 5194 38.97 43.53 21.23
7 GM Turner 1294 3698 34.99 43.11 21.02
8 JG Wright 5082 14379 35.34 40.50 19.75
9 MH Richardson 2770 7326 37.81 39.56 19.29
10 BA Edgar 1749 5449 32.10 37.03 18.06

Against Top Teams

RANK BATSMAN R4BF BF SR R SR RAT
TS V Sehwag 5890 7098 82.98 81.97 60.00
1 BB McCullum 1048 1715 61.11 60.47 44.26
2 DP Conway 1046 2012 51.99 50.06 36.64
3 TWM Latham 3159 6931 45.58 44.70 32.72
4 MJ Horne 905 2345 38.59 43.83 32.08
5 GM Turner 1223 3604 33.93 42.34 30.99
6 JG Wright 3250 9337 34.81 40.38 29.56
7 BA Young 992 2785 35.62 40.34 29.53
8 MH Richardson 2124 5867 36.20 38.34 28.06
9 GT Dowling 183 624 29.33 37.94 27.77
10 BA Edgar 1456 4490 32.43 37.86 27.71

BIG INNINGS POTENTIAL

Ave HS

In this criteria, we have taken the top 7 scores of the batsman. Average High Score (Ave HS) is simply the total runs in the 7 innings divided by 7.

Criteria: Points For Runs Scored In The Top 7 Inns

Against All Teams

RANK BATSMAN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 AVE HS RAT
TS V Sehwag 319 309 293 254 201* 201 195 253.14 80.00
1 TWM Latham 264* 252 177 176 161 154 145 189.86 60.00
2 GM Turner 259 223* 117 113 110* 110 101 147.57 46.64
3 DP Conway 227 200 153 122 100 92 91 140.71 44.47
4 JG Wright 185 141 138 130 119 117* 116 135.14 42.71
5 GT Dowling 239 143 129 83 78 76 74 117.43 37.11
6 BA Young 267* 120 94 85 84 74 62 112.29 35.49
7 MH Richardson 145 143 106 101 99 95 93 111.71 35.30
8 BB McCullum 225 202 83 68 65 64 56 109.00 34.45
9 BA Edgar 161 129 127 84 83 76 74 104.86 33.14
10 MJ Horne 157 133 110 100 93 63 60 102.29 32.33

Against Top Teams

RANK BATSMAN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 AVE HS RAT
TS V Sehwag 319 309 293 254 201* 201 195 253.14 170.00
1 GM Turner 259 223* 117 110* 110 101 98 145.43 97.66
2 JG Wright 141 138 130 119 117* 116 107 124.00 83.27
3 TWM Latham 154 137 113 105 103 95 86 113.29 76.08
4 DP Conway 200 122 92 91 80 77 76 105.43 70.80
5 MH Richardson 145 106 101 95 93 85 82 101.00 67.83
6 BB McCullum 225 202 68 65 51 45 43 99.86 67.06
7 BA Edgar 161 127 84 83 76 74 70 96.43 64.76
8 MJ Horne 133 93 63 60 56 42 41 69.71 46.82
9 BA Young 120 74 61 55* 53 51 51 66.43 44.61
10 GT Dowling 83 76 71 66 53 41 41 61.57 41.35

PRIMARY RATING

The total of the above four criteria comes out to be 1,000.00 points. The Primary Rating is the addition of the points a batsman scored in the four criteria. The Weightage of the Rating is 40 percent.

RANK BATSMAN PRO CON BIP ATT RAT PRI PTS
1 TWM Latham 170.03 251.54 136.08 55.12 612.77 245.11
2 GM Turner 70.65 343.36 144.30 52.01 610.32 244.13
3 JG Wright 131.40 259.93 125.98 49.31 566.62 226.65
4 DP Conway 54.71 305.98 115.27 61.50 537.47 214.99
5 MH Richardson 58.46 313.37 103.13 47.36 522.32 208.93
6 BB McCullum 27.78 279.77 101.51 73.20 482.26 192.90
7 BA Edgar 47.42 235.76 97.90 45.77 426.84 170.74
8 GT Dowling 61.88 203.67 78.46 51.17 395.18 158.07
9 BA Young 42.72 217.30 80.10 50.75 390.87 156.35
10 MJ Horne 32.19 208.80 79.14 54.26 374.39 149.76

CONDITIONS CRITERIA

The Conditions

The Conditions Ratings are calculated by applying the four criteria of the Primary Rating to diffirent conditions. If Innings are less than the Qualification than the Player gets 50% of the Points.

The four conditions criteria and thier weightage is as follows:-

CRITERIA POINTS
Home 30.00
Away 120.00
Familiar Conditions 30.00
Unfamiliar Conditions 120.00

HOME/AWAY

HM/AW RATING

Points to note:-

  • U.A.E. is considered as a second Home for Pakistan and Afghanistan.
  • All Home and Away stats of Pakistani and Afghani batsmen are calculated accordingly.

At Home

Min Innings Vs Top Teams: 10

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 JG Wright 78 3067 42.01 34.38 594.94 17.85
2 TWM Latham 80 3431 45.14 50.18 580.90 17.43
3 GM Turner 33 1368 45.60 37.98 549.41 16.48
4 BB McCullum 6 259 51.80 58.47 500.00 15.00
5 MH Richardson 27 1194 47.76 37.94 473.14 14.19
6 BA Edgar 32 979 32.63 31.80 464.35 13.93
7 GT Dowling 30 1037 35.76 38.38 421.81 12.65
8 BA Young 36 1165 36.41 40.89 405.08 12.15
9 MJ Horne 28 826 31.77 43.00 370.00 11.10
10 DP Conway 21 773 38.65 54.06 336.38 10.09

Away From Home

Min Innings Vs Top Teams: 10

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 DP Conway 27 1221 46.96 54.88 651.34 78.16
2 GM Turner 34 1460 45.63 31.73 615.05 73.81
3 TWM Latham 81 2766 34.58 45.12 607.20 72.86
4 MH Richardson 37 1576 42.59 37.71 526.56 63.19
5 JG Wright 66 2193 33.74 36.70 499.10 59.89
6 BB McCullum 29 1057 37.75 61.28 495.79 59.49
7 BA Edgar 33 919 28.72 32.37 370.93 44.51
8 GT Dowling 41 1140 28.50 32.08 367.81 44.14
9 MJ Horne 26 699 26.88 38.43 344.58 41.35
10 BA Young 31 859 27.71 36.63 339.74 40.77

FAMILIAR/UNFAMILIAR CONDITIONS

FC/UC RATING

Points to note:-

  • Unfamiliar Conditions (UC) is Outside Asia for Asians and In Asia for Non Asians.
  • Familiar Conditions (FC) are the opposite.

Familiar Conditions Rating

Non Asians Outside Asia

Min Innings Vs Top Teams: 15

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 GM Turner 53 2342 48.79 34.99 658.74 19.76
2 JG Wright 125 4552 38.25 35.37 623.06 18.69
3 TWM Latham 120 4688 40.77 47.94 574.84 17.25
4 MH Richardson 54 2320 44.62 37.83 533.04 15.99
5 DP Conway 30 1397 48.17 53.55 501.04 15.03
6 BB McCullum 17 432 27.00 49.09 500.00 15.00
7 BA Edgar 60 1842 32.32 32.09 488.00 14.64
8 MJ Horne 38 1303 36.19 43.96 438.38 13.15
9 BA Young 55 1734 34.00 38.96 416.17 12.49
10 GT Dowling 52 1602 31.41 36.92 402.89 12.09

Unfamiliar Conditions Rating

Non Asians In Asia

Min Innings Vs All Teams: 5

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 TWM Latham 41 1509 36.80 47.32 667.58 80.11
2 BB McCullum 18 884 52.00 68.63 541.90 65.03
3 GT Dowling 19 575 31.94 NK 461.89 55.43
4 DP Conway 18 597 35.12 57.07 453.83 54.46
5 JG Wright 19 708 37.26 35.15 439.97 52.80
6 GM Turner 14 486 34.71 NK 414.76 49.77
7 MH Richardson 10 450 45.00 37.69 363.56 43.63
8 BA Young 12 290 24.17 39.03 243.76 29.25
9 MJ Horne 16 222 13.88 28.61 175.24 21.03
10 BA Edgar 5 56 11.20 32.18 131.76 15.81

CONDITIONS RATING

The Conditions Rating is the addition of the points a batsman scored in the four criteria. The Weightage of the Rating is 30%.

RANK BATSMAN AWAY HOME UC FC CON PTS
1 TWM Latham 72.86 17.43 80.11 17.25 187.65
2 GM Turner 73.81 16.48 49.77 19.76 159.82
3 DP Conway 78.16 10.09 54.46 15.03 157.74
4 BB McCullum 59.49 15.00 65.03 15.00 154.52
5 JG Wright 59.89 17.85 52.80 18.69 149.23
6 MH Richardson 63.19 14.19 43.63 15.99 137.00
7 GT Dowling 44.14 12.65 55.43 12.09 124.30
8 BA Young 40.77 12.15 29.25 12.49 94.66
9 BA Edgar 44.51 13.93 15.81 14.64 88.89
10 MJ Horne 41.35 11.10 21.03 13.15 86.63

SECONDARY CRITERIA

Secondary Rating

It consists of three parts. If Innings are less than the Qualification than the Player gets 50% of the Points.

The three secondary criteria and thier weightage is as follows:-

CRITERIA POINTS
Low Scoring Inns 50.00
Top Form 100.00
Impact Innings 150.00

LOW SCORING INNS

LSI RATING

Low Scoring Inns (LSI) are those inns in which batting average is less than 30.

Min Innings Vs All Teams: 10

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 JG Wright 83 2306 29.19 33.57 753.69 37.68
2 GM Turner 37 1165 33.29 36.04 647.67 32.38
3 TWM Latham 74 1639 22.76 41.50 621.98 31.10
4 GT Dowling 49 1062 21.67 24.60 561.51 28.08
5 BA Edgar 39 920 24.86 31.40 532.27 26.61
6 MH Richardson 27 787 29.15 36.55 524.62 26.23
7 BB McCullum 22 641 30.52 53.82 512.68 25.63
8 BA Young 45 1021 23.74 35.11 485.94 24.30
9 DP Conway 20 272 13.60 41.21 290.15 14.51
10 MJ Horne 25 258 10.75 33.86 231.09 11.55

TOP FORM

TF RATING

Points to note about Top Form Rating:-

  • TF is calculated by taking the best 30 consecutive innings of a batsman.
  • The inns are taken such that his points are maximum.
  • Only innings against Top Teams are considered.

Min Innings Vs Top Teams: 15

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 GM Turner 30 1649 61.07 35.10 700.09 70.01
2 MH Richardson 30 1392 48.00 37.30 550.09 55.01
3 JG Wright 30 1221 43.61 33.95 534.75 53.47
4 DP Conway 28 1046 38.74 51.99 506.73 50.67
5 BB McCullum 27 1048 41.92 61.11 506.07 50.61
6 BA Edgar 30 1099 36.63 34.30 471.33 47.13
7 TWM Latham 30 1012 36.14 41.99 446.82 44.68
8 BA Young 30 866 29.86 36.62 378.23 37.82
9 MJ Horne 30 831 28.66 38.81 375.94 37.59
10 GT Dowling 30 828 28.55 29.33 355.44 35.54

IMPACT INNS

II RATING

Impact Inns are those innings which have an impact in terms of runs or strike rate. Know All About II. Points to note about II:-

  • A Batsman should score at least 30 runs to qualify.
  • An Inn is included in II if it is 15 percent of the total runs or
  • The SR is high or in a successful chase while being Not Out.

Min Innings Vs Top Teams: 20

RANK BATSMAN DIS II II/Dis% RAT WTG
1 MH Richardson 62 27 43.55 587.73 88.16
2 GM Turner 62 23 37.10 537.16 80.57
3 JG Wright 138 44 31.88 491.12 73.67
4 BB McCullum 33 13 39.39 486.05 72.91
5 TWM Latham 156 47 30.13 476.37 71.45
6 DP Conway 46 14 30.43 405.74 60.86
7 GT Dowling 69 21 30.43 403.58 60.54
8 BA Edgar 62 16 25.81 366.07 54.91
9 BA Young 63 16 25.40 322.40 48.36
10 MJ Horne 52 12 23.08 319.79 47.97

SECONDARY RATING

Secondary Rating is the addition of the points a batsman scored in the three criteria. The Weightage of the Rating is 30%.

RANK BATSMAN LSI TF II SEC RAT
1 GM Turner 32.38 70.01 80.57 182.97
2 MH Richardson 26.23 55.01 88.16 169.40
3 JG Wright 37.68 53.47 73.67 164.83
4 BB McCullum 25.63 50.61 72.91 149.15
5 TWM Latham 31.10 44.68 71.45 147.24
6 BA Edgar 26.61 47.13 54.91 128.66
7 DP Conway 14.51 50.67 60.86 126.04
8 GT Dowling 28.08 35.54 60.54 124.16
9 BA Young 24.30 37.82 48.36 110.48
10 MJ Horne 11.55 37.59 47.97 97.12

OVERALL RATING

The OVERALL Rating is the addition of the points of all the above criteria. The rating is out of 1,000 Pts.

RANK OV RANK BATSMAN NAT PRI RAT CON RAT SEC RAT FIN RAT
1 26 GM Turner NZ 244.13 159.82 182.97 586.92
2 30 TWM Latham NZ 245.11 187.65 147.24 579.99
3 44 JG Wright NZ 226.65 149.23 164.83 540.70
4 52 MH Richardson NZ 208.93 137.00 169.40 515.33
5 61 DP Conway NZ 214.99 157.74 126.04 498.77
6 62 BB McCullum NZ 192.90 154.52 149.15 496.57
7 95 GT Dowling NZ 158.07 124.30 124.16 406.53
8 106 BA Edgar NZ 170.74 88.89 128.66 388.29
9 122 BA Young NZ 156.35 94.66 110.48 361.48
10 133 MJ Horne NZ 149.76 86.63 97.12 333.50

BRIEF EXPLANATION

Dynamic Nature

Most of our ratings are dynamic, and as new matches are played, the rating of earlier batsmen may change if current batsmen set new benchmarks.

Trend Setter (TS)

  1. TS is the player who does the best in a criteria.
  2. The rating of all other players are calculated taking the TS as the benchmark. Example:-
  3. TS Runs: 2,000; Player X Runs: 1,000; Section Points: 250.00
  4. TS Points: 250.00 (Max)
  5. Player X Points: Runs/TS Runs X 250 = 1,000/2,000 X 250 = 125.00.
  6. Ratings of all sections are calculated similarly with Runs being replaced by the Criteria Stat.
  7. Know All About the Trend Setter
    8. .

Top Teams (TT)

  1. An opposition is counted as a TT considering its Win/Loss (WL) Ratios in last 7 years.
  2. Home, Away, In Asia, Outside Asia and Overall WL Ratio is considered.
  3. The WL Ratio should be more than a certain value overall or in specific condition.

Abbreviations

  1. AVE - Average or Runs/(Inns - Not Out)
  2. BF - Balls Faced
  3. FP - First Played by Year
  4. INF - Infinite
  5. LP - Last Played by Year
  6. MP - Middle Played or (FP+LP)/2
  7. NA - Not Applicable
  8. NI - Not In Top
  9. NK - Not Known
  10. NO, * - Not Out
  11. NQ - Not Qualified
  12. OPP - Opposition
  13. R4BF - Runs for available data of balls
  14. SR - Strike Rate or Runs/Balls
  15. TS - Trend Setter
  16. TT - Top Teams

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