Tests - Best West Indian Opening Batsmen

Top 10 West Indian Opening Batsmen in Tests

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All Test Ratings on the website are from 01/01/1950 onwards (Know Why). 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. Brief explanation of the ratings is given before each section (Detailed Explanation). Here are the Top 10 West Indian opening batsmen in Test Cricket since 1950.

*Note: All Test Ratings are updated till 2025-09-10

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. BIG INNINGS POTENTIAL
3.4. ATTACKING
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. TOP FORM AT HOME
5.2. TOP FORM AWAY
5.3. IMPACT INNS
5.4. SECONDARY RATING
6. OVERALL RATING
7. TOP TEAMS
7.1. Top Teams In Asia
7.2. Top Teams Outside Asia
Nations Filter

This rating filters the OVERALL Rating to show players only from West Indies.

  • The Rating of the players from West Indies remains the same as in the original OVERALL Rating.
  • Thus the Trend Setter can be from any nation and is not necessarily from West Indies.
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, Top Inns, Strike Rate
Conditions Home, Away, In Asia, Outside Asia
Secondary Top Form (Home & Away), Min Impact Inns
The Trend Setter (TS)

TS is the player which does the best in a criteria. The rating of all other players are calculated taking the TS as the benchmark. Know All About TS. Here is an example:-

  • TS Runs: 2,000; Player X Runs: 1,000; Section Points: 250.00
  • TS Points: 250.00(Max); Player X Points: Runs/TS Runs X 250 = 1,000/2,000 X 250 = 125.00
  • Ratings of all sections are calculated similarly with Runs being replaced by the Criteria Stat.
Top Teams (TT)

Some sections consider performances only against the top teams. Here is some information about the Top Teams:-

  • Win/Loss Ratio is used to determine top teams.
  • The top teams are calculated by decades.
  • Further, they are divided into In Asia and Outside Asia.
  • A batsman's performace is counted in TT if it comes in the specific condition and in the specific decade.

QUALIFICATION

Min Innings (TT) 25
Min Career Runs 1000

PRIMARY CRITERIA

The Primary Rating is divided into 4 main sections:-

CRITERIA STAT POINTS
Prolific Runs Scored 200.00
Consistent Average 500.00
Big Innings Potential Top Inns (Runs) 150.00
Attacking Strike Rate 150.00

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 1991
Era 2 MP between 1990 And 2016
Era 3 MP greater than 2015

Criteria: Points For Runs Scored

RANK ERA 1 NAT FP LP MP INNS RUNS RAT
TS SM Gavaskar IND 1971 1987 1979 203 9607 180.00
1 CG Greenidge WI 1974 1991 1982.5 182 7488 140.30
2 DL Haynes WI 1978 1994 1986 201 7472 140.00
3 RC Fredericks WI 1968 1977 1972.5 108 4329 81.11
4 CC Hunte WI 1958 1967 1962.5 78 3245 60.80
5 MC Carew WI 1963 1972 1967.5 32 1013 18.98
RANK ERA 2 NAT FP LP MP INNS RUNS RAT
TS AN Cook ENG 2006 2018 2012 278 11845 200.00
1 CH Gayle WI 2000 2014 2007 173 7029 118.68
2 SL Campbell WI 1995 2001 1998 91 2856 48.22
3 WW Hinds WI 2001 2005 2003 46 1482 25.02
RANK ERA 3 NAT FP LP MP INNS RUNS RAT
TS DA Warner AUS 2011 2024 2017.5 202 8747 170.00
1 KC Brathwaite WI 2011 2025 2018 192 5929 115.23
2 KOA Powell WI 2011 2021 2016 68 1677 32.59

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

Against All Teams

RANK BATSMAN INNS NO RUNS AVE R AVE RAT
TS RB Simpson 70 4 3664 55.52 56.94 250.00
1 CG Greenidge 182 16 7488 45.11 46.55 204.40
2 CC Hunte 78 6 3245 45.07 46.07 202.29
3 DL Haynes 201 25 7472 42.45 44.07 193.48
4 RC Fredericks 108 7 4329 42.86 43.50 191.02
5 CH Gayle 173 10 7029 43.12 43.20 189.69
6 KC Brathwaite 192 10 5929 32.58 35.67 156.60
7 SL Campbell 91 4 2856 32.83 35.04 153.83
8 MC Carew 32 2 1013 33.77 34.66 152.18
9 WW Hinds 46 0 1482 32.22 32.12 141.04
10 KOA Powell 68 1 1677 25.03 26.74 117.42

Against Top Teams

RANK BATSMAN INNS NO RUNS AVE R AVE RAT
TS RB Simpson 65 4 3349 54.90 56.91 250.00
1 CC Hunte 70 5 3050 46.92 48.25 211.96
2 DL Haynes 168 22 6462 44.26 46.59 204.66
3 CG Greenidge 142 12 5645 43.42 45.80 201.17
4 CH Gayle 141 5 5854 43.04 44.36 194.86
5 RC Fredericks 88 5 3385 40.78 42.40 186.26
6 MC Carew 26 2 870 36.25 38.24 168.00
7 KC Brathwaite 131 7 3781 30.49 35.18 154.56
8 SL Campbell 61 2 1732 29.36 32.60 143.20
9 WW Hinds 37 0 1107 29.92 30.58 134.34
10 KOA Powell 42 0 929 22.12 24.62 108.14

BIG INNINGS POTENTIAL

Ave HS

In this criteria, we have taken the top 7 scores of the batsman in the specific condition. 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

RANK BATSMAN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 AVE HS RAT
TS V Sehwag 319 309 293 254 201* 201 195 253.14 150.00
1 CH Gayle 333 317 204 197 175 165* 150 220.14 130.45
2 CG Greenidge 226 223 214* 213 194 154* 149 196.14 116.22
3 KC Brathwaite 212 182 160 142* 134 129 126 155.00 91.85
4 CC Hunte 260 182 142 135 114 110 108* 150.14 88.97
5 DL Haynes 184 167 145 143* 143 136 131 149.86 88.80
6 RC Fredericks 169 163 150 138 120 109 104 136.14 80.67
7 SL Campbell 208 170 113 105 93 89 88 123.71 73.31
8 WW Hinds 213 113 100 81 79 75 70 104.43 61.88
9 KOA Powell 134 117 110 90 83 72 56 94.57 56.04
10 MC Carew 109 91 90 83 64 45 45 75.29 44.61

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 Average 25
RANK BATSMAN R4BF BF SR R SR RAT
TS V Sehwag 8207 9875 83.11 79.95 150.00
1 CH Gayle 7029 11572 60.74 58.74 110.22
2 CG Greenidge 6077 12373 49.12 55.05 103.29
3 RC Fredericks 2023 4361 46.39 54.84 102.88
4 MC Carew 211 496 42.54 51.93 97.43
5 DL Haynes 6905 15489 44.58 49.51 92.89
6 KOA Powell 1677 3382 49.59 48.51 91.01
7 CC Hunte 936 2436 38.42 48.11 90.27
8 WW Hinds 1482 3148 47.08 46.51 87.26
9 SL Campbell 2856 7075 40.37 43.10 80.86
10 KC Brathwaite 5929 14489 40.92 39.54 74.19

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 CG Greenidge 140.30 405.57 116.22 103.29 765.38 306.15
2 CH Gayle 118.68 384.55 130.45 110.22 743.90 297.56
3 DL Haynes 140.00 398.15 88.80 92.89 719.83 287.93
4 CC Hunte 60.80 414.25 88.97 90.27 654.29 261.72
5 RC Fredericks 81.11 377.28 80.67 102.88 641.94 256.78
6 KC Brathwaite 115.23 311.16 91.85 74.19 592.42 236.97
7 SL Campbell 48.22 297.03 73.31 80.86 499.42 199.77
8 MC Carew 18.98 320.18 44.61 97.43 481.20 192.48
9 WW Hinds 25.02 275.38 61.88 87.26 449.55 179.82
10 KOA Powell 32.59 225.56 56.04 91.01 405.20 162.08

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. Click on the Rating Titles to see how they were calculated.

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 DL Haynes 83 3853 56.66 49.51 781.23 23.44
2 CG Greenidge 73 3149 49.20 48.62 680.58 20.42
3 CC Hunte 35 1658 53.48 NK 652.90 19.59
4 CH Gayle 85 3323 42.06 56.31 642.77 19.28
5 RC Fredericks 52 2166 46.09 42.96 574.32 17.23
6 KC Brathwaite 95 2867 32.95 38.00 521.96 15.66
7 MC Carew 12 337 30.64 NK 500.00 15.00
8 WW Hinds 26 773 29.73 43.60 388.88 11.67
9 SL Campbell 40 1094 29.57 38.01 371.53 11.15
10 KOA Powell 25 517 20.68 46.66 329.54 9.89

Away From Home

Min Innings Vs Top Teams: 10

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 CG Greenidge 109 4339 42.54 49.40 746.15 89.54
2 CH Gayle 88 3706 44.12 65.35 724.73 86.97
3 RC Fredericks 56 2163 40.06 47.33 610.27 73.23
4 DL Haynes 118 3619 33.51 40.64 603.22 72.39
5 KC Brathwaite 97 3062 32.23 44.09 601.17 72.14
6 CC Hunte 43 1587 38.71 38.44 562.45 67.49
7 SL Campbell 51 1762 35.24 41.98 508.94 61.07
8 MC Carew 20 676 35.58 42.54 479.82 57.58
9 WW Hinds 20 709 35.45 51.56 432.68 51.92
10 KOA Powell 43 1160 27.62 51.01 413.73 49.65

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: 10

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 CG Greenidge 147 6266 47.11 49.30 821.40 24.64
2 DL Haynes 165 6624 46.65 46.06 797.57 23.93
3 CH Gayle 138 5813 45.06 60.86 783.85 23.52
4 CC Hunte 63 2749 48.23 38.49 715.08 21.45
5 RC Fredericks 97 3876 42.59 46.39 675.72 20.27
6 KC Brathwaite 151 4823 33.73 41.00 620.82 18.62
7 SL Campbell 85 2608 32.20 40.79 518.97 15.57
8 MC Carew 32 1013 33.77 42.54 506.03 15.18
9 WW Hinds 38 1147 30.18 44.95 442.15 13.26
10 KOA Powell 48 1079 22.48 46.29 376.18 11.29

Unfamiliar Conditions Rating

Non Asians In Asia

Min Innings Vs All Teams: 5

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 CG Greenidge 35 1222 37.03 47.81 608.95 73.07
2 CH Gayle 35 1216 35.76 60.20 525.25 63.03
3 MC Carew 0 0 NA NA 500.00 60.00
4 RC Fredericks 11 453 45.30 NK 456.94 54.83
5 KC Brathwaite 41 1106 28.36 40.56 453.31 54.40
6 KOA Powell 20 598 31.47 56.90 426.03 51.12
7 DL Haynes 36 848 24.94 35.02 409.48 49.14
8 CC Hunte 15 496 33.07 NK 404.86 48.58
9 WW Hinds 8 335 41.88 56.21 378.80 45.46
10 SL Campbell 6 248 41.33 36.36 367.83 44.14

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 CG Greenidge 89.54 20.42 73.07 24.64 207.67
2 CH Gayle 86.97 19.28 63.03 23.52 192.80
3 DL Haynes 72.39 23.44 49.14 23.93 168.89
4 RC Fredericks 73.23 17.23 54.83 20.27 165.57
5 KC Brathwaite 72.14 15.66 54.40 18.62 160.82
6 CC Hunte 67.49 19.59 48.58 21.45 157.12
7 MC Carew 57.58 15.00 60.00 15.18 147.76
8 SL Campbell 61.07 11.15 44.14 15.57 131.93
9 WW Hinds 51.92 11.67 45.46 13.26 122.31
10 KOA Powell 49.65 9.89 51.12 11.29 121.94

SECONDARY CRITERIA

The Secondary Rating consists of three parts. If Innings are less than the Qualification than the Player gets 50% of the Points. Click on the Rating Titles to see how they were calculated.

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

CRITERIA POINTS
Top Form Home 30.00
Top Form Away 120.00
Impact Innings 150.00
TF RATING

Points to note about Top Form Rating:-

  • Top Form (TF) is calculated by taking the best 20 consecutive innings of a batsman.
  • There are two TF Ratings used in our OVERALL Rating: Home and Away.

TOP FORM AT HOME

Min Innings Vs All Teams: 5

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 DL Haynes 20 1175 73.44 50.32 721.04 21.63
2 CG Greenidge 20 996 76.62 47.66 678.88 20.37
3 CH Gayle 20 1014 53.37 60.36 614.54 18.44
4 CC Hunte 20 990 58.24 NK 603.64 18.11
5 RC Fredericks 20 945 55.59 42.89 548.34 16.45
6 KC Brathwaite 20 844 46.89 44.99 540.95 16.23
7 WW Hinds 20 712 35.60 46.72 435.22 13.06
8 SL Campbell 20 659 34.68 39.58 410.54 12.32
9 KOA Powell 20 482 24.10 47.35 326.00 9.78
10 MC Carew 12 337 30.64 NK 300.07 9.00

TOP FORM AWAY

Min Innings Vs All Teams: 5

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 CH Gayle 20 1337 70.37 74.24 875.34 105.04
2 CG Greenidge 20 1061 62.41 58.05 771.67 92.60
3 RC Fredericks 20 1021 53.74 54.77 686.97 82.44
4 KC Brathwaite 20 1053 58.50 45.64 675.48 81.06
5 CC Hunte 20 959 53.28 39.04 652.00 78.24
6 DL Haynes 20 955 56.18 42.92 635.37 76.24
7 SL Campbell 20 861 45.32 40.40 564.78 67.77
8 MC Carew 20 676 35.58 42.54 482.76 57.93
9 WW Hinds 20 709 35.45 51.56 462.50 55.50
10 KOA Powell 20 672 35.37 52.34 458.41 55.01

IMPACT INNS

II Rating

Impact Innings (II) are those innings which have a minimum impact in terms of runs or Strike Rate. Know All About II. Points to note about II:-

  • 1st & 2nd and 3rd & 4th innings are clubbed together.
  • A Batsman should score at least 30 runs to qualify.
  • An Inn is included in II if it is 16.67% of the total runs of the higher total or
  • The runs are more than 10.00% of the total runs and
  • The SR is high or in a successful chase while being Not Out.

Min Innings Vs Top Teams: 25

RANK BATSMAN DIS II II/Dis% RAT WTG
1 DL Haynes 176 65 36.93 846.92 127.04
2 CG Greenidge 166 54 32.53 724.31 108.65
3 CH Gayle 163 50 30.67 711.27 106.69
4 RC Fredericks 101 30 29.70 602.51 90.38
5 CC Hunte 72 21 29.17 582.07 87.31
6 KC Brathwaite 182 40 21.98 499.10 74.86
7 MC Carew 30 6 20.00 416.82 62.52
8 KOA Powell 67 14 20.90 413.55 62.03
9 SL Campbell 87 17 19.54 388.72 58.31
10 WW Hinds 46 8 17.39 349.97 52.49

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 TF HM TF AW II SEC RAT
1 CH Gayle 18.44 105.04 106.69 230.17
2 DL Haynes 21.63 76.24 127.04 224.91
3 CG Greenidge 20.37 92.60 108.65 221.61
4 RC Fredericks 16.45 82.44 90.38 189.26
5 CC Hunte 18.11 78.24 87.31 183.66
6 KC Brathwaite 16.23 81.06 74.86 172.15
7 SL Campbell 12.32 67.77 58.31 138.40
8 MC Carew 9.00 57.93 62.52 129.46
9 KOA Powell 9.78 55.01 62.03 126.82
10 WW Hinds 13.06 55.50 52.49 121.05

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 10 CG Greenidge WI 306.15 207.67 221.61 735.44
2 11 CH Gayle WI 297.56 192.80 230.17 720.52
3 18 DL Haynes WI 287.93 168.89 224.91 681.74
4 40 RC Fredericks WI 256.78 165.57 189.26 611.61
5 45 CC Hunte WI 261.72 157.12 183.66 602.49
6 53 KC Brathwaite WI 236.97 160.82 172.15 569.94
7 89 SL Campbell WI 199.77 131.93 138.40 470.09
8 90 MC Carew WI 192.48 147.76 129.46 469.70
9 105 WW Hinds WI 179.82 122.31 121.05 423.18
10 111 KOA Powell WI 162.08 121.94 126.82 410.84

TOP TEAMS

Top Teams In Asia

DECADE OF MAT 1 2 3 4 5 6
1950s AUS WI PAK IND ENG
1960s WI AUS PAK IND ENG SA
1970s PAK ENG IND WI SA AUS
1980s PAK WI ENG NZ AUS
1990s IND PAK SA AUS WI
2000s AUS IND SL PAK SA ENG
2010s IND PAK SL ENG SA AUS
2020s IND AUS PAK NZ ENG SA

Top Teams Outside Asia

DECADE OF MAT 1 2 3 4 5
1950s AUS ENG WI SA PAK
1960s ENG AUS WI SA NZ
1970s SA ENG WI AUS IND
1980s WI NZ AUS ENG PAK
1990s AUS SA WI PAK ENG
2000s AUS ENG SA IND NZ
2010s SA AUS ENG NZ IND
2020s AUS NZ ENG SA IND

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