In today’s weekend blog, I am continuing with cricket.
Left-handed batsmen are a rare commodity, and teams having more left-handed batsmen consider themselves having an advantage because bowlers find it difficult to bowl to left-handed batsmen.
Today, I am writing about the greatest left-handed batters in men’s test cricket, ranked according to the ICC all-time ratings.
Gautam Gambhir
ICC Test rating-886, achieved against Sri Lanka in 2009
Not usually regarded as a legend in Test cricket, Gambhir had an astonishing peak between 2008 and 2009, and attained his career best rating during this period. Between July 2008 and January 2010, he equaled Viv Richards record of at least one fifty in ii consecutive Tests.
Clem Hill
ICC Test rating 886, achieved against England in 1902.
The first legendary left-handed batter, in 1902 (the year of his peak rating), he became first to scre thousand Test runs in a calendar year, something no one would do until 1947. Hill did not play after 1911/12, when he fell out with selectors.
Andy Flower
ICC Test rating 895, achieved against Bangladesh 2001
Flower’s numbers (4794 runs @ 51.54) remained unaffected by two factors that often bring down batting averages: keeping wicket and playing for a weak team. Across 2000 and 2001, he amassed 1,944 runs at ridiculous 84.52- and that included the nine-hour 232 not out at Nagpur as well as the 142 and 199 not out in the same Test against South Africa.
Shivnarine Chandrapaul
ICC Test rating 900, achieved against New Zealand in 2008
A limpet at the crease, Chandrapaul-whose 5,370 runs remain a world record in Test defeats-got there after a run of 86 not out,118 and 11, 107 not out and 77 not out, 79 not out and 50,76 and 126 after he was named a Wisden Cricketer of the year. It was not the first time he simple refused to get out; in 2002 he went out for 1051 minutes without being dismissed.
Brian Lara
ICC Test rating 911, achieved against South Africa in 2004
Lara had scaled902, even 907 during the Famous frank Worrell Trophy series of 1999. In Sri Lanka in 2001, he made 688 runs even as the West Indies were at the receiving end of a clean sweep: that had taken him to rating of 905. But in 2003 came another mountain of runs including two double tons and a 191 in the space of six Tests. He followed this 115 and 86 to reach 911.
Michael Hussey
ICC Test rating 921, achieved against West Indies in 2008
With Hussey two things stand out, one he debuted at 30 years, and two his ascent was so rapid that it took him a mere two and half years to rise to this level. Indeed, he was averaging in excess of 80 even after 21 Tests. That number dropped into 70s, but it was enough to take his rating to 921 only 23 Test matches into his career. He eventually finished with an average of 51.53.
Neil Harvey
ICC Test rating 921, achieved against South Africa in 1953.
He had debuted as teenager, but his rise had just been as steep as Hussey’s, and the intial plateau lasted longer. A fleet-footed destroyer of spin and pace, he averaged in excess og 60 even after 40 Tests-but it tailed off thereafter. Fittingly, his peak rating came against his favorite opposition South Africa who he took for 1,625 runs @ 81.25 from 14 Tests. He reached there after a series where he amassed 834 runs @ 92.67 with four hundreds in five Tests.
Graeme Pollock
ICC Test rating 927, against Australia in 1970
With a 2000-run cut off, his 60.97 is the second-best batting average after Don Bradman’s. Several post-Pollock batters have gone past him, but the record has always returned to him, who attained his peak rating in his last Test series, only a solitary Test before his career got over. He was on the ascent when his Test career ended. What if..?
Mathew Hayden
ICC Test rating 935, achieved against England in 2002
His highest rating came even before he had pummeled Zimbabwe to score his famous then-world record of 380. In 13 Tests across seven years, he averaged only 24.36, but he turned things around with a glorious tour of India in 2001/01, where he averaged 109.80 for his 549 runs at the top. Later that year, he embarked on an astonishing run where he averaged at least 59 in six consecutive series. The peak rating came during the fifth of these, after he made 197 and 103 in Brisbane Test of 2002/03 Ashes series.
Kumar Sangakkara
ICC Test rating 938, achieved against England in 2007
There was no stopping Sangakkara once he decided to give up big gloves in Test cricket (left wicket-keeping). As a pure batter, his 9,283 runs came 2 66.78-an average that boggles the mind if one adjusts for the batting era. He played Test cricket in 11 countries and averaged at least 34 in each of them. He peaked in 2007, a year when he averaged 138 and had a sequence of 200 not out,222 not out, 57 and 192, and 92 and 152. He equaled Gary Sobers’ peak of 938 after last of these.
Garry Sobers
ICC Test rating 938, achieved against India in 1967
Sobers raised the bar even further across two series starting with the summer of 1966. He followed the 722 runs @ 103.4 in England with 342 and 114 in India, which propelled his rating to 938. While these numbers are scarcely believable across eight-Test span, what they hide are the 34 wickets and 17 catches. After all these years, Sobers is still included in the pantheon of greatest ever cricketers.
Can you imagine the great left handed batters like Allan Border and Alistair Cook does not find place in this list.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
31st October 2025