Top 5 left-handed openers from New Zealand

Opening the innings is perhaps not the most glamorous job in Test cricket but there is no doubt that it is an extremely testing role and over the years, New Zealand have had their fair share of excellent openers.

Most of those openers have been in the classical mould. They were primarily focussed on blunting the bowlers and occupying the crease for as long as possible before the middle-order stroke-players could take over. Perhaps the greatest opener New Zealand ever had was the legendary Glenn Turner.

However, he was a right-handed batsman and it is also a reason for New Zealand's left-handed opening batsman not getting much attention. So, here is a look at 5 of the best left-handed opening batsmen New Zealand have ever had.

5 Bruce Edgar

The former left-handed batsman played for New Zealand between 1978 and 1986, during the course of which he became one of the team's most important top order batsmen.

Bruce Edgar played 38 out of his 39 career Test matches and established himself as a regular in the Test side soon after his first game in England back in 1978. Edgar was not a flashy batsman but he had the innate ability to face the quickest of fast bowlers without any trouble and that made him an outstanding asset to the Kiwi top order.

In addition to that, he was a very cautious player and eschewed risky shots in order to ensure that New Zealand started well. Edgar scored 1898 runs for the side in 38 Tests at a modest average of 30.61 and scored 3 centuries, in addition to 12 fifties.

4 Bert Sutcliffe

The left-hander was one of New Zealand's earliest top order mainstays back in the late 1940s and 1950s.

Bert Sutcliffe played 42 Test matches in total for New Zealand and out of those, he played as an opening batsman in 23. Sutcliffe was an excellent stroke-player and although he was perhaps not as defensively solid as many would have liked, he still managed to get over that slight handicap to emerge as one of the New Zealand cricket's early greats.

Sutcliffe made a total of 1763 runs in total as an opening batsman and averaged a superb 45.20 in those innings, which is why it is not surprising that he is rated so highly. He scored 4 centuries and 7 half-centuries during his stint as New Zealand's opening batsman.

3 Tom Latham

New Zealand v Bangladesh - 1st Test: Day 3 — Tom Latham

The pugnacious left-hander has cemented his place at the top of the order over the past few seasons for New Zealand and it seems, that in Tom Latham, the team have a batsman who could go on to become one of their all-time great left-handed opening batsmen.

Latham made his debut when he was only 19 but from the outset, he looked like a batsman who belonged at the highest level. He has a sound defensive technique, which allows him to negotiate pace, swing and seam, while is feet movement and sweeping abilities has made him one of the best players of spin in the side as well.

In his three year career, he has played 33 (34 in total) Test matches as the opening batsman and made 2266 runs at an average of 39.06. Latham has scored 6 centuries and 13 half-centuries in his career so far.

2 Mark Richardson

He started off his cricket career as a left-arm off spinner, later on, became a batsman. Hemade his debut for New Zealand when he was 29, and by the time he finished 4 years later, Mark Richardson had become one of the best opening batsmen in the country's recent history.

Richardson was a throwback to an older generation of opening batsmen, who prioritised crease occupation over everything else and for New Zealand, his presence at the top proved to be an incredible asset. The team was not great at the time but Richardson's presence gave the middle-order batsmen a lot of protection.

In the early years of his career, he had an average of 50 but it dropped later on and he ended his 38 Test match career with an average of 44.77. He scored 2776 runs, which is the highest among all left-handed opening batsmen who have played for New Zealand and notched up 4 centuries, in addition to 19 fifties.

However, it was his strike rate of only 37.66, which showed that he was a batsman who was one of the most difficult batsmen to dismiss in his generation.

1 John Wright

The former India coach might have quit playing cricket more than two decades ago but he remains one of the best and longest-serving opening batsmen in New Zealand's history.

He batted left-handed as well and naturally, he finds himself at the summit. Over the course of a career that lasted 15 years from 1978 to 1993, Wright played 82 Tests and opened the innings in 80 of those. He was a complete batsman since he not only had the necessary defensive discipline to see of tough bowling attacks but also the wherewithal to play a range of strokes once he was set and that is what made him one of New Zealand's most reliable batsman during the 1980s.

In his career as an opening batsman, Wright scored 5260 runs in 80 Test matches with 12 centuries and 23 fifties to his name. He averaged 38.11.