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Jack Hobbs
Born
Uncovered pitches turned into sticky wickets after rain, and Hobbs was the master of them. At the Oval in 1926 and at Melbourne in 1929 he and Herbert Sutcliffe put on century opening stands on drying pitches that should have been unplayable, setting up England wins. His back-foot technique and soft hands are the reason old players called him simply the Master.
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George Headley
Born
Headley averaged over 60 in Tests for a West Indies side that often had little batting around him, so bowlers could concentrate everything on his wicket. At Lord's in 1939, in English conditions and against a strong attack, he scored a hundred in each innings. That burden, rather than any one surface, was his difficult condition, and he carried it for a decade.
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Sunil Gavaskar
Born
Gavaskar faced the West Indies pace attacks of the 1970s and 1980s without a helmet and scored 13 Test hundreds against them, more than against any other side. His debut series in the Caribbean in 1971 brought 774 runs. Watch for his compact technique and judgement of what to leave, which let a short opener survive and score against the fastest bowling of the era.
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Allan Border
Born
Border batted through the worst years of Australian cricket in the early 1980s, usually against the great West Indies attack. His 98 not out and 100 not out at Port of Spain in 1984 held off Holding, Garner and Marshall almost alone. He made a habit of blocking for hours when wickets fell around him, which is why his average undersells him.
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Graham Gooch
Born
Gooch's 154 not out at Headingley in 1991, carrying his bat on a seaming pitch against Ambrose, Marshall, Walsh and Patterson, is often rated the best Test innings by an England batter in modern times. No one else in England's side passed 27 in that innings. He had the 333 at Lord's too, but this is the one that shows his method under pressure.
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Michael Atherton
Born
Atherton batted almost 11 hours for 185 not out at Johannesburg in 1995 to save a Test against Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock, one of the great rearguards. He was England's opener through the 1990s against superb attacks, with a chronic back condition, and his duel with Donald at Trent Bridge in 1998 is a classic of hostile fast bowling. His value lay in time at the crease.
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Steve Waugh
Born
Waugh's 200 at Sabina Park in 1995, against Ambrose and Walsh on a lively pitch, helped Australia end the West Indies' 15-year unbeaten run in series. He was not elegant and gave up the hook to cut his risk, but under bouncer barrages he stood firm. Many of his best innings came when Australia were in trouble, which shaped his reputation as a crisis batter.
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Sachin Tendulkar
Born
Tendulkar scored Test hundreds in every major cricketing country, but the innings that announced him came at Perth in 1992: 114 on the fastest, bounciest pitch in the world, aged 18, against Craig McDermott and Merv Hughes. His 2004 double hundred at Sydney, when he refused to play the cover drive because it kept getting him out, shows the discipline behind the talent.
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Mithali Raj
Born
Women's Tests are rare, which makes each one a test of patience with little match practice. Mithali Raj's 214 against England at Taunton in 2002, in English conditions at the age of 19, was then the highest score in women's Test cricket. Her long career, mostly in one-day cricket, rested on the same temperament: a compact defence and the will to bat for hours.
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Brian Lara
Born
Lara's 153 not out at Bridgetown in 1999 chased down 308 against McGrath, Gillespie and Warne, with the tail for company at the end. Wisden later ranked it among the greatest Test innings. He did it in a weakening West Indies side, which often meant batting with little support. His 213 in the previous Test at Kingston, under pressure as captain, completed one of the great series.
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Rahul Dravid
Born
The Wall's best work came away from India: 148 on a green Headingley pitch in 2002 that set up a rare Indian win in England, and 233 at Adelaide in 2003, followed by the winning runs. Overseas he averaged more than at home for much of his career, unusual for an Indian batter of his era. His defence and leave were built for seam and bounce.
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Younis Khan
Born
After 2009 Pakistan could not play Tests at home, so Younis spent his peak in the UAE and on tour, and he became the first batter to score Test hundreds in 11 different countries. His 218 at the Oval in 2016 and his fourth-innings hundred to chase 377 at Pallekele in 2015 show his range. Nobody has adapted to so many conditions as a matter of routine.
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Kevin Pietersen
Born
Pietersen's 186 at Mumbai in 2012, on a turning pitch where most of England's batters struggled against Ashwin and Ojha, turned the series England went on to win in India for the first time in 28 years. He met spin by stepping out and sweeping aggressively. His 158 at the Oval in 2005, against Warne and Lee to secure the Ashes, is the other innings to watch.
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Cheteshwar Pujara
Born
Pujara's three hundreds on the 2018-19 tour, facing more than 1,200 balls against Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood, gave India their first series win in Australia. Two years later at Brisbane he was hit repeatedly on the body and still batted through the day so Rishabh Pant and others could win. His value is the time he soaked up, measured in balls rather than runs.
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Ellyse Perry
Born
Perry's 213 not out in the 2017 day-night Ashes Test at North Sydney Oval, against a disciplined England attack under lights with the pink ball, is the highest score by an Australian woman in Tests. With so few women's Tests, every innings has to be built without rhythm from regular red-ball cricket, and she did it with patience few expected from an all-rounder.
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Kane Williamson
Born
Williamson plays the ball later than almost anyone, which suits New Zealand's seaming pitches and English swing. He led New Zealand to the inaugural World Test Championship final win at Southampton in 2021, top-scoring in the second innings on a seaming surface. Watch his soft-handed defence and steer to third man: a method built for conditions rather than flat decks.
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Heather Knight
Born
Knight's 168 not out at Canberra in the 2022 Ashes Test, after England slumped against a strong Australian pace attack, nearly turned the match into an England win; it ended in a thrilling draw. As England captain she often had to rescue innings in a format women rarely play. It is one of the best examples of women's Test batting under pressure.
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Rishabh Pant
Born
Pant's unbeaten 89 at Brisbane in January 2021 chased down 328 on a fifth-day Gabba pitch, ending Australia's 32-year unbeaten run there with an injury-hit Indian side. He counter-attacks when others defend, as his hundreds in England and South Africa also show. He came back from a near-fatal car crash in 2022 to resume his Test career, which adds to the story.
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Joe Root
Born
Root's 218 at Chennai in 2021 and his runs in Sri Lanka the same winter, sweeping and reverse-sweeping on turning pitches, are the best evidence that he can handle spin away from home. He has since moved past every English Test run-scorer and into second place on the all-time list. His record on Australian pitches lagged for years, the honest caveat.
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