Top 10 Openers with most runs in Tests

3. Graeme Smith (South Africa) – 9030 runs:

While he didn’t always look good, Graeme Smith could get big runs when he wanted to. Captaining South Africa at a young age, he led the Proteas to victory against every team, stamping his might on the cricketing world. Smith’s style of batting involved blunting the attack first up and then taking to the older ball, using sheer will to manoeuvre the gaps and accumulating his runs. He scored consecutive double-centuries – in just his 11th and 12th Test of his career– as South Africa crushed England in 2003. He had supreme command of the off-side, at times preferring not to go onside at all. The image of Graeme Smith batting with an injured hand will forever be Test cricket’s greatest moment of all time.

Smith’s style of batting involved blunting the attack first up and then taking to the older ball, using sheer will to manoeuvre the gaps and accumulating his runs. He scored consecutive double-centuries – in just his 11th and 12th Test of his career– as South Africa crushed England in 2003. He had supreme command of the off-side, at times preferring not to go onside at all. The image of Graeme Smith batting with an injured hand will forever be Test cricket’s greatest moment of all time.

He had supreme command of the off-side, at times preferring not to go onside at all. The image of Graeme Smith batting with an injured hand will forever be Test cricket’s greatest moment of all time.