Cricket Statistics and Trivia

[Atithee]

It is the cumulative effect that compounds our misery. We are bad and the opposition is better. Net result is almost always worth an extra 75-100 runs that hurt us badly.

And numbers don’t tell the whole story. Do the averages tell when they performed? That is, what was the match situation. Did they come to the rescue when even a few balls would’ve mattered even if they didn’t score any runs? Whom did they leave stranded? Our senior batsmen also don’t protect our bunnies. Shami et al didn’t need to get hurt playing with Jadejas.

[prasen9]

I will add: while playing abroad. In the England series, we should be fine.

[Atithee]

Prasen, you are underestimating the challenge this English squad will pose. They are a seriously strong team.

[prasen9]

True. But, so are we.

[prasen9]

There is this constant harping about the consistency of SAY in T20Is despite his phenomenal record in internationals. I could do the numbers but I am lazy. So, I was searching for someone who has done things. I have not thought about it for long but the first question is what metric should we actually use. If we go by the vanilla definition, standard deviation captures the consistency of batsmen. Among the top 200 batsmen, by runs in test cricket, Shane Warne is the most consistent batsman ever. But, McGrath, if he had qualified, would have been very consistent because he consistently scored zeros. Do we really want consistency alone? Obviously, not. The most inconsistent batsman among the top ones is Sir Donald Bradman because not only did he score his 100s but he scored 300s, which is quite inconsistent by the literal definition.

So, then they tried to calculate the coefficient of variance, which they termed reliability, i.e., the ratio between the average and the standard deviation. By this metric, Pollock comes out #1.

Then, he calculates a metric called dependability where he essentially squares the average and takes the ratio with the standard deviation and then Sir Don comes out on top.

See the article and list here: Variance and dependency of batsmen

According to the dependability metric, our top batsmen are:

Dravid, Tendulkar, Kohli, Gavaskar, Laxman, Pujara, Mohinder, Sourav, Vengsarkar, Azhar, Viswanath, Rahane, Sidhu, Sehwag.

Note that this was done some time ago before the ruts faced by Kohli and Rahane and to some extent Pujara too. So, I think all of them will slip in these ratings when they are done with their careers.

But does this privilege average a lot more instead of consistency? Dravid and Tendulkar are flipped because their averages are pretty close. The massive flip is Sehwag, who by even our "eye test" was quite inconsistent although fabulously superb when he got going.

Consistency is over-rated anyway because big scores, by definition inconsistent, win matches. What metric would you use or suggest we use? I suppose if we want to de-emphasize average and give a bit more say to the standard deviation, we could try average^(1.5)/std-dev but what would that mean? I suppose when you play around with arbitrary ratios it does not mean much anyway. But, does that metric coverge to our intuitive undrestanding of "reliable" batsmen?

Comments, critiques, suggestions are welcome.

[prasen9]

So, who have been the best away and neutral ground batsmen of the world in the last decade? Qual: 20 dismissals and average above 37?

Overall figures
Player Span Mat Inns NO Runs HS AveDescending BF SR 100 50 0 4s 6s
SPD Smith (AUS) 2013-2023 43 79 8 4222 215 59.46 7980 52.90 14 19 3 472 28 investigate this query
AD Mathews (SL) 2013-2022 31 56 7 2674 200* 54.57 5663 47.21 8 11 1 280 29 investigate this query
KS Williamson (NZ) 2013-2023 35 64 7 3087 200* 54.15 6191 49.86 10 12 3 347 4 investigate this query
Younis Khan (PAK) 2013-2017 38 73 8 3519 218 54.13 6897 51.02 14 7 4 326 33 investigate this query

Misbah-ul-Haq (PAK) 2013-2017 38 69 9 2862 135 47.70 5964 47.98 7 21 5 250 57 investigate this query
Mushfiqur Rahim (BAN) 2013-2022 22 41 5 1672 200 46.44 3336 50.11 4 8 3 200 11 investigate this query
JE Root (ENG) 2013-2022 60 114 5 4912 228 45.06 9116 53.88 11 28 6 495 15 investigate this query

V Kohli (IND) 2013-2022 51 93 3 3896 200 43.28 7383 52.76 13 15 6 448 8 investigate this query
CJL Rogers (AUS) 2013-2015 15 28 1 1116 173 41.33 2321 48.08 3 5 1 149 1 investigate this query
Azhar Ali (PAK) 2013-2022 62 117 6 4585 302* 41.30 10889 42.10 13 20 11 435 14 investigate this query
Ahmed Shehzad (PAK) 2013-2017 13 25 1 982 176 40.91 1926 50.98 3 4 1 99 8 investigate this query
Shakib Al Hasan (BAN) 2013-2022 12 23 0 938 217 40.78 1363 68.81 2 7 2 116 2 investigate this query
LD Chandimal (SL) 2013-2022 37 66 6 2411 164 40.18 5308 45.42 6 12 4 246 14 investigate this query
Babar Azam (PAK) 2016-2022 34 62 7 2205 127* 40.09 4247 51.91 3 19 7 254 13 investigate this query
AM Rahane (IND) 2013-2022 50 90 8 3287 147 40.08 6618 49.66 8 17 7 371 16 investigate this query
LRPL Taylor (NZ) 2013-2021 35 65 9 2242 290 40.03 3680 60.92 4 12 9 267 11 investigate this query

DM Bravo (WI) 2013-2020 14 27 0 1058 218 39.18 2371 44.62 3 4 1 132 9 investigate this query
S Dhawan (IND) 2013-2018 23 41 0 1605 190 39.14 2485 64.58 5 3 2 207 4 investigate this query
M Labuschagne (AUS) 2018-2023 12 21 0 819 104 39.00 1506 54.38 1 5 3 106 2 investigate this query
RR Pant (IND) 2018-2022 25 45 3 1632 159* 38.85 2391 68.25 4 5 2 172 33 investigate this query
Mohammad Rizwan (PAK) 2016-2022 16 26 3 891 95 38.73 1777 50.14 0 7 2 101 3 investigate this query
UT Khawaja (AUS) 2013-2023 23 43 3 1535 160 38.37 2973 51.63 4 7 2 184 2 investigate this query
Sarfaraz Ahmed (PAK) 2013-2019 47 82 13 2643 112 38.30 3686 71.70 3 18 4 267 8 investigate this query
Mohammad Hafeez (PAK) 2013-2018 25 47 3 1685 224 38.29 2864 58.83 5 4 7 209 16 investigate this query
TWM Latham (NZ) 2014-2023 36 68 2 2505 154 37.95 5576 44.92 6 16 6 279 6 investigate this query
Tamim Iqbal (BAN) 2013-2022 20 40 1 1478 126 37.89 2379 62.12 1 11 2 191 13 investigate this query
BJ Watling (NZ) 2013-2021 31 53 9 1667 120 37.88 3885 42.90 4 9 4 172 4 investigate this query
CA Pujara (IND) 2013-2022 49 91 4 3284 193 37.74 8255 39.78 9 15 7 380 4 investigate this query
AN Cook (ENG) 2013-2018 32 61 2 2195 263 37.20 4875 45.02 5 10 2 230 0

Interestingly, among the top-class batsmen, Smith, Younis Khan, Angelo Matthews, Williamson average over 50 abroad. Phenomenal.

Then, we have Misbah, Mushfiqar and Root. Very good.

I have put in blank lines at 50, 45, and 40. A bunch of Pakistanis will possibly fall off if you take out neutral ground performances.

Still no Indians. That shows how shoddy our batting has been abroad and fragile. We have Kohli at 43 and Rahane at 40. Under 40, we have Dhawan, Pant, and Pujara. Not good enough I'd say if you want to be world #1.

[prasen9]

Who have been our best SENA batters?

SR Tendulkar 1990-2012 63 114 9 5387 241* 51.30 17 23 6 investigate this query
R Dravid 1996-2012 46 89 10 3909 233 49.48 10 17 2 investigate this query
SM Gavaskar 1971-1986 33 57 2 2464 221 44.80 8 11 4 investigate this query
VS Hazare 1946-1952 12 22 2 885 145 44.25 2 4 0 investigate this query
M Amarnath 1976-1986 15 25 1 1059 138 44.12 2 6 3 investigate this query
MAK Pataudi 1967-1968 10 19 0 829 148 43.63 1 7 1 investigate this query
V Kohli 2011-2024 43 84 1 3591 169 43.26 11 14 6 investigate this query
SC Ganguly 1996-2008 32 59 4 2311 144 42.01 5 13 4 investigate this query
VVS Laxman 1997-2012 41 75 8 2710 178 40.44 5 15 4 investigate this query
RR Pant 2018-2022 21 39 3 1426 159* 39.61 4 4 2 investigate this query
M Azharuddin 1985-1999 30 48 3 1731 192 38.46 6 5 1 investigate this query
GR Viswanath 1971-1982 27 50 3 1805 114 38.40 2 16 3 investigate this query
RF Surti 1967-1968 10 20 1 721 99 37.94 0 6 1 investigate this query
G Gambhir 2009-2014 14 28 1 995 167 36.85 2 5 2 investigate this query
FM Engineer 1967-1974 17 33 2 1099 89 35.45 0 7 3 investigate this query
MH Mankad 1946-1952 11 20 0 701 184 35.05 3 2 4 investigate this query
AM Rahane 2013-2023 38 73 4 2403 147 34.82 4 13 6 investigate this query
DB Vengsarkar 1976-1992 37 64 6 2014 157 34.72 4 10 6 investigate this query
RJ Shastri 1981-1992 21 33 3 1001 206 33.36 3 1 3 investigate this query
V Sehwag 2001-2012 29 54 0 1788 195 33.11 4 6 7 investigate this query
CA Pujara 2010-2023 41 80 2 2558 193 32.79 5 14 6 investigate this query
AL Wadekar 1967-1974 17 34 1 1068 143 32.36 1 7 2 investigate this query
M Prabhakar 1990-1993 15 25 3 703 95 31.95 0 6 2 investigate this query
CPS Chauhan 1977-1981 14 25 0 796 97 31.84 0 6 3 investigate this query
MS Dhoni 2006-2014 32 60 5 1731 92 31.47 0 13 6 investigate this query
KS More 1986-1993 16 24 4 627 73 31.35 0 5 1 investigate this query
RG Sharma 2013-2024 22 44 4 1237 127 30.92 1 6 4 investigate this query
M Vijay 2010-2018 21 42 0 1285 146 30.59 2 7 5 investigate this query
K Srikkanth 1985-1992 10 18 0 531 116 29.50 1 2 2 investigate this query
KL Rahul 2014-2024 21 40 0 1170 149 29.25 5 2 4 investigate this query
RA Jadeja 2013-2024 21 36 4 932 104 29.12 1 5 4 investigate this query
SMH Kirmani 1976-1986 20 31 4 785 78 29.07 0 4 0 investigate this query
MA Agarwal 2018-2022 10 19 0 510 77 26.84 0 4 1 investigate this query
SV Manjrekar 1990-1996 18 31 3 738 93 26.35 0 3 1 investigate this query
S Dhawan 2013-2018 15 30 0 774 115 25.80 1 2 2 investigate this query
N Kapil Dev 1979-1994 35 53 2 1295 129 25.39 2 6 8

Batting may be harder these days, but, still Kohli, our best bat now is slightly better than Ganguly. In the era of SRT, Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman, we perhaps had our best SENA batting lineup. And, when Azhar was there with them, it was quite a good lineup. We did not have fast bowlers to support Srinath. Add Dhoni as the keeper. Gambhir and Sehwag as openers. Before Dhoni, Prabhakar as an allrounder. Golden age for our batting lineup.

Gavaskar, Vishwanath, Amarnath may be the next best trio.

Kohli only had Pant as a sidekick. Then a half okay Rahane. Followed by a doddy Pujara and a barely acceptable Rohit. Poor Rahul. Jadeja is fine as an allrounder but not as a batter alone. Awful Dhawan. That we have won so many matches abroad with this dodgy lineup is a testament to our pace bowling improvement. We have had the golden age of pace bowlers in Bumrah, Shami, Siraj, Ishant, Umesh.

Rohit Sharma is worse than our wicket-keepers Dhoni and More. As is Rahul and Jadeja. Vijay is worse than Rohit. Mayank slightly better than Dhawan. Our best option would have been to platoon Rohit and Rahane. Rohit at home, Rahane abroad. And, if you are wondering Vihari is 23 just above the bowlers.

I think we need to find batters who can bat at above 35 runs/wicket. And, not be accepting of the failures such as Rahane, Pujara, Rohit, Rahul, etc. Our inability to set a higher bar maybe cost us a few series we could have won if we had at least tried to develop some other alternatives. Of course, all of Pujara, Rohit, etc. looked great overall because they had great home records.

Among the next gen, we should give people chances --- typically about 15 dismissals - combined with home chances that should be more than enough and then drop them when they do not deliver. Gill is nearing that and I think he has had enough chances. Next in line.

[prasen9]

So, I was looking for players who have outgilled Gill. In essence, who is the worst batter (batted in positions 1 to 6 to root out keepers and allrounders) among those who played at least 20 tests. For a comparison, Gill averages 32.3 as of today.

The worst giller is: Ashok Mankad. Outgilled Gill by 7.8 runs/innings. He was an opener for many matches and then he played at #6.

The silver medal for gilling goes to: Brijesh Patel. The evergreen (under 30 batter) averages 29.45. So, his Gill Index score is 2.8.

The bronze medal goes to Angsuman Gaekwad who averages 29.8 runs, which gives him a Gill Index score of 2.5.

Honorable Mention goes to Krishnamachari Srikkanth who is also evergreen. That is, always under 30 averaging 29.9 earning a Gill score of 2.4.

Note the last two are openers too I suppose. Opening is hard.

Others who have undergilled: Wadekar 31.5, Chetan Chauhan, another opener, 31.57, Nari Contractor, yet another opener at 31.58. And, lastly another opener M.L. Jaisima 30.68. We really had a lot of bad openers for quite some time.

Wadekar batted at #3. Which presumably if you have openers who were dud meant that you are pretty much a de facto opener. I also suppose he got a few more matches than he would have by virtue of being a very successful captain abroad, winning in WI and Eng albeit on the backs of Gavaskar, etc.

I have not included anyone who has at least bowled some, i.e., taken more than 1 wicket/test match. Just looking for pure batters.

Maybe we should have slightly lower expectations for openers? People like Sehwag, Rohit, Siddhu, Gambhir, Dhawan, or even Ravi Shastri have spoiled us. We should demand an average of 40 for MO bats and maybe 37.5 for openers? Rahane flattered to deceive.

Which leaves us with Brijesh Patel, perhaps the worst middle order batter we have had who played for some time.

[rajitghosh]

I don't think it is right to compare different eras. Earlier generations didn't have the benefit of helmets, protective equipment, the current no-ball rule, restrictions on bouncers and beamers, DRS, neutral umpires and so on. Plus there used to uncovered pitches. Over the years cricket rules have evolved to favour batsmen. So a 30 average in the 60s and 70s may be worth a 45 today. A Gavaskar or Amarnath in today's era may have had far better averages than some of the current lot. Also earlier generations did not have the benefit of scoring runs againsts minnows like Bangladesh, Zimbabwe etc. West Indies today and of the past are totally different. After reverse swing and Pakistan's home umpires went out of business Pakistan is no more the same side. (Of course Kohli and co bever got to plays tests against the Pakis but Sachin's generation did).

[prasen9]

Yes, all of that is true but I am too lazy to normalize. And, in some cases, it is not possible to normalize, e.g., the strength of schedule, pitch conditions, etc. However, I don't think it is all nice and dandy for today's batsmen. Without the luxury of obfuscation and lack of umpiring boldness, previous generation players would not have managed the runs they managed either. A lot of their pad befor bat obnoxiousness would have been out many times today. So, it is not like today's players are duds that they are struggling to average 35 or 40 and only the geniuses average over 40 and run of the mill players who were the worst of their generation even would suddenly average 45. That I find is flat out wrong. Anyway, more later when I normalize the numbers if I have the time to at least take out what we can of these variations.

Reductio ad absurdum, we cannot compare anyone to anyone ever because they are playing different pitches and bowlers all the time. Yet, we do. We need to consider all these qualifiers but still the comparisons tell us something. When everyone has done better than say Brijesh Patel, then we can say he was a very poor batsman. Is he the absolute worst middle order batsman who played more than 20 tests? You can argue that some who have slightly better records were better than him. But, he was the worst of his generation and on a direct comparison worse than any that has ever donned the India cap for over 20 tests. So, he must have been a pretty lousy batsman. Not quibbling at the margins.

[prasen9]

Here are the numbers by decade.

1870s 37 3 120 15 1837 165* 17.49 1 5 12 investigate this query
1880s 112 29 1077 120 17618 211 18.40 19 58 141 investigate this query
1890s 149 32 1214 133 26149 201 24.18 39 111 140 investigate this query
1900s 103 41 1573 185 33133 287 23.87 42 146 185 investigate this query
1910s 98 29 1066 117 24591 214* 25.91 35 115 130 investigate this query
1920s 172 51 1751 226 48620 251 31.88 99 228 142 investigate this query
1930s 294 89 3015 395 81544 364 31.12 161 359 319 investigate this query
1940s 180 45 1527 216 44926 234 34.26 105 192 140 investigate this query
1950s 351 164 5759 738 137508 365* 27.38 237 594 657 investigate this query
1960s 347 186 6671 893 178064 311 30.81 298 882 622 investigate this query
1970s 321 198 7053 938 188130 302 30.76 359 875 719 investigate this query
1980s 382 266 8964 1230 235573 280* 30.45 444 1069 902 investigate this query
1990s 500 347 12147 1583 311162 375 29.45 547 1498 1422 investigate this query
2000s 586 464 16468 2127 459217 400* 32.02 945 2051 1831 investigate this query
2010s 600 433 15906 2001432804 335* 31.12 866 1995 1727 investigate this query
2020s 387 153 5643 712 144106 267 29.22 250 647 637

The best decade for batting was the 1940s: 34.26. We need to indeed adjust the scores of the 1870s and 1880s when the game was just evolving. And, up until the 1910s, again when batting was hard. After that, batting has been relatively the same difficult with the '40s being the heydey, '20s and '30s being pretty good and the 50s having a low. '60s onwards it has been very consistent at around the 30s. 2000s gave us some flat pitches that reduced in the 2010s and now the WTC has reduced flat pitches and DRS has brought more parity.

So, there is no credence to any projection that a 30 would be a 45. Could be a 35 at best I suppose.

There are no more matches involving minnows these days than before. First, many teams were minnows in the past and are pretty good now. New Zealand, Sri Lanka, etc. We won convincingly in New Zealand when they started. Now, we have to get into dogfights and lose. Besides, with the advent of TV and other forms of the match, we don't play minnows as often or as egalitarianly as in the past.

It all sort of balances itself out more or less. Maybe we should discount the runs from the 2000s a bit adjust up the runs from the 50s a bit. But, other than that the errors are in the margins.

I have watched Gaekwad, Chauhan and Srikkanth. All were pretty bad. Perhaps the worst among openers who got many games. Ansuman Gaekwad that is. Chauhan was generally bad too.

[prasen9]

In the last 5 years, the following have scored at over 49 runs/innings, qual: 1000 runs.

Player Span Mat Inns NO Runs HS AveDescending BF SR 100 50 0 4s 6s
KS Williamson (NZ) 2019-2024 28 46 5 2601 251 63.43 5068 51.32 12 4 3 308 11 investigate this query
HC Brook (ENG) 2022-2023 12 20 1 1181 186 62.15 1287 91.76 4 7 1 141 23 investigate this query
DJ Mitchell (NZ) 2019-2024 22 33 5 1497 190 53.46 2736 54.71 5 9 1 148 28 investigate this query
FDM Karunaratne (SL) 2019-2024 29 53 3 2666 244 53.32 4782 55.75 8 13 0 304 3 investigate this query
Babar Azam (PAK) 2019-2024 31 54 4 2663 196 53.26 4723 56.38 8 15 1 309 16 investigate this query
M Labuschagne (AUS) 2019-2024 44 79 7 3806 215 52.86 7209 52.79 11 18 3 433 11 investigate this query
SPD Smith (AUS) 2019-2024 44 75 9 3466 211 52.51 6877 50.39 9 17 5 376 18 investigate this query
UT Khawaja (AUS) 2019-2024 31 57 6 2631 195* 51.58 5627 46.75 7 12 4 293 11 investigate this query
AD Mathews (SL) 2019-2024 27 45 6 1948 200* 49.94 4242 45.92 7 7 3 174 30 investigate this query
JE Root (ENG) 2019-2024 59 108 9 4941 228 49.90 8519 57.99 15 19 7 509 25 investigate this query
LD Chandimal (SL) 2019-2024 24 41 8 1634 206* 49.51 3184 51.31 4 8 1 158 18 investigate this query
Abid Ali (PAK) 2019-2021 16 26 2 1180 215* 49.16 2445 48.26 4 3 2 148 5 investigate this query
BM Duckett (ENG) 2022-2024 15 29 2 1325 182 49.07 1470 90.13 3 6 1 171 6

Spot the Indian?

SL has three stars (Karuna, Chandimal, Matthews). England too (BenDu, Root, Brook). Pak has two (Babar, Abid). And, Aus three (Labu, Smith, Khawaja). The Kiwis have two (Williamson, Mitchell) but two of the top three. I guess RSA and India were the ones banking on their bowlers.

Our best batter has been Rohit at just a shade below 49. Kohli just under 40. Rahane just under 35. ChePu the worst just under 30.

Yes, we have played on some tough pitches but we have also had a lack of real star batsmen.

That may change after Dharamsala. Guess who may come in? I guess Rohit can creep in but someone will most possibly bang in ...

[Kumar]

Jaiswal?

Only 3 players have averaged more than 50 against india. One of them just played one match and was not out in one of the two innings.
Root has been a thorn in india’s side scoring at almost 60 runs average. And Dean Elgar has more than 50.

There was a time when India hardly reached 400 runs for many matches. Our bowlers carved the path of victory and our lower order were resolute when required.

[prasen9]

Yep, Jaiswal will break the 1000 runs and above 50 in the last 5 years after Dharamsala - I think he needs 20 or 30 runs or so, so may not happen if he has a bad test. Let's see if he can maintain that in SENA.

[Kumar]

When u check bowlers with at least 10 innings bowled India has three players in top 4 (Axar, Kuldeep and Bumrah) and five players in top 10 (Ashwin and Ishant)

So our bowlers have done the most damage.

England has no bowlers in top 10. With Robinson coming in at 13 , Broad at 15 and Anderson at 18.