Stats Analysis

Which batsmen and bowlers had the longest careers with fewest breaks?

A look at the players who missed the most Tests in their careers, and those who played longest without interruption

Though Sachin Tendulkar played the most number of Tests, he had seven breaks and missed a total of 17 of India's 217 Tests during his career  •  BCCI

Though Sachin Tendulkar played the most number of Tests, he had seven breaks and missed a total of 17 of India's 217 Tests during his career  •  BCCI

At the beginning of the year, I read the excellent biography of VVS Laxman, 281 and Beyond, a beautifully collaborated book that is as much Laxman's creation as it is of the co-author, R Kaushik. One aspect of Laxman's career that came through clearly was his anguish at being dropped at regular intervals at the beginning and end of his career.
That led me to the idea for this article: about how steady or topsy-turvy players' careers are over their duration.
Let me first present the cut-off criteria. I have set 50 Tests and a batting average of 25 as the cut-off for batsmen, and 40 Tests and a sub-40 bowling average for bowlers. There is no point in looking at Shane Warne as a batsman just because he scored runs; or at bowlers who took two wickets per Test, like Carl Hooper did. Unfortunately these criteria rule out players like Claire Grimmett, Sydney Barnes, Victor Trumper and Everton Weekes.
The graphs presented their own challenges. In order to present a snapshot of a player's career, I need to show the entire span of his career, from first Test to last. The longest span of Tests is that of Sachin Tendulkar, whose 200 matches came in a sequence of 217 Tests for India. And I needed to show no fewer than ten players in a single graph, so that readers could make visual comparisons. All in all, this turned out to be a fine-tuned exercise of space management on the visual presentation. My thanks to TS Girish from ESPNcricinfo for his valuable inputs.
Before going on to the tables and graphs, let me first define what counts as a "break" in a player's career. A player may be absent for one Test through illness, injury, not being selected, and so on. He might miss an overseas series of, say, four Tests. He might make himself unavailable for ten Tests. He might make his debut and then miss 20 Tests. All these are considered as one break. However, I will also present a value of the Tests the player figured in as a percentage of the Tests played by their team during his career span. The tables below contain all the players who qualify, while the graphs contain selected players, so that all important players can be covered.
Careers of batsmen
Let us first look at batsmen who had very stable and virtually uninterrupted careers. This graph is proof that batsmen can have long careers with fewer disruptions, relative to bowlers. The contrast will be vivid lower down in the article.
Career snapshot of batsmen - Fewest breaks
BatsmanFirstYearLastYearRunsMatchesTeam_matches%Breaks
Brendon McCullum 20042016 6453101101100.0% 0
Adam Gilchrist 19992008 5570 96 96100.0% 0
Michael Hussey 20052013 6235 79 79100.0% 0
Tony Greig 19721977 3599 58 58100.0% 0
John Reid 19491965 3428 58 58100.0% 0
Alastair Cook 2006201812472161162 99.4% 1
Allan Border 1979199411174156157 99.4% 1
Kapil Dev 19781994 5248131132 99.2% 1
Stephen Fleming 19942008 7172111114 97.4% 1
GR Viswanath 19691983 6080 91 93 97.8% 1
Joe Root 20122019 6718 81 82 98.8% 1
Jeff Dujon 19811991 3322 81 82 98.8% 1
Michael Slater 19932001 5312 74 94 78.7% 1
David Warner 20112018 6363 74 76 97.4% 1
Asad Shafiq 20102019 4323 69 70 98.6% 1
Bill Lawry 19611971 5234 67 68 98.5% 1
Alvin Kallicharran 19721981 4399 66 68 97.1% 1
Andy Flower 19922002 4794 63 65 96.9% 1
Roy Fredericks 19681977 4334 59 60 98.3% 1
Hanif Mohammad 19521969 3915 55 57 96.5% 1
Habibul Bashar 20002008 3026 50 52 96.2% 1
Only one batsman, Brendon McCullum, has had a career of over 100 Tests and not missed a single one played by his team in that time. It helped that he was the premier wicketkeeper and the captain. Adam Gilchrist had a similar career, missing the hundred by four Tests. Michael Hussey made his debut after he turned 30 but then made up by playing in 79 consecutive Tests. Tony Greig and John Reid (Sr) had similar careers but with fewer Tests. (It must be said that the number of Tests played was lower in the middle of the 20th century than in decades since.)
There are a number of batsmen who have had a single break each. I have selected only a few of the important ones to feature in the graph. The table has a complete list of such batsmen. Allan Border missed a single Test, right at the beginning of his career. Similarly, Gundappa Viswanath missed two Tests very early. Joe Root missed a Test during his first year. Michael Slater had only one break in his career, in the mid-1990s, but that turned out to be a 20-Test stretch. Though Slater missed those 20 matches, he played uninterrupted before and after. Sunil Gavaskar missed four Tests but split into two, at either end of his career.
Now a look at batsmen who missed the most Tests.
Career snapshot of batsmen - Most breaks
BatsmanFirstYearLastYearRunsMatchesTeam_matches%Breaks
Shiv Chanderpaul 1994201511867164205 80.0% 18
Colin Cowdrey 19541975 7624114194 58.8% 16
Mike Gatting 19781995 4409 79180 43.9% 15
Mohinder Amarnath 19691988 4378 69135 51.1% 14
Keith Fletcher 19681982 3272 59132 44.7% 13
Murali Vijay 20082018 3982 61107 57.0% 13
Geoff Boycott 19641982 8114108172 62.8% 13
Sanath Jayasuriya 19912007 6973110142 77.5% 13
Ramnaresh Sarwan 20002011 5842 87115 75.7% 12
Imran Khan 19711992 3807 88138 63.8% 12
Chris Gayle 20002014 7214103145 71.0% 12
Graham Gooch 19751995 8900118202 58.4% 12
Inzamam-ul-Haq 19922007 8830120135 88.9% 12
VVS Laxman 19962012 8781134163 82.2% 12
As the great humourist PG Wodehouse said: "He went in and came out so fast that he almost met himself going in." Some of these players might have felt likewise. Shivnarine Chanderpaul had 18 breaks (adding up to 41 Tests) in his long career. Why this should have been the case is difficult to answer. Colin Cowdrey (16 breaks and 80 Tests) made a comeback after retiring. That lowered his share of Tests he played for the team in that period. Why did he have so many breaks in his main career? Maybe it is to do with Cowdrey not touring some countries. Mike Gatting (15 breaks and a whopping 101 Tests) had long breaks right through his career. Look at the end of his career - he missed 33 Tests at one stage. Immediately after his debut, Mohinder Amarnath (14 breaks and 66 Tests) missed 21 Tests; and he did not play during a long stretch of 23 Tests when he was at his peak. Sanath Jayasuriya (13 breaks and 32 Tests) is a surprising name here. Was it because of the way he played?
Geoff Boycott missed no fewer than 64 Tests in his career. The long break of 30 Tests in the middle was caused by his self-imposed exile. As for VVS Laxman (12 breaks and 29 Tests), it looks like he was justified in his feelings about the number of times he missed Tests. In a career of 134 matches, the longest uninterrupted stretch was of 43 Tests. After playing his first two Tests Graham Gooch (84 Tests in 12 breaks) missed 25 Tests. Finally, I have included Don Bradman here since there is no other logical place. Four breaks but only the first was because he was dropped; the rest were by his own choice.
Finally, a selection from among batsmen who have played many Tests.
Career snapshot of batsmen - Tests played
BatsmanFirstYearLastYearRunsMatchesTeam_matches%Breaks
Sachin Tendulkar 1989201315921200217 92.2% 7
Steve Waugh 1985200410927168189 88.9% 9
Ricky Ponting 1995201213378168193 87.0% 10
Jacques Kallis 1995201313289166184 90.2% 9
Shiv Chanderpaul 1994201511867164205 80.0% 18
Rahul Dravid 1996201213288164166 98.8% 2
Alastair Cook 2006201812472161162 99.4% 1
Allan Border 1979199411174156157 99.4% 1
Mahela Jayawardene 1997201411814149159 93.7% 3
Mark Boucher 19972012 5515147156 94.2% 3
VVS Laxman 19962012 8781134163 82.2% 12
Kumar Sangakkara 2000201512400134138 97.1% 4
Alec Stewart 19902003 8465133154 86.4% 7
Kapil Dev 19781994 5248131132 99.2% 1
Brian Lara 1990200611953131157 83.4% 7
The top four players above have had a reasonable number of breaks. However, Sachin Tendulkar's seven breaks (17 Tests missed) is indeed a surprise, especially as he was never dropped. The visual inspection shows a number of breaks of two or three matches each, indicating that these are series from which Tendulkar chose to stay out. Similarly surprising are the high number of breaks for the next three batsmen. In case of all these players - Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis - there were longish breaks early in their careers. Then comes Rahul Dravid, with just two breaks.
Alastair Cook missed a single Test after he played two Tests. Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene had reasonably stable careers, especially Jayawardene, who missed seven Tests immediately after his debut and then settled in for the long haul. Brian Lara missed 27 Tests, including ten right after his debut. Mark Waugh, despite a late start, had just two breaks of one Test each - both early in his career.
Careers of bowlers
We now move on to bowlers who had stable careers. Because of how bowlers are more susceptible to injuries than batsmen, they do not get anywhere near the stability that batsmen achieve.
Career snapshot of bowlers - Fewest breaks
BowlerFirstYearLastYearWktsMatchesTeam_matches%Breaks
Tony Greig 19721977 141 58 58100.0% 0
Monty Noble 18981909 121 42 42100.0% 0
Kapil Dev 19781994 434131132 99.2% 1
MM Ali 20142019 178 59 66 89.4% 2
Keith Miller 19461956 170 55 57 96.5% 2
Trevor Goddard 19551970 123 41 49 83.7% 2
Garry Sobers 19541974 235 93100 93.0% 3
Nathan Lyon 20112019 343 86 90 95.6% 3
Trent Boult 20112019 246 61 67 91.0% 3
Graeme Swann 20082013 255 60 66 90.9% 3
Wes Hall 19581969 192 48 52 92.3% 3
JR Hazlewood 20142019 164 44 48 91.7% 3
Brett Lee 19992008 310 76103 73.8% 4
Bishan Bedi 19671979 266 67 75 89.3% 4
Heath Streak 19932005 216 65 79 82.3% 4
Graham McKenzie 19611971 246 60 65 92.3% 4
Intikhab Alam 19591977 125 47 56 83.9% 4
Vinoo Mankad 19461959 162 44 50 88.0% 4
Ian Bishop 19891998 161 43 73 58.9% 4
Bill Johnston 19471955 160 40 45 88.9% 4
Unlike batsmen, only two bowlers have had unbroken careers. We have already seen that Tony Greig played 56 consecutive Tests. Monty Noble played in 40 consecutive matches. It took him 11 years to play these Tests. Kapil Dev missed a single Test because of a quirky decision by the captain, Sunil Gavaskar, that Kapil should be penalised for a rash shot he played. Unfortunate indeed. Moeen Ali has had only two breaks. (This is before the Lord's Test against Australia, for which Moeen has been dropped.) Keith Miller missed a single Test each twice in his career. It took Miller ten years to play his 55 Tests.
The next four bowlers have had three breaks each. Like Bradman, Garry Sobers was dropped after he played in a single Test. Nathan Lyon has had a very stable career, with only three breaks, all in his first two years. Trent Boult and Graeme Swann have had similar careers. Brett Lee missed 17 Tests at a stretch in the middle of his career, mainly because of team requirements.
Career snapshot of bowlers - Most breaks
BowlerFirstYearLastYearWktsMatchesTeam_matches%Breaks
Brian Statham 19511965 252 70136 51.5% 21
Harbhajan Singh 19982015 417103172 59.9% 20
Zaheer Khan 20002014 311 92145 63.4% 18
James Anderson 20032019 575148206 71.8% 18
Dilhara Fernando 20002012 100 40116 34.5% 17
Shoaib Akhtar 19972007 178 46 94 48.9% 16
Chris Old 19731981 143 46 92 50.0% 16
Saqlain Mushtaq 19952004 208 49 79 62.0% 16
John Emburey 19781995 147 64175 36.6% 16
Rangana Herath 19992018 433 93184 50.5% 16
Phil DeFreitas 19861995 140 44 85 51.8% 15
Mitchell Starc 20112019 211 51 85 60.0% 15
Mushtaq Ahmed 19902003 185 52111 46.8% 15
Stuart MacGill 19982008 208 44118 37.3% 14
Paul Adams 19952004 134 45 88 51.1% 14
Ishant Sharma 20072018 267 90128 70.3% 14
Wasim Akram 19852002 414104131 79.4% 14
M Muralitharan 19922010 800133155 85.8% 14
Why did Brian Statham, a terrific fast bowler, play only around half the Tests England played when he was active? A quote might be relevant here. Sobers once said that Statham was too accurate and had to get the good batsmen out early or he could bowl them into form. He was never the spearhead of the attack and was a foil to Frank Tyson and Fred Trueman.
With the kind of start he had, did Harbhajan Singh need to miss 69 Tests across 20 breaks? The end was painful for him. What about James Anderson - 18 breaks and 59 Tests - who continues to miss Tests? Injuries have played a part too. In the case of Zaheer Khan (18 breaks and 53 Tests), it was a question of him missing out on many Tests played in India. On the other hand, Rangana Herath missing 80 of the first 100 Tests Sri Lanka played during his span is easily explained by the presence of Muttiah Muralitharan in the side.
It is a similar case with Stuart MacGill. The presence of Shane Warne in the side meant that MacGill played in only 37% of the Tests Australia played. Mitchell Starc's figures are mind-boggling. Maybe he missed out on occasion because he did not fit into the Australian scheme of things. It is also true that he had an average of only three wickets per Test at the beginning of his career.
The three Pakistani bowlers in the graph above are all exceptional. However, as happens with many Pakistani players, they were in and out of the team for reasons not often clear. Shoaib Akhtar's graph is especially painful - he played in less than half the matches Pakistan played in his time.
Finally a selection from among bowlers who have played many Tests.
Career snapshot of bowlers - Tests played
BowlerFirstYearLastYearWktsMatchesTeam_matches%Breaks
Jacques Kallis 19952013 292166184 90.2% 9
James Anderson 20032019 575149207 72.0% 18
Shane Warne 19922007 708145177 81.9% 9
M Muralitharan 19922010 800133155 85.8% 14
Courtney Walsh 19842001 519132142 93.0% 6
Anil Kumble 19902008 619132159 83.0% 9
Kapil Dev 19781994 434131132 99.2% 1
Stuart Broad 20072019 444127146 87.0% 12
Glenn McGrath 19932007 563124157 79.0% 12
Daniel Vettori 19972014 362113149 75.8% 6
Chaminda Vaas 19942009 355111133 83.5% 10
Shaun Pollock 19952008 421108132 81.8% 10
Wasim Akram 19852002 414104131 79.4% 14
Harbhajan Singh 19982015 417103172 59.9% 20
Ian Botham 19771992 383102156 65.4% 8
Makhaya Ntini 19982009 390101128 78.9% 8
In Shane Warne's case, the real break is the sequence of 14 Tests he missed in 2003, when he was banned for a year. That he earned the ban is clear. However, this ban was instrumental in his missing a chance to come close to Muttiah Muralitharan. Warne also missed seven Tests earlier in his career.
Muralitharan himself missed Tests often in his career. But never more than four at a stretch. Compared to that, Courtney Walsh had a steady career.
There was no real reason for Anil Kumble to be dropped for 11 Tests in a row during 2000-01. This and a long break at the beginning cost him quite a few Tests. Glenn McGrath had a long stretch of nine Tests missed around 2003. And he missed a few towards the end of his career because of the Australian policy of resting/rotating players.
Wasim Akram had 14 breaks. Ian Botham missed many Tests at the end of his career. Curtly Ambrose and Richard Hadlee had steady careers compared to the others. Dale Steyn missed many Tests recently due to injuries and earlier this month called his glittering career to a close. These ten bowlers have had nearly 100 breaks between them. In contrast, the featured ten batsmen had 54 breaks between them.
In conclusion, it can be seen that batsmen have careers that are steadier than bowlers. It is very tough for bowlers to play over 100 Tests without many breaks. The exception is, of course, Kapil Dev, who would have had an uninterrupted 130-Test career but for the capriciousness of Gavaskar.
The Test Championship
A long-awaited event has just completed its first contest at Edgbaston. This provides Test cricket a boost - one that it needs to survive against other eye-catching formats and gross apathy from many stakeholders, including spectators. I hope it goes through well to the conclusion of the first cycle two years from now.
Though it is too late to make any changes in the current cycle, here are some problems that should be addressed.
All teams should play all other teams. I know the only impediment to this is the fact that India would not play Pakistan. But then, India did play Pakistan a few weeks earlier, in the World Cup, at Old Trafford. Why can India not play Pakistan in the UAE or anywhere else - say, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, England or Australia?
If that can be sorted out, there could be eight series for each team.
It is very disappointing to note that each India-Bangladesh Test carries 60 points and each England-Australia Test is worth 24 points. To be fair, all Tests must carry equal weight. This could have been the case if there had been the courage and conviction to make all series of equal length - say, three Tests each. Each Test could carry 40 points, each team would play 24 matches, and the total number of points at stake would be 960 for all teams. Of course, schedules would have been a problem but then the T20 windows could have been shortened. Why should the IPL take nearly 15% of the total time available, year after year?
I would like to suggest a few minor tweaks to the points-distribution methodology.
A tie has come about twice in the last 60 years. Ties deserve more recognition than just 50% of the points for a win. In my Test Teams Performance work, I assign two-thirds of the value of a win to a tie. It could even be three-fifths. Taking both teams together, I don't mind the total points awarded for a tie exceeding the points for a win.
A draw where the team batting last scores 300 for 8, chasing 350, surely deserves more than two-fifths of the points. A possible tweak could be that a draw in which the two first innings are not completed could get two-fifths of the points, and a competitive draw half the points. I understand that ICC's idea is to reward a 1-1 draw more than a 0-0 draw. But draws are unique and an integral part of this beautiful game and need more recognition. Surely two well-contested draws should be viewed in the same light as two one-sided wins.
It is also possible to consider something similar to the ratings system in my Test Team Performance analysis. A draw that is a nailbiter, like the 2014 England-Sri Lanka Lord's Test (with scores of 575 for 9, 453, 267 for 8 and 201 for 9) is allotted 98.9 performance rating points, while a boring draw (like the Pakistan-India Test in Lahore in 2005-06, where the team scores were 679 for 7 and 410 for 1) is allotted only 38.2 points.
How will the ICC identify a sub-standard pitch in order to apply penalties? Cricketing sense and common sense are not enough. It is necessary to use a metric like my PQI (Pitch Quality Index). This is derived using a combination of the following factors:
- Expected runs from batsmen playing
- Actual runs scored by batsmen
- Expected wickets from bowlers playing
- Actual wickets taken by bowlers
- Match RpW weighted by quality of wickets lost
The net result is a very sound value. For the recent Lord's Test between England and Ireland, the PQI was measured at 25.4, indicating a difficult, but not monstrous, pitch. In general if there are two reasonable innings, we cannot term a pitch as "terrible". The first Ashes Test this year, at Edgbaston, had a PQI of 53.6.
In the past 20 years, the lowest PQI value was 21.3, for the Hamilton pitch in 2002 in which India made 99 and 154, and New Zealand managed 94 and 160 for 6. The India-Australia Test in Mumbai in 2004 clocked in at a PQI value of 23.4, and the Pakistan capitulation (59 and 53) in Sharjah in 2002 comes in at 24.0.
This works well at the other end of the spectrum too. The really high-scoring pitches should also be penalised. The India-New Zealand match in New Delhi in 1955 (where the innings scores were 450for 2, 531for 7 and 112for 1) had a PQI of 93.7. The Pakistan-India bat-athon in Lahore in 2006 referred to above fetched a PQI of 88.6.
(Added on August 19: The Lord's Test which ended on Sunday is a perfect example of what I have mentioned about the competitive draw. That the two teams could produce such a great Test despite losing nearly two days of play and be allotted just 8 points each is a travesty of justice. The least they deserve is 12 points each.)
***
Steven Smith's all-time great innings of 144 in the first innings of the Edgbaston Test moved comfortably into the top 15 in my Golden Willow 25 table of the top Test batting performances of all time. The following factors influenced the entry of the innings into the list:
- Smith came in at 17 for 2, after which the innings slumped to 112 for 6 and 122 for 8, and finally finished at 284. He added 172 runs with the late-order batsmen. Out of these, 162 runs were added with the last two batsmen.
- Chris Woakes, with a tally of 60 home wickets at 22, was a big factor in the high quality of England's bowling attack. To some extent this was discounted by Anderson bowling only four overs.
- The PQI was 53, mainly because of the middle two innings.
- But the real clincher, worth well over 100 points, was that the innings resulted in an away win against a very strong England team. (Australia's own strength was not that great, because of the presence of Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Matthew Wade and Peter Siddle.)
An image of the current GW25 table is shown below. It can be seen that Smith's 144 pushes Cheteshwar Pujara's Adelaide classic of 123 out of the top 25.
Smith's twin 140s at Edgbaston fetched him over 1320 rating points, and took his match performances into the best-ever match batting performance position, jumping over Jack Russell's 140 and 111 in 1923 against South Africa, which gathered just over 1300 points.
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Anantha Narayanan has written for ESPNcricinfo and CastrolCricket and worked with a number of companies on their cricket performance ratings-related systems

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