Bangladesh's 99-Test journey in numbers
As Bangladesh get ready to play their 100th Test, here are some key numbers from their Test journey, including a comparison with other teams after they had played 99 matches

8 Wins for Bangladesh, the second-lowest among the ten teams who have played 99 or more Tests. Only New Zealand, with seven, had fewer wins. India had 10 victories while had Zimbabwe eleven. England had the most wins - 45 - followed by Australia (41) and West Indies (34). All other teams had less than 20 wins.
76 Defeats for Bangladesh, the most for any team after 99 Tests. The next highest is Zimbabwe with 62. South Africa are the only other team with 50-plus defeats. Bangladesh's 15 draws are the lowest as well after 99 Tests, while their win-loss ratio of 0.11 is also the poorest among all teams - New Zealand had a ratio of 0.15 (seven wins, 46 defeats), while Zimbabwe's ratio was 0.17.
16 Years, 4 months and 6 days is the time taken for Bangladesh to play their 100th Test. (The time is calculated from the start of their first Test to the start of their 100th.) This is the least time taken by any team to play 100 Tests; the previous lowest was Sri Lanka's 18 years, three months and 29 days. Bangladesh made their Test debut on November 10, 2000, against India.
Team | W/L | Draw | W/L ratio | Time period |
Australia | 41/40 | 18 | 1.02 | 35y 2m 13d |
England | 45/37 | 17 | 1.21 | 32y 3m 17d |
South Africa | 15/51 | 33 | 0.29 | 59y 11m 22d |
West Indies | 34/33 | 31 | 1.03 | 36y 08m 09d |
New Zealand | 7/46 | 46 | 0.15 | 42y 2m 14d |
India | 10/39 | 50 | 0.25 | 35y 0m 19d |
Pakistan | 18/26 | 55 | 0.69 | 26y 04m 23d |
Sri Lanka | 18/39 | 42 | 0.46 | 18y 03m 29d |
Zimbabwe | 11/62 | 26 | 0.17 | 24y 0m 12d |
Bangladesh | 8/76 | 15 | 0.11 | 16y 04m 06d |
85 Players who have played Test cricket for Bangladesh. Only two teams - Pakistan (80) and Sri Lanka (81) - have had fewer players in their first 99 Tests. The highest is 170, for South Africa, who also had to wait the longest to play 100 Tests: the time period between their first and 100th Test was more than 59 years, and it spanned both the World Wars. For Bangladesh, Mohammad Ashraful has played the most Tests (63), followed by Mushfiqur Rahim (53) and Habibul Bashar (50).
0.50 The ratio of Bangladesh's batting average (24.53) to their bowling average (48.64). The ratio is the poorest among all teams after 99 Tests. The next lowest is New Zealand's 0.65, and Zimbabwe's 0.67. Bangladesh's batsmen have scored 46 hundreds, which is ninth out of ten teams, and their bowlers have taken 45 five-fors, which ranks eighth.
Team | Bat ave | Bowl ave | Ave ratio | 100s | 5-fors | Players |
England | 24.60 | 22.01 | 1.12 | 51 | 108 | 160 |
West Indies | 33.20 | 31.33 | 1.06 | 108 | 68 | 121 |
Australia | 24.60 | 25.59 | 0.96 | 51 | 97 | 100 |
Pakistan | 30.74 | 34.31 | 0.90 | 80 | 52 | 80 |
Sri Lanka | 29.12 | 36.17 | 0.81 | 70 | 54 | 81 |
India | 28.70 | 37.44 | 0.77 | 74 | 56 | 115 |
South Africa | 25.07 | 33.79 | 0.74 | 55 | 64 | 170 |
Zimbabwe | 26.22 | 38.99 | 0.67 | 53 | 35 | 99 |
New Zealand | 23.64 | 36.12 | 0.65 | 39 | 27 | 122 |
Bangladesh | 24.53 | 48.64 | 0.50 | 46 | 45 | 85 |
7 Test wins for Bangladesh in their last 41 matches, since the start of 2009. In 58 Tests before 2009, Bangladesh had won only one. Bangladesh's win-loss ratio has improved from 0.019 before 2009, to 0.28 since then.
30.63 Bangladesh's batting average in Tests since the start of 2009, up from 20.54 before 2009, an improvement of 49%. Their bowling average has improved from 51.35 to 45.88, while the ratio of their batting to bowling average has gone up from 0.40 to 0.67, an improvement of 67.5%. In their first 58 Tests, Bangladesh had scored only 14 hundreds; in their last 41, they have scored 32.
3546 Tamim Iqbal's Test aggregate, the highest for Bangladesh. Aravinda de Silva's 5619 is the highest aggregate by any batsman at the end of 99 Tests for his team; de Silva played 81 of Sri Lanka's first 99 Tests, and averaged 43.89 in those games, with 18 hundreds. Among the top run-getters for each country at that stage, West Indies' Everton Weekes had the best average (58.61), followed by Andy Flower's 51.54.
170 Test wickets for Shakib Al Hasan, the most for Bangladesh. The highest for any team after 99 is Muttiah Muralitharan's 253, which he took from 51 matches, at an average of 26.30. Heath Streak was the only other bowler with 200-plus wickets, taking 216 in 65 Tests.
Batting | Bowling | |||||
Team | Batsman | Runs | Average | Bowler | Wickets | Average |
Australia | Clem Hill | 3412 | 39.21 | Hugh Trumble | 141 | 21.78 |
England | Tom Hayward | 1999 | 34.46 | Johnny Briggs | 118 | 17.75 |
South Africa | Bruce Mitchell | 3316 | 48.05 | Cyril Vincent | 84 | 31.32 |
West Indies | Everton Weekes | 4455 | 58.61 | Sonny Ramadhin | 158 | 28.98 |
New Zealand | John Reid | 3428 | 33.28 | Dick Motz | 100 | 31.48 |
India | Polly Umrigar | 3631 | 42.22 | Vinoo Mankad | 162 | 32.32 |
Pakistan | Hanif Mohammad | 3915 | 43.98 | Fazal Mahmood | 139 | 24.70 |
Sri Lanka | Aravinda de Silva | 5619 | 43.89 | Muttiah Muralitharan | 253 | 26.30 |
Zimbabwe | Andy Flower | 4794 | 51.54 | Heath Streak | 216 | 28.14 |
Bangladesh | Tamim Iqbal | 3546 | 38.96 | Shakib Al Hasan | 170 | 33.30 |
621 Wickets for Bangladesh's spinners in these 99 Tests compared to 422 by their seamers, which means spinners have accounted for nearly 60% of Bangladesh's wickets (excluding run-outs). Spinners also have a better average, and have taken 82% of the five-fors.
Bowler type | Wickets | Average | Strike rate | 5WI | 10WM |
Spinners | 621 | 44.05 | 82.4 | 37 | 3 |
Seamers | 422 | 57.38 | 93.4 | 8 | 0 |
25 Man-of-the-Match awards for Bangladesh players in Tests. Shakib leads the list with five awards, followed by Mushfiqur and Ashraful with three each, while Tamim and Mominul Haque are the only others to win more than one such award. In all, 15 Bangladesh players have won Man-of-the-Match awards in Tests.
S Rajesh is stats editor of ESPNcricinfo. @rajeshstats
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