Ishant and Prasad turn lethal, and the tail wags
Ishant Sharma and Dhammika Prasad seem to have both turned a corner in the last 18 months, while tail became top in the recent Sri Lanka-India series
Ishant Sharma has more five-fors in his last 21 Test innings than he did in his previous 93 • AFP
Period | Tests | Wickets | Average | SR | 5WI |
Till Dec 2008 | 15 | 44 | 31.59 | 60.6 | 1 |
Jan 2009 to Dec 2013 | 38 | 105 | 41.84 | 73.5 | 2 |
Jan 2014 onwards | 12 | 51 | 29.76 | 52.1 | 4 |
Career | 65 | 200 | 36.51 | 65.2 | 7 |
Period | Tests | Wickets | Average | SR | 5WI |
Till Dec 2013 | 12 | 22 | 59.00 | 82.7 | 0 |
Jan 2014 onwards | 11 | 44 | 28.68 | 50.6 | 1 |
Career | 23 | 66 | 38.78 | 61.3 | 1 |
Player | Tests | Wickets | Average | SR | 5WI |
Dale Steyn | 11 | 52 | 19.69 | 38.3 | 3 |
Josh Hazlewood | 9 | 40 | 21.75 | 44.1 | 2 |
James Anderson | 16 | 73 | 23.63 | 50.5 | 3 |
Mitchell Johnson | 16 | 70 | 25.22 | 46.0 | 2 |
Stuart Broad | 18 | 74 | 25.54 | 51.4 | 3 |
Trent Boult | 12 | 51 | 27.94 | 59.2 | 1 |
Dhammika Prasad | 11 | 44 | 28.68 | 50.6 | 1 |
Jerome Taylor | 12 | 40 | 28.97 | 57.2 | 1 |
Ishant Sharma | 12 | 51 | 29.76 | 52.1 | 4 |
Tim Southee | 12 | 43 | 32.06 | 67.1 | 0 |
The average opening partnership in the just-concluded Sri Lanka-India Test series was 5.91; the average for the tenth wicket was 7.72. That's only the 12th time in Test history, in series with at least ten partnerships for each wicket, that the last-wicket average has exceeded the first. Five of those instances happened more than 100 years ago, while there were only three more such cases between 1907 and 2008. However, since 2009 there have been four such instances, with India being involved in two of them. Last year in their five-Test series in England, the average partnership for the tenth wicket was 38.38, while the opening stand was only worth 25.05. England's average for the tenth wicket was a whopping 66.75, including the 198-run stand between Joe Root and James Anderson at Trent Bridge; India had a tenth-wicket century stand in that Test as well as Mohammed Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar added 111.
series | 10th wkt ave | 1st wkt ave | Difference |
India in Sri Lanka, 2015 | 7.73 | 5.92 | 1.81 |
India in England, 2014 | 38.38 | 25.06 | 13.33 |
Pakistan in England, 2010 | 20.00 | 15.47 | 4.53 |
England in South Africa, 2009-10 | 22.25 | 22.21 | 0.04 |
West Indies in Pakistan, 1980-81 | 21.11 | 18.38 | 2.73 |
West Indies in England, 1966 | 23.31 | 19.06 | 4.25 |
India in West Indies, 1961-62 | 25.93 | 23.59 | 2.34 |
England in South Africa, 1905-06 | 22.93 | 14.16 | 8.78 |
England in South Africa, 1895-96 | 11.20 | 6.10 | 5.10 |
England in Australia, 1894-95 | 26.75 | 21.26 | 5.49 |
Australia in England, 1888 | 16.70 | 8.70 | 8.00 |
England in Australia, 1884-85 | 25.60 | 21.67 | 3.93 |
Series | Top 5 ave | Bottom 5 ave | Difference |
NZ in Aust, 2001-02 | 44.06 | 49.39 | -5.33 |
Aust in NZ, 1999-2000 | 26.03 | 28.54 | -2.51 |
Pak in Eng, 2010 | 23.65 | 23.29 | 0.36 |
NZ in SA, 2006 | 31.72 | 31.25 | 0.47 |
Pak in Ind, 2007-08 | 45.67 | 43.42 | 2.24 |
SL in Ind, 2005-06 | 31.16 | 27.98 | 3.19 |
Ind in Eng, 2014 | 34.57 | 30.79 | 3.78 |
WI in Aust, 2000-01 | 29.99 | 25.33 | 4.66 |
Pak in NZ, 2009-10 | 31.80 | 27.04 | 4.76 |
Ind in SL, 2015 | 29.90 | 25.10 | 4.80 |
S Rajesh is stats editor of ESPNcricinfo. Follow him on Twitter