Test-series performances: the top batsmen
A stats analysis of the best Test-series batting performances
Viv Richards: 829 runs in the series in England in 1976 • Getty Images
I have embarked on a major project. This has been triggered by a few comments on performance of all-rounders in series. I have extended the scope of the same and will cover, over three articles, the performance of batsmen, bowlers and all-rounders in series. I am aware that Cricinfo statistics section gives you an insight into the runs scored and wickets captured in Test series. However those are raw numbers and also do not show the results by series types. Even Statsguru might not provide that. What I intend to do is to weight the individual player performances in series with various relevant parameters. It is necessary to recognize where players performed (home or away), what type of bowling attack runs were scored off (great to poor), what level of support was received, what were the quality of wickets captured, was there a critical series situation et al. That would let us judge performances at their true worth.
1. Where the series was played: Home, away or neutral locations. Instead of penalizing home performances I have left the home runs at no additional weight and weighted runs scored at neutral locations at 5% and away at 10%. One could raise endless queries on the subjectivity or not of these weights. However there is no better solution on offer. As far as sub-continental flat tracks are concerned, the visitors might get the extra weight, playing away, but will lose out on the Pitch type. And vice versa.
2. Series situation: I leave the other Tests as they are. An additional weight of 5% is given for the deciders only. As far as I am concerned there is no dead rubber Test. Over the past 10 years every Test is important, because of Test Rankings. If it rains cats and dogs at Edgbaston, the fourth Test, technically, is a dead rubber. However the no.1 rank is at stake as also the pride of players. India would very much prefer a 1-2 result and England would go all out for a 3-0 result. So the idea of dead rubber will remain only in the minds of some cricket followers, not in this analysis.
3. Bowling quality faced: This is the weighted c-t-d bowling quality measure determined for each innings. The range is from 19 to 60. The weight ranges from 85% (for 60) to 115% (for 15). I have got the weight for this measure go below 100 so that runs scored against sub-standard attacks are weighted less and against strong attacks are weighted more.
4. Pitch type: This is determined by the Runs per Wicket value for the match. This value ranges from 10 to 100 and the weight ranges from 120% (for 10) to 80 (100). Here also I have got the weight for this measure to go below 100 so that runs scored on flat batting tracks are weighted less and on bowling paradises weighted more.
5. Support provided / % of score: This is to recognize that a 100 scored out of 200 with scant support is valued more than a 100 made out of 500 with ample support. There is no negative weighting and the maximum weight is 10%.
The overall effort is that the runs scored in each innings are weighted by the five factors leading to an overall weighting ranging from a theoretical low of around 75% to a theoretical high of 175%. However these are theoretical values and in practice, the range is from 90% to 130%. Stray innings might be weighted down or more. The results are, to say the least, stunning. The true value of batsmen performances in series unfolds before us.
The other decision I have taken is that the performances in a series is not going to be influenced by the number of Tests played. Whether a player was dropped or injured is outside the purview of this analysis. A 6-Test series is what it says, whether 4 or 5 Tests were played by a player. The other point is that a series has to have a minimum of 3 Tests to be included in this analysis. Also, the three Triangular tournaments, the 1912 one and the two Asian Championships are not included.
The tables are shown for 6, 5, 4 and 3-Test series. These are ordered on the base information, which is the runs scored. The weighting factor and weighted runs are also show. Later in the article similar tables are shown, this time ordered on the weighted runs. I have stayed away from superfluous information, at least for this analysis, of batting averages, highest score, hundreds and fifties. When someone scores 500 runs in a 3-Test series, it really does not matter whether the average was 120 or 150. It only depends on how often the batsman remained unbeaten. At the end I have also shown the top 5 and bottom 5, in terms of weighting, of the runs scored table (over 500 runs).
First the 6-Test series table. Those who have exceeded 600 runs in the series have been shown.
SNo Year Home Away Batsman # Runs Wt WtRuns
Both Taylor and Lara scored mountains of runs in away series against England. This is reflected in the good weighting of their performances. Mudassar Nazar's compilation was done at home. The next three players also compiled their 700+ runs at home. However, out of these three, Gower and Chappell did this against much better bowling sides. There seems to be a difficulty in achieving peak level achievements in the six match series as evidenced by the fact that only 12 batsman have averaged over 100 runs per Test.
SNo Year Home Away Batsman # Runs Wt WtRuns
This table clearly indicates that the 5-Test series are the best in terms of quality. It can be noted that there are 14 batsmen who have averaged over 150 runs per Test. Bradman's and Hammond's performances are legendary. Bradman achieved this stupendous feat of nearly a thousand runs in 5 Tests as a mere 21-year lad, with 4 Tests behind him. Hammond achieved a similar feat in Bradman's debut series two years earlier. Harvey crossed 800 runs against South Africa. Richards had a wonderful series during 1976. Bradman crossed 750 runs four times in his career. Also note the distinguished company Cook has batted himself in.
Next the 4-Test series table. Those who have exceeded 600 runs in the series have been shown.
SNo Year Home Away Batsman # Runs Wt WtRuns
Most of the 4-Test top performances are modern probably because not many 4-Test series were played during the earlier years. Kallis leads the field with his performances against West Indies. The one exception has been during 1930 when Headley and Hendren scored either side of 700 runs in the same series. Dravid has crossed 600 runs twice in his career.
Let us now see the 3-Test series table. Those who have exceeded 500 runs in the series have been shown.
SNo Year Home Away Batsman # Runs Wt WtRuns
When one scores 456 runs in a single Test, it is not too difficult to sit on top of the 3-Test performances. That is what Gooch did against India during 1990. However the real striking performance is the single-handed master class by Lara, away in Sri Lanka during 2001. As the youngsters would say, no one else did jack.
I have given below the top-5 batsmen in each of the series types, this time based on the weighted runs scored.
SNo Year Home Away Batsman # Runs Wt WtRuns
The top two performances in the 6-Test series have retained their places in the weighted runs order. Lara has narrowed the gap a little bit. Mudassar Nazar has moved down the order. There is very little movement in the 5-Test order also. Harvey has moved down. Mohammad Yousuf, playing away against England whose bowling was good, has gained significantly in the 4-Test table and has moved to the top. Kallis has moved way down. As expected, Lara has displaced Gooch because his performance was away, against a very good attack and he received scant support.
Finally the top-5, across all series types, whose weight value is the highest and lowest. This is a very interesting mini-table which brings out the value of this type of weighting.
SNo Year Home Away Batsman # Runs Wt WtRuns
Let us look at this table. Why did Hobbs gain so much. An away series, very good South African bowling line-up, low scoring throughout the series increasing the value of Hobbs' scores and Hobbs's high accumulation in only 4 Tests. Similarly Hutton faced a top-class bowling attack away and scored a fair proportion of runs. Border scored the runs, again away, off a top class bowling attack and with no great support.
At the other end, the parameters are tilted the other way. Average-to-poor bowling attacks, fairly high RpW values for the matches and matches played at home. Just to give an idea of what I am talking about, let me sum up the series # 76, the last one in the table. England scored 3050+ runs at a loss of 64 wickets, leading to a high RpW of 48. Also, Compton, despite his massive aggregate of 753 runs did not even score 25% of the total runs !!! Still the maximum down-weighting is less than 10%.
Finally let me give my own selection of the top performances in a series.
1. Bradman's 974 in 5 Tests against England. As already explained, a 21-year old batsmen achieves this during his first tour of England. If nothing else this should silence and convince any critics of the greatness of Bradman.
2. Lara's 688 in 3 Tests against Sri Lanka: Irrespective of what else Lara did, and there is plenty, this is the best single series performance by any batsmen during the past 30 years. The lone warrior, away against the magician and Lara came through. The 3 losses add to the poignancy of the performances.
3. Richards' 829 in 5 Tests against England: This was arguably the most dominating series by a single player over the past 50 years and is bettered only by Bradman's 974.
4. Hammond's 905 in 5 Tests against Australia: I have often put down Hammond's 336 against New Zealand. But this was Hammond at his majestic best. However the series record lasted a mere 18 months.
5. Hobbs' 539 in 4 Tests against South Africa: As I went through the scorecards I realized the impact and value of Hobbs' performance. This was not an ordinary South African side. They had excellent bowlers. Hutton's 1950 series ranks very close.
I have fixed 3 Tests as the minimum criteria for defining a proper Test series. However readers would be interested to know that there are five batsmen who have crossed 500 runs in 2 Test-series. They are Jayasuriya (571 vs Ind), Hammond (563 vs Nzl), Andy Flower (540 vs Ind), Jayawardene (510 vs Saf) and Hayden (501 vs Zim). Andy Flower's is probably the most note-worthy since it was achieved against India, away.
Just to complete the Series batting analysis, I have given below the table of batsmen who have crossed 500 runs in a series most number of times.
7 times: Bradman 7 times: Lara 6 times: Sobers 6 times: Gavaskar 4 times: Hobbs, Hammond, Barrington, Border, Ponting.
To answer the burning question as to why Tendulkar is absent in these analyses and in the complete table, readers may be surprised (or not) to know that Tendulkar has never crossed 500 in a series in Tests. His highest is 493 vs Australia, away, during 2007. In mitigation, let me state that Tendulkar has played in only three 5-Test series, the last one 9 years back.
To download the complete list of players who have crossed 500 runs in a Test series, please right-click here and save the file.
Now for the other end of the performance spectrum. With some difficulty I have unearthed the following total non-performances. With due apologies to Amarnath, CB Fry, Ranatunga and Athey, very good batsmen, they had their great days, but these were their low points. I might very well have missed a few other gems. Readers should note that I have only looked at batsmen with averages higher than 25. Let me remind readers that Amarnath and Ranatunga are two of modern cricket's greatest fighters ever.
SNo Year Batsman For Vs Inns Runs Score sequence
Since the article has already become long, I will keep the bowling and all-round analyses to later posts. This will also enable the readers to exchange information in an informed manner.
Finally a comment on what happened at Nottingham.
On Sunday we saw two sets of faces of Indian Cricket. The first, two tough-as-nails and successful captains who, however, would play fair and keep the spirit of the game alive, in the persona of Dhoni and Ganguly. India might have lost but Cricket, in the form of Dhoni, won. Dhoni's gesture, probably egged on by the wiser and older heads in the team, would not be forgotten in a hurry and he is going to stay in the hearts of all cricket followers everywhere.
The other set, those faces of Shastri and Gavaskar.
I have realized that it would be great to have a Reader's selections section. So here we go.
1. Viswanath's 568 runs (593.6 adjruns) vs Win at home in 1974. (Salem Shanker). 2. Amarnath's 598 runs (718.6 adjruns) vs Win away in 1983, (Gerry/Arjun). 3. Manjrekar's 569 runs (640.3 adjruns) vs Pak away in 1989 (Arjun/Nitin). 4. Vaughan's 633 runs (770.1 adjruns) vs Aus away in 2002 (Arjun). 5. Sobers'722 runs (840.2 adjruns) vs Eng away in 1966. (Shrikanth). 6. Bradman 810 runs (916.7 adjruns) vs Eng home in 1936 (Shrikanth). 7. Adams' 520 runs (3T-619.8 adjruns) vs Ind away in 1994 (Ruchir). 8. Lara's 546 runs (632.6 adjruns) vs Aus home in 1999 (Ruchir). 9. Gavaskar's 774 runs (827.3 adj) vs Win away in 1971 (Abhishek/Raghu). 10.Taylor's 839 (910.4 adjruns) vs Eng away in 1989 (Tom/Pallab). 11.Faulkner's 732 runs (855.8 adjruns) vs Aus away in 1910. (Arjun/Alex). 12.Strauss'656 runs (upto 760.2) vs Saf away in 2004. (Arjun). 13.Sutcliffe's 734 runs (841.5 adjruns) vs Aus away in 1924 (Alex/Ruchir). 14.Trumper's 661 runs (upto 702.4) vs Saf home in 1910 (Manasvi). 15.Walters' 699 runs (upto 714.8) vs Win home in 1968 (Manasvi). 16.Boycott's 657 runs (703.0 adjruns) vs Aus away in 1970 (Arjun). 17.Gilchrist's 473 runs in 3 Tests vs Saf away in 2002 (Alex). 18.Hobbs' 662 (adjruns 769.9) vs Aus, Away in 1912 (Shri). 19.Sobers' 824 (adjruns 850.8) vs Pak, Home in 1958 (Harsh). 20.Walcott's 827 (900.7 adjruns) vs Aus, home in 1955. (Harsh). 21.Hutton's 533 runs (683.9-28% adj) vs Aus, away 1950 (Waspsting). 22.Lindsay's 606 runs (605.2 adj) vs Aus 1966 (Gerry/Shane). 23. Dravid's 422 runs, and counting, vs Eng during 2011 (Ananth).
Anantha Narayanan has written for ESPNcricinfo and CastrolCricket and worked with a number of companies on their cricket performance ratings-related systems