Mind the gap

In the first Test of the ongoing Australia-India series at the MCG, something quite unexpected happened: Rahul Dravid was bowled three times - twice legitimately, and once off a no-ball. It was only the fourth time in his entire Test career that he had been bowled in both innings of a Test, and the first time in 49 matches. And when Ben Hilfenhaus dismissed him in the same manner in the second innings in Sydney, it meant Dravid had been bowled in six times in his last eight innings - he had also been dismissed in that manner three times in the home series against West Indies. During this period, his tally of bowled dismissals in Tests increased from 46 to 52. At this rate, he'll take over from Allan Border as the batsman to be bowled most often in Tests well before this series is over - Border's record stands at 53.

Dravid has played the second-highest number of innings in Test cricket, so perhaps it shouldn't be such a surprise that he has also been dismissed bowled the second-most number of times. However, it goes against the enduring image of Dravid, which is of him playing an exaggerated defensive shot with everything - bat, pad, body - between the ball and the stumps.

Obviously, plenty has been written and said about these recent dismissals, which makes it a pretty good time to check out the numbers, for Dravid and for other batsmen who've played over a significant period of time. A cut-off of 175 innings ensures that most of the modern greats make the cut. (There are a couple of bowlers in there too, but they can safely be ignored.) This excludes some of the top players from an earlier age, but then a comparison across eras in this aspect isn't a fair one anyway: batsmen in an earlier era had a greater likelihood of getting bowled due to the variable bounce of uncovered pitches and the lack of enough protective gear.

Wally Hammond, for instance, was dismissed 124 times in Tests of which 38 were bowled (30.65%); Len Hutton was out bowled 31 times out of his 123 dismissals (25.2%); Don Bradman was bowled 23 times out of his 70 dismissals (32.86%). In Tests before 1960, bowled dismissals constituted 30.85% of total outs; since 1970, it's dropped to 17.71%.

However, in the list below all the batsmen save one have played their cricket after 1970. And it so happens that the batsmen who've been bowled often also have a high percentage of such dismissals: Border, Dravid and Jacques Kallis, who are among the top four in terms of bowled dismissals, are also in the top five percentages (calculated as a percentage of total dismissals for each batsman).

For Border, almost a fourth of his dismissals were bowled: he was out in that fashion 53 times. Malcolm Marshall was chief tormentor, getting him out bowled five times, while Kapil Dev and Shivlal Yadav got him three times each. (In all, Marshall dismissed him 11 times and Kapil 10.) No bowler has dismissed Dravid bowled more than three times: Shane Warne leads with three, while a bunch of others have got him twice.

In percentage terms, though, Viv Richards was out bowled more often than Dravid - out of 170 dismissals, Richards was bowled 36 times, with Dennis Lillee getting him out in that manner three times. (Click here for the list of bowlers.)

VVS Laxman figures prominently too - he is one of six batsmen with a percentage of 20 or more. (A lot of high-class fast bowlers are among those who've dismissed him bowled more than once.) Sachin Tendulkar has got out bowled 48 times, but in percentage terms that's a relatively lower 17.52.

The only batsman from an earlier era in this list is Colin Cowdrey, who played between 1954 and 1975. He was bowled 31 times out of 173, a percentage of 17.92.

Highest percentage of bowleds (among batsmen* with at least 175 innings)

Batsman	Innings	Dismissals	Bowled	Percent (of dismissals)
Allan Border	265	221	53	23.98
Mark Boucher	202	179	39	21.79
Viv Richards	182	170	36	21.18
Jacques Kallis	254	215	45	20.93
Rahul Dravid	282	250	52	20.80
VVS Laxman	220	186	38	20.43
David Boon	190	170	32	18.82
Alec Stewart	235	214	40	18.69
Steve Waugh	260	214	39	18.22
Colin Cowdrey	188	173	31	17.92
Graham Thorpe	179	151	27	17.88
Geoff Boycott	193	170	30	17.65
Sachin Tendulkar	307	274	48	17.52
Desmond Haynes	202	177	31	17.51
Graham Gooch	215	209	36	17.22

* Excludes the specialist bowlers

At the other end of the scale are the batsmen who seldom got out bowled. That has no correlation to whether they were better or worse batsmen than those in the list above, but their techniques were different, which meant they got out in other ways more often than they got bowled.

Take Dilip Vengsarkar, for instance. He played 116 Tests, 185 innings, was dismissed 163 times, of which just 16 were bowled. He was lbw more often than he was bowled (19 time), while he was caught 120 times, which is almost 75% of his total dismissals. Kumar Sangakkara's stats are very similar to Vengsarkar's: 167 dismissals, of which 17 are bowled and 124 caught.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul's technique isn't the most pleasing aesthetically, but it's worked wonderfully for him, especially in keeping the deliveries from knocking his stumps over. Chanderpaul's pronounced shuffle has kept his bowled percentage down to 11.17 (22 out of 197), but that technique has resulted in him being lbw 43 times, almost twice as many as his bowled dismissals. Similarly, Javed Miandad was bowled only 21 times, but lbw on 33 occasions.

On the other hand, Dravid has been bowled 52 times, but lbw on 34 occasions; for Border the ratio is even more skewed - 53 bowled, 16 lbws.

These ratios indicate the different batting techniques going around, but to get the extremes in the ratios, we need to move over to the bowlers, for all these batsmen in the list are bookended by two legendary bowlers. Among those who've batted at least 175 innings, the one who got out bowled most often was Courtney Walsh: out of 124 dismissals, 37 were bowled (29.84). And the one with the least percentage of bowled dismissals is Shane Warne. He dismissed 116 batsmen in that fashion, but was himself bowled only 12 times out of his 182 dismissals, a measly percentage of 6.59.

Batsmen with low percentages of bowleds (Qual: 175 innings*)

Batsman	Innings	Dismissals	Bowled	Percent (of dismissals)
Dilip Vengsarkar	185	163	16	9.82
Ian Healy	182	159	16	10.06
Kumar Sangakkara	179	167	17	10.18
Shivnarine Chanderpaul	234	197	22	11.17
Matthew Hayden	184	170	21	12.35
Javed Miandad	189	168	21	12.50
Mahela Jayawardene	213	200	25	12.50
Inzamam-ul-Haq	200	178	23	12.92
Ricky Ponting	273	245	32	13.06
Stephen Fleming	189	179	24	13.41

* Excludes the specialist bowlers