Two to 10 players together - for how many Tests?

This is a continuation of my previous article which was based on a request by Seshasayee. I had posted the eleven-players-together article and Sumanth Sankaran did an excellent job of doing the 2-10 groupings using some nifty Jave code. I had already done the 2-3 player group work and the results match. Hence I am pleased to present his findings. Let me confess that I have only done the formatting and editing work related to the article using Sumant's findings and have also updated the recent matches. My thanks to Sumanth for this. I have reproduced below Sesha's specific request.

Ananth in future when you have some time you can consider analysing number of Test matches a group of players in a team have played together...Min 2 to Max 11.

Number of players together : 2

IND: 122 R Dravid, SR Tendulkar (# 1) 122 A Kumble, SR Tendulkar (# 1) 113 R Dravid, SC Ganguly SAF: 118 JH Kallis, MV Boucher (# 3) 96 M Ntini, MV Boucher 93 JH Kallis, SM Pollock AUS: 108 ME Waugh, SR Waugh 104 GD McGrath, SK Warne 103 IA Healy, MA Taylor ENG: 99 AJ Stewart, MA Atherton 87 DI Gower, IT Botham 79 AJ Stewart, N Hussain WI : 99 CG Greenidge, IVA Richards 95 CA Walsh, CEL Ambrose 94 DL Haynes, IVA Richards NZ : 78 NJ Astle, SP Fleming 76 DL Vettori, SP Fleming 67 AC Parore, SP Fleming SL : 95 M Muralitharan, WPUJC Vaas 95 DPMD Jayawardene, M Muralitharan 90 M Muralitharan, ST Jayasuriya PAK: 78 Imran Khan, Javed Miandad 75 Javed Miandad, Mudassar Nazar 68 Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf ZIM: 61 A Flower, GW Flower BAN: 42 Habibul Bashar, Khaled Mashud Tendulkar, in company with two other great Indian stalwarts, Dravid and Kumble, occupies the top two positions with 122 Tests each. Kallis and Boucher are next. There is no doubt that two of these combinations will continue to prosper in future. Note that Australia have three independent combinations occupying the top-3 places.

Number of players together : 3

IND: 103 R Dravid, SC Ganguly, SR Tendulkar (# 1) 97 A Kumble, R Dravid, SR Tendulkar (# 2) 96 R Dravid, SR Tendulkar, VVS Laxman (# 3) SAF: 88 JH Kallis, M Ntini, MV Boucher 80 JH Kallis, MV Boucher, SM Pollock 74 HH Gibbs, JH Kallis, MV Boucher AUS: 92 ME Waugh, SK Warne, SR Waugh 85 IA Healy, MA Taylor, SR Waugh 83 IA Healy, MA Taylor, ME Waugh ENG: 60 AJ Stewart, GP Thorpe, MA Atherton 56 AJ Stewart, MA Atherton, N Hussain 53 AJ Stewart, D Gough, MA Atherton WI : 82 CG Greenidge, DL Haynes, IVA Richards 75 DL Haynes, IVA Richards, PJL Dujon 74 DL Haynes, IVA Richards, MD Marshall NZ : 59 DL Vettori, NJ Astle, SP Fleming 49 AC Parore, NJ Astle, SP Fleming 49 IDS Smith, JG Wright, MD Crowe SL : 76 DPMD Jayawardene, KC Sangakkara, M Muralitharan 76 DPMD Jayawardene, M Muralitharan, WPUJC Vaas 71 MS Atapattu, ST Jayasuriya, WPUJC Vaas PAK: 50 Abdul Qadir, Javed Miandad, Mudassar Nazar 46 Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Mudassar Nazar 45 Asif Iqbal, Majid Khan, Wasim Bari ZIM: 56 A Flower, ADR Campbell, GW Flower BAN: 33 Habibul Bashar, Javed Omar, Khaled Mashud Almost the same as 2-player combinations with the Indian "Famous Five" forming various combinations and occupy the top three places. What a trio for West Indies at the top.

Number of players together : 4

IND: 86 A Kumble, R Dravid, SC Ganguly, SR Tendulkar (# 1) 80 R Dravid, SC Ganguly, SR Tendulkar, VVS Laxman (# 2) 73 A Kumble, R Dravid, SR Tendulkar, VVS Laxman (# 3) SAF: 65 GC Smith, JH Kallis, M Ntini, MV Boucher 59 HH Gibbs, JH Kallis, MV Boucher, SM Pollock 58 G Kirsten, JH Kallis, MV Boucher, SM Pollock AUS: 68 GD McGrath, ME Waugh, SK Warne, SR Waugh 67 AC Gilchrist, JL Langer, ML Hayden, RT Ponting 66 IA Healy, MA Taylor, ME Waugh, SR Waugh ENG: 44 DI Gower, IT Botham, RGD Willis, RW Taylor 41 AJ Strauss, AN Cook, KP Pietersen, PD Collingwood 39 AJ Stewart, GP Thorpe, MA Atherton, N Hussain WI : 67 CG Greenidge, DL Haynes, IVA Richards, PJL Dujon 64 DL Haynes, IVA Richards, MD Marshall, PJL Dujon 64 CG Greenidge, DL Haynes, IVA Richards, MD Marshall NZ : 39 AC Parore, CL Cairns, NJ Astle, SP Fleming 39 IDS Smith, JG Wright, MD Crowe, Sir RJ Hadlee 37 CD McMillan, DL Vettori, NJ Astle, SP Fleming SL : 62 DPMD Jayawardene, MS Atapattu, ST Jayasuriya, WPUJC Vaas 61 M Muralitharan, MS Atapattu, ST Jayasuriya, WPUJC Vaas 61 DPMD Jayawardene, KC Sangakkara, M Muralitharan, WPUJC Vaas PAK: 38 Asif Iqbal, Majid Khan, Mushtaq Mohammad, Wasim Bari 35 Abdul Qadir, Javed Miandad, Mudassar Nazar, Saleem Malik 35 Asif Iqbal, Majid Khan, Wasim Bari, Zaheer Abbas ZIM: 43 A Flower, ADR Campbell, GJ Whittall, GW Flower BAN: 26 Habibul Bashar, Javed Omar, Khaled Mashud, Mohammad Ashraful This time the Indian "Pancha Pandavas" have formed groups of four players and taken the first three places.

Number of players together : 5

IND: 65 Kumble, Dravid, Ganguly, Tendulkar, Laxman (# 1) WI : 58 Greenidge, Haynes, Richards, Marshall, Dujon (# 2) AUS: 55 Healy, Taylor, ME Waugh, Warne, SR Waugh (# 3) SL : 54 Jayawardene, Muralitharan, Atapattu, Jayasuriya, Vaas SAF: 43 de Villiers, Smith, Kallis, Ntini, Boucher ENG: 34 Strauss, Cook, Pietersen, Panesar, Collingwood ZIM: 34 A Flower, Campbell, GJ Whittall, GW Flower, Streak NZ : 32 Parore, Cairns, Vettori, Astle, Fleming PAK: 29 Asif Iqbal, Majid Khan, Mushtaq Mohd, Wasim Bari, Zaheer Abbas BAN: 19 Habibul Bashar, Javed Omar, Khaled Mashud, Ashraful, Rafique Ah! the same 5 together for one last hurrah, or should we say, 65 hurrahs. What a group of players. The five great West Indian players, another wonderful group, come next and the 1990s Australians clock in at no.3.

Number of players together : 6
40 AUS Langer, Hayden, Ponting, Gilchrist, McGrath, Warne
39 SL  Atapattu, Jayasuriya, Jayawardene, Sangakkara, Muralitharan, Vaas
38 AUS Langer, Hayden, Ponting, Martyn, Gilchrist, Warne
36 IND Sehwag, Dravid, Ganguly, Tendulkar, Laxman, Kumble

Number of players together : 7 30 AUS Langer, Hayden, Ponting, Gilchrist, Martyn, McGrath, Warne 30 WIN Greenidge, Haynes, Richards, Richardson, Dujon, Marshall, Walsh 28 AUS Slater, Taylor, Boon, ME Waugh, SR Waugh, Healy, Warne 27 SAF Smith, Amla, Kallis, de Villiers, Steyn, Ntini, Boucher

Number of players together : 8 23 AUS Langer, Hayden, Ponting, Martyn, Gilchrist, McGrath, Gillespie, Warne 21 WIN Haynes, Richards, Richardson, Logie, Walsh, Ambrose, Marshall, Dujon and 3 other West Indian groups 22 SAF Smith, Amla, Kallis, de Villiers, AG Prince, Steyn, Ntini, Boucher

Number of players together : 9 18 WIN Haynes, Richards, Logie, Richardson, Hooper, Walsh, Ambrose, Marshall, Dujon 17 WIN Two West Indian teams of 1980s 16 AUS Hayden, Ponting, SR Waugh, Martyn, Gilchrist, McGrath, Waugh, Warne, B.Lee 15 SAF Smith, Amla, Kallis, de Villiers, Prince, Steyn, Ntini, Boucher, Harris

Number of players together : 10 14 WIN Greenidge, Haynes, Richards, Richardson, Logie, Hooper, Marshall, Dujon, Walsh, Ambrose 13 AUS Langer, ME Waugh, Hayden, Ponting, Martyn, Gilchrist, McGrath, Warne, SR Waugh B Lee 13 WIN One West Indian team of the 1980s 11 SAF Smith, McKenzie, Amla, Kallis, de Villiers, Harris, Steyn, Morkel, Ntini, Boucher For the player groups 6-10, I have given only the top three placings. No specific comments since these classifications are only a few players away from the eleven player groups discussed in depth last time.

One final word of thanks to Sesha for a thought-provoking request and Sumanth for doing an excellent job.

To view/download the updated tables (.xls file) Sumanth has created (top-10 for each country instead of top-3), please click here. You might have to download/save and view.

To view/download the updated tables (.txt file) Sumanth has created (top-10 for each country instead of top-3), please click here. You might have to download/save and view.