Test players' performances - an analytical review

3. Top 20 Batsmen - By Runs/Test (Criteria 2000 runs)
Batsman	Mat	Runs	R/T
Bradman D.G	52	6996	134.5
Headley G.A	22	2190	99.5
Pollock R.G	23	2256	98.1
EdeC Weekes	48	4455	92.8
Hobbs J.B	61	5410	88.7
Hutton L	79	6971	88.2
Nourse A.D	34	2960	87.1
Nurse S.M	29	2523	87.0
Sobers G.St.A	93	8032	86.4
Walcott C.L	44	3798	86.3
Hammond W.R	85	7249	85.3
Lara B.C	68	5759	84.7**
Sutcliffe H	54	4555	84.4
Barlow E.J	30	2516	83.9
Barrington K.F	82	6806	83.0
Mitchell B	42	3471	82.6
Chappell G.S	87	7110	81.7
Gavaskar S.M	125	10122	81.0
Tendulkar S.R	76	6036	79.4**
Kanhai R.B	79	6227	78.8

This negates the not out factor and is a true indication of the batsman's contribution. Again, Bradman leads the pack by 35 runs. The surprising factor is that the next two batsmen have scored nearly 100 runs per test. Lara leads the current batsmen with 84.7 runs per test followed by Tendulkar, with 79.4 runs per test. 80 seems to be an acceptable figure for evaluating a batsman's greatness.

4. Top 20 Big Innings Batsmen (Criteria 10 100s)
Batsman	Mat	100s	BII
Bradman D.G	52	29	186.0
Zaheer Abbas	78	12	179.8
Amiss D.L	50	11	170.8
Lara B.C	68	14	169.33**
Hammond W.R	85	22	167.5
Simpson R.B	62	10	164.6
Hutton L	79	19	156.1
Javed Miandad	124	23	155.8
Gooch G.A	118	20	152.1
Sobers G.St.A	93	26	150.7
EdeC Weekes	48	15	150.4
Headley G.A	22	10	148.4
Graveney T.W	79	11	147.5
Richards I.V.A	121	24	147.3
Hanif Mohammad	55	12	146.2
Edrich J.H	77	12	145.2
Jones D.M	52	11	145.1
Saeed Anwar	49	10	144.9**
Kanhai R.B	79	15	144.6
Chappell G.S	87	24	144.4

A very rarely done analysis is the ability of batsmen to play "big innings". Not content to stop at pre-conceived landmarks, but go ahead and play on for longer innings. The value to the teams will be enormous since this allows building of multiple big partnerships and big scores. In this case, I have taken the 100+ innings (just a cut-off point, could as well be 99) of batsmen who have scored at least 10 100s and averaged the same.

No surprise that Bradman is still the top batsman (Surprise comes in the next para). Zaheer Abbas was great and comparable to Bradman, in converting 100s to 200s. Of the modern players Lara is leading with a high Index of 169.3. Tendulkar is out of the top 20 with 142.9.

The surprise is Jayasuriya, who is out of the list because of the selection criteria. In the seven 100s he has scored, he has a BII of 187.7, ahead of Bradman.

Ananth Narayanan

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