Analyzing Test captaincies-1

With the summer season of 2020 out of the way, we review Test captaincies up to Aug 31, 2020:

Most Tests

Headed by Tendulkar with 200. Anderson (156) and Broad (143) are unlikely to come near, although they may challenge Cook for the England record of 161.

Most Tests as captain:

GC Smith leads with 108. Kohli (55) will probably overtake Dhoni (60) but is unlikely to come near GC Smith. Root (44) is probably the only other captain who will move up a bit-but may not pass Cook’s England record of 59.

Most Tests not as captain:

Tendulkar again, with Anderson and Broad some distance behind.

The next logical question is to find who has played the

Most Tests without ever being captain:

The record was held by Warne for a long time. He has now been overtaken by Anderson with Broad just behind him. Other potential candidates like Ishant Sharma and Lyon are unlikely to come near. VVS Laxman has the India record of 134.

And finally

Those who were captains in all their Tests:

Many of them were from the glorious days of amateurs ruling the roost, although that does not apply to the first few names here. Germon and Porterfield are the only ones from recent times.

Also note the 5 who captained their sides in their only Tests. CA Smith was the only to have won their Test, and ultimately settled in Hollywood.

Also note the father-son duo of FT Mann and FG Mann.

Vizianagram or Vizzy joins his amateur English friends here.

Centurion Test-some obscure facts

JM Anderson took Elgar’s wicket with the 1st ball of a Test (and the series).

Taking a wicket with the first ball of  a match is rare enough to merit a separate list:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283164.html

Anderson is playing in his 150th Test. This by itself is no big deal. But he extends his record of the most Tests without ever captaining his side. Next in line is Warne (144) and Broad (playing his 135th Test) and VVS Laxman (134).

AK Markram is playing his 20th Test. His previous 19 Tests included 11 wins and 8 losses and no draw. He holds the record of the most Tests played without a draw. Next is old-timer GA Lohmann (18 Tests, 15 wins, 3 losses) followed by current player KK Jennings (17/12/5) and Alok Kapali (17/0/17). Jennings may play in the future.

Update: Markram played in his 20th Test at Centurion which SA won. So he extended his record to 20 Tests without a draw (12 wins and 8 losses).

ALSO-6 of the playing 11 for England have a given name starting with J: Anderson, Archer, Root, Denly, Buttler and Bairstow. Would this domination by one letter be a record? Maybe there have been Pakistani teams with more players with names starting with M?

Another oddity: South Africa now have two different Test players named D Pretorius. The earlier Dewald P played 4 Tests in 2002-2003 as a pace bowler:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/southafrica/content/player/46784.html

Today Dwaine Pretorius, a pace bowling all-rounder, made his debut:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/southafrica/content/player/327830.html

Test captaincy updates-1

It is easy enough to get updated tables like this:

(All these tables are updated to May 15, 2021):

Most Tests (120 and above)

Current players with the most Tests are Anderson (160) and Broad (146).

Another table which is easy to create:

Most Tests as Captain (40 and above):

Kohli is the only current player here. He has captained in 60 Tests and has equalled Dhoni (60). He overtook Ganguly (49), Gavaskar and Azharuddin (47) not long ago. Root is on 50.

But this one needs a little more work with Excel:

Most Tests NOT as Captain (90 and above):

Tendulkar and Kallis lead. The most by current players are 161 by Anderson and 146 by his team-mate Broad.

Now what about those who played the most Tests without ever captaining their sides (90 and above)?

Led by Anderson and Broad, who recently surpassed the long-standing record of Warne.

VVS Laxman (134) has the highest for India which will probably stand for a long time..

Other current players are Ishant Sharma (101) and NM Lyon (100).

Finally, those who played all their Tests as captains (all cases):

Most of them are from the olden days, except LK Germon (12). Perhaps there was an acute shortage of captaincy talent in New Zealand in the mid-90s. And there is Porterfield who captained Ireland in the only 3 Tests which they have played.

Note the 5 at the bottom who played only one Test, in which they were captain.

There are a fair number of the glorious amateurs and their counterparts like Vizianagaram.

The slowest ducks

The diamond ducks represent the quickest ducks, where the batsmen did not get to face a single ball. Here we look at the slowest ducks both by balls faced and by batting time.

Slowest ducks by balls faced:

GI Allott’s 77-ball duck  was in the first innings when New Zealand was facing a large score of 621/5 dec by South Africa. Allott helped CZ Harris put on 32 for the last wicket. New Zealand had to follow on but saved the match easily.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/15856/scorecard/63834/new-zealand-vs-south-africa-1st-test-south-africa-tour-of-new-zealand-1998-99

JM Anderson’s 55-ball duck was more tragic. He was known to be a stubborn batsman and it was not surprising that he hung on for 55 balls and 81 minutes, putting on 21 for the last wicket with MM Ali (who made a century in his second Test). However, Anderson was dismissed with one ball left:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/11718/scorecard/667901/england-vs-sri-lanka-2nd-investec-test-sri-lanka-tour-of-england-and-ireland-2014

Sri Lanka thus won the 2-Test series 1-0. What was more ironic was that they had drawn the first Test with the last pair at the wicket, although the last man N Pradeep only needed to survive 5 balls.

From recent times we have ML Cummins (45 balls) vs India in 2019.

Slowest ducks by minutes batted:

Allott and Anderson head this list as well. Here we have a couple of older instances where the number of balls faced is not known.

From recent times we have India’s JJ Bumrah (52 minutes, 14 balls). and WI’s AS Joseph (51 min, 22 balls). It appears that most tailenders are capable of such innings once in a while, even if they do not score runs.

To round this off we have these tables which include unbeaten zeroes:

Slowest zeroes and unbeaten zeroes by balls faced:

Slowest zeroes and unbeaten zeroes by minutes batted:

The slowest unbeaten zero is by AP Sheahan (52 minutes, 44 balls). This came in a follow-on after Australia had been dismissed for 78 in a rare collapse. Sheahan was a regular batsman unlike the tailenders mentioned above.

Australia saved this match while the series was drawn. Like most Ashes series of the 1960s, it was marked by slow batting.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/17293/scorecard/63024/england-vs-australia-2nd-test-australia-tour-of-england-1968

There are no long-drawn out unbeaten zeroes in recent years.

 

 

Test statistics for 2018-2

Now for bowling:

Most wickets in 2018 (25 or more):

JJ Bumrah took 48 wickets in the calendar year of his debut, coming 3rd after Alderman (54 in 1981) and Ambrose (49 in 1988). The previous record for India was 40 by Doshi in 1979. A Dananjaya took 27 wickets in his debut calendar year.

The most fivers were 4 by Taijul and Miraz of Bangladesh and Holder of the West Indies. No one took more than one tenner.

Best innings bowling (including all instances of 6wi and above):

The best effort by Maharaj was in a losing cause.

Best match bowling (including all instances of 9wm and above):

Maharaj also figures here with a 12-wicket haul when his side lost. Yasir Shah’s 14-wicket haul was the best in the UAE. He and Imran Khan are the only Pakistani bowlers to have taken 14 wickets in a match.

Bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls, all instances):

Bumrah has the best average and strike rate, while Anderson has the best economy.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (15 or more):

de Kock and Paine lead, although Dickwella has the most stumpings. Kusal Mendis has the most catches by a non-keeper.

Most innings dismissals (5 or more):

Newcomer Pant is the only one with 6 dismissals. SPD Smith has the most catches by a non-fielder, making him one of several to share this record in all Tests. Saha took 5 catches in each innings of a match.

Most match dismissals (6 or more):

Pant with 11 dismissals shared the world record with Russell and de Villiers. Earlier in the year Saha had an Indian record with 10 dismissals.

The most by a non-keeper was 7 by Rahul, in the only Test which India won on that series. Smith made 6 catches before being disgraced.

Dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.500):

de Kock and Paine at the top, leading the others by a large margin. Kusal Mendis has the best by a non-keeper.

All-round performance:

Overall (see criteria in table):

Not a good year for all-rounders, as Cummins is the only one to make the cut with these relatively modest standards.

Match (50 and 5wi):

More good performances, with Cummins’ last-gasp performance at the end. Holder also has two entries here.

 

Test bowling performances of 2017

After covering Test batting in 2017 in the previous post, we move to bowling. This refers to all Tests which occurred in the calendar year.

Most wickets (25 and above):

Lyon is followed at some distance by Rabada, Ashwin, Anderson and Jadeja bunched together.

Rabada and Herath are the only ones with two tenners. Lyon, Herath and Yasir Shah have five fivers apiece.

Best innings bowling (including all instances of 6wi and above):

Lyon again, with the only 8-wicket haul. He is also among the four who had 7-wicket hauls.

Best match bowling (all instances of 9wm and above):

Lyon with 13 followed by O’Keefe with 12, both in Asia). Herath’s two 11-wicket hauls were also in Asia. Ali’s 10-for was accompanied by a fifty.

While disciplinary issues may keep O’Keefe out of the team for a while, he achieved an odd record by taking 6-35 in each innings for a match haul of 12-70. The previous record was by BS Chandrashekhar (6-52 twice, giving 12-104).

Best bowling averages (minimum 2000 balls bowled, bowling average below 30):

Anderson leads with Rabada some distance behind, followed by Jadeja and others.

It can be seen that the best economy rates (for 2000+ balls) are by Anderson (2.26) and Jadeja (2.44).

And the best strike rates (for 2000+ balls) are by Rabada (37.8), Maharaj (46.3) and Anderson (46.4).