Analyzing Test captaincies – 5

Today we look at captains whose tenure included:

Only wins

Only losses

Only draws.

Only wins (complete list):

16 instances here. Bacher and Lord Hawke had the best stretches of 4 wins out of 4. In the former case all 4 wins came in a single series against Australia. In the latter case they were part of 5 wins out of 5 in his Test career, although he was a specialist (?) batsman with a single-figure batting average.

Those with 2 wins out of 2 are mainly stand-ins (Rahane and Jacobs) in recent times. Similarly for those who won their only Tests as captain (eg Shastri, Harvey, WA Brown).

Rahane is the most recent player here.

Only losses (2 or more):

Headed by the Bangladeshi duo of Khaled Mashud (12) and Khaled Mahmud (9) in their team’s early years.

However, there is also KC Brathwaite (5) from WI in recent years along with Porterfield who has led Ireland in all 3 of its Tests. DK Gaekwad, now India’s oldest living player, has 4 losses. (In that series Pankaj Roy captained for 1 Test, which was also lost).

Some other well-known players found here are AJ Lamb, AR Morris, JE Emburey and RS Madugalle.

And FL Reifer, captaining the WI third XI against Bangladesh at home. When he talked of winning the series, local journalists asked “Are you smoking something # which sounds like your name?”

# Reefer, a term for marijuana or ganja

Only draws (complete list):

The list of 21 is headed by Srikkanth (all 4 in a single series against Pakistan in Pakistan). Majid and Saeed also drew all 3 Tests in a single series.

There is no one here since BA Murphy (1 Test in 2001). Well-known players not mentioned so far include DL Murray, G Kirsten, GA Headley, MA Butcher, RR Lindwall and TW Graveney. Practically all of the 1 or 2-Test captains were stand-ins.

Srikkanth and Adhikari are the only ones from India. This did not help Srikkanth much as he was promptly replaced by Azharuddin. And Adhikari stopped a sequence of 3 heavy losses with a draw where his team narrowly escaped defeat.

Analyzing Test captaincies – 4

Here we look at captains with no wins, no losses and no draws.

No Wins:

These are captains in 4 or more Tests with no wins.

Headed by M Ashraful of Bangladesh with 13 (12 losses and 1 draw). The next (IT Botham) is more surprising. Another Bangladeshi Khaled Mashud also has 12.

In recent years there are AG Cremer (8) and KC Brathwaite (5).

From India there are MH Mankad (6), S Venkataraghavan (5) and others with 4.

No losses:

These are captains in 2 or more Tests with no losses.

WW Armstrong with 10 heads this list, with 8 wins and 2 draws.

Next are DB Close and FG Mann with 7.

In recent years there is only AM Rahane with 2; both of these wins were when he was standing in for Kohli.

From India we also have Srikkanth with 4 (all draws).

No draws:

These are captains in 3 or more Tests with no draws.

Headed by Waqar Younis (17, 10 wins and 7 losses). The next is Shakib with 14 (3 wins and 11 losses).

Others from recent times (other than Shakib) include R Herath, KC Brathwaite and RAS Lakmal with 5.

Brathwaite has 5 losses out of 5.

From India there is DK Gaekwad with 4 (all losses). He is presently India’s oldest living Test player.

Review of NZ-India ODIs-2

Hope you have seen Part 1.

Continuing with individual performances in Bowling:

Most wickets (20 and above):

The Karnataka pair of Srinath and Kumble lead.

No one has more than one 5-for. Srinath and Southee have two 4-fors.

Southee (30) and Boult (24) have the most wickets amongst current players.

Best innings bowling (including all instances of 5wi):

SE Bond has the best figures of 6-19, during his relatively short career. No good individual performance in this series, although Boult had 5-21 in 2019.

Bowling averages (Min 1000 balls, all instances):

Southee is the only current player here, though close to the bottom.

Srinath and Hadlee have the best bowling averages.

Hadlee and Kapil have the best economy rates.

Srinath and Nehra (!) have the best strike rates.

Fielding records:

Most dismissals (12 and above):

The forgotten NR Mongia has the most dismissals (36) and most stumpings (12).

However McCullum (25) has the most catches by a keeper, followed by Mongia and Dhoni with 24 each.

R Taylor (19) has the most catches by a fielder, followed by SP Fleming (18).

Most dismissals in innings (4 and above):

The record is 5 dismissals, while a number of fielders have taken 4 catches. The only such instance recently was KD Karthik’s 4 catches as a keeper in 2019.

Best dismissal rate (Min 20 innings, 0.500):

NR Mongia leads again. Vengsarkar (!) has the highest dismissal rate among fielders.

Overall all-round performance (see criterion in table):

While notable all-rounders such as Kapil, Hadlee and Vettori have played in these matches, the only one with a creditable record is the “bits-and-pieces” all-rounder CZ Harris.

All-round match performance (Min 40 runs and 4 innings):

Another surprise: the only such performance is the unheralded K Srikkanth, whose bowling ability seems to have been a well-kept secret. His 70 and 5-27 back in 1988-89 was probably India’s best all-round feat in ODIs against all countries at that time.

Bowling fails in Test matches

Continuing the thread from here:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2017/03/07/bowling-fails-in-odis/

Here we consider the bowlers who failed to take a wicket in their Test careers. They do include some specialist bowlers who lost their Test place quickly, but are more likely to be batsmen with limited bowling ability who sometimes bowled a few overs to give some rest to the regular bowlers. There are even some wicket-keepers who bowled a little.

We start with the most runs conceded without taking a wicket (90 runs and above):

We can see that there are some specialist bowlers with short careers as well as well-known batsmen (notably GA Headley, Habibul Bashar and K Srikkanth). Srikkanth was more successful in ODIs where he took two fivers. But it is the forgotten AH Monir of Bangladesh who heads this list.

Now for the most balls bowled without taking a wicket (150 balls and above):

JL Hopwood was close to the top in the first table and heads this table. He had the misfortune to bowl against a strong Australian lineup with Bradman and friends. Headley comes next followed by Monir. As above, there is a mix of specialist bowlers and part-timers.

Most innings bowled without taking a wicket (6 and above):

Srikkanth heads this list-perhaps he and Headley can be considered as the most determined of the part-timers. Many others like Bradman and Gavaskar bowled on rare occasions but did take at least one wicket. So did some keepers such as Boucher and Kirmani (not to forget AF Lyttleton’s 4-wicket haul). Some current players such as Kohli and Voges have so far been unsuccessful.

Most matches played without taking a wicket (75 and above):

Sangakkara and Stewart (who kept wicket in most of their Tests) head this list, though there are also non-keepers like Lara, Strauss, Inzamam and Vengsarkar near the top. And there are some who never bowled throughout their long Test careers. More about them later. For now, we look at

Most matches played by non-keepers without taking a wicket (75 and above):

Note Fleming and Strauss who played the most Tests without ever bowling. We look into this category further:

Most matches played without ever bowling (50 and above):

Many keepers in this list, so we look at the non-keepers.

Most matches played by non-keepers without ever bowling (50 and above):

SP Fleming heads this list, followed by Strauss and Misbah.

While wicketless players do not have a bowling average or a strike rate, they do have an economy rate. We close with

Best economy rate for those who never took a wicket (150 balls and above):

Oddly enough this is headed by Australian RJ Quiney who is not a regular bowler in domestic cricket. A few other part-timers (LS Darling and Roope to begin with) have better economy rates than the specialist bowlers. We have already met AH Monir who is the most expensive here. We may as well learn more about him:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/56235.html