The Test debutants of 2017

Here we review the good performances by those who made their Test debut in 2017.

Batting: 50+ in an innings:

A century and a near century. While Blundell has played only one Test after his debut, Markram continued to score well in his subsequent matches. As of Jan 31, 2018 he has a Test average of 52.00 with 2 centuries and 2 fifties. Pandya has not been so consistent, though he has an average of 33.00 with a century and 2 fifties. The others have not done much until now, though we may soon hear more about them.

We also look at debutants who scored:

75+ in a match:

Apart from Blundell, Markram and Sohail also scored over 100 runs in their debut match.

Bowling: 3wi or more:

Roland-Jones is the only one with a five-for, with Kuldeep Yadav the only other one with a four-for. While injury caused the former to miss a number of Tests, Yadav has done particularly well in limited-over matches. Roland-Jones took 17 wickets at 19.64 so far, while Yadav has 9 wickets at 20.77.

Looking at match performances:

4wm or more:

Roland-Jones has by far the best figures here, while Olivier is second.

Fielding: 2 or more dismissals in an innings:

Markram has the most catches (3) while two others have 2. Nurul Hasan is the only keeper here.

Looking at match performances:

3 or more dismissals in a match:

Markram and Nurul Hasan again. As of today Markram has 6 catches besides 520 runs in 6 Tests.

All-round performances: runs and wickets

40 runs and 4 wickets in a match:

Roland-Jones again with Overton. Roland-Jones has 82 runs and 17 wickets in 4 Tests. Overton was unfortunate to make his debut against Australia in Australia.

All-round performances: runs and dismissals

20 runs and 2 dismissals in a match:

Markram’s performance is the best here followed by that of Mosaddek.

 

 

Test all-round performances of 2017

Overall performance (see criteria below):

Nothing out of the way. Moeen Ali and Jason Holder are the best of a weak field.

Ali did however achieve the relatively rare feat of a fifty and 10 wickets in a match. More on that below.

Match performances (Fifty and 5wi):

The 9 instances include two each by Jadeja and Ali. While Ali and Shakib achieved the 50/10wm double, there were no instances of 100/5wi. But Sikandar Raza’a two 80s and a 5wi may rank among the best all-round performances in a losing cause. Something like a lite version of Vinoo Mankad at Lord’s in 1952.

Test fielding performances of 2017

Hope you have read the earlier posts on Test batting and bowling performances of 2017. Now we move to fielding.

Most dismissals-15 and above:

de Kock with 50 dismissals is far ahead of the next two, Bairstow and Saha who each played 11 Tests and dismissed 37. The most stumpings were 9 by Dickwella, while SPD Smith had the most catches (21) by a non-keeper. Rahane was close behind him with 20.

Most innings dismissals-4 and above:

The top position is shared by Kayes and de Kock, while several non-keepers took 4 catches. None of the keepers here took more than one stumping.

Most match dismissals-6 and above:

de Villiers leads with 8 while several others made 7 dismissals. The most stumpings were 3 by Wade, while no fielder took 6 catches.

Best dismissal rate (minimum 20 innings and 0.500):

As in the first table, de Kock is far ahead of the runners-up Bairstow and Saha. Smith and Rahane have the best rate among non-keepers.

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).

 

Test batting performances of 2017

Here we look at individual batting performances for the calendar year 2017.

Most runs (750 and above):

SPD Smith and five others crossed 1000. Smith had the most centuries (6) followed by Elgar and Kohli with 5.

Smith also had 9 scores of 50-plus, which was attained by several others. But it is his Ashes counterpart Root who has 10 such scores. KL Rahul (who scored less than 750 runs and does not appear above) had 9 scores of 50+ with a top score of 90. You can also see Dickwella who failed to convert any of his 6 fifties.

Also Elgar has the most 4s (43) and Warner and Mushfiqur the most 6s (7) in the above table. A closer look shows that de Grandhomme (15) actually had the most 6s though he scored only 293 runs.

Highest individual innings (150 and above):

The highest score was 244* by AN Cook practically at the end of the year, while he and Kohli also made 243. Cook’s 244* is the first Test score at that number (though Bradman was once dismissed on 244). This 244* is also the highest score by anyone carrying his bat through an innings, surpassing GM Turner’s 223* in 1972.

Kohli has three double centuries while Elgar joined the somewhat exclusive 199 club.

Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):

Although Pujara and Kohli scored over 1000 runs they batted in less than 20 innings, so they do not appear here. So we have SPD Smith heading this table with Elgar a distant second.

Highest strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced, 50.00 and above):

Here we have Kohli closely followed by Dickwella, with Smith considerably behind.

Two centuries in a match:

Only one instance. They were Hope’s maiden centuries, and enabled the West Indies to win a Test in England for the first time since 2000.

Next we will take up bowling.

Quick guide to Test matches of 2017

In the calendar year 2017, 47 Test matches were played. 40 had results and 7 were drawn. Coincidentally, in 2016 there were also 47 Tests if which 7 were drawn.

These were the ICC rankings at the end of the year:

India clearly at the top, although there is some chance that South Africa will close the gap in the current series. But even a 3-0 win is not likely to put SA at the top.

At the bottom end, note that West Indies and Bangladesh are now level and Zimbabwe is far behind. It will be interesting to see where Ireland and Afghanistan will be (say) five years from now. While Ireland seems to be declining, Afghanistan may well get ahead of Zimbabwe.

Now we look at the win-loss ratio for all Tests in 2017. This is not expected to give the same results as the ICC rankings since the latter cover a longer period.

While India clearly leads, New Zealand has also done well to be in second place. Zimbabwe is the only one without a win, though Pakistan and Bangladesh have the same number of wins.

More detailed analysis of individual performances will follow.

 

The T20Is of 2017

The T20I matches of 2018 have already started. So we now look back at the matches of 2017. Not too many as there was no world championship, though there is now an increasing trend of 3-match series rather than a single match grudgingly tagged on at the end of the season.

First, the ICC ranking table at the end of the year:

This has a close bunching at the top, with 3 points separating Pakistan, New Zealand and India.

Now we look at win-loss ratios in 2017:

Pakistan and Scotland (!) at the top, with Bangladesh just above bottom-ranked PNG. Although Pakistan does top both lists, it should be remembered that the ICC rankings cover a longer period.

Now we look at individual performances. With a relatively small sample size there is not much point in finding averages and strike rates. The matches involving the World XI are not counted, even though the ICC and Cricinfo regards them as official T20Is

Batting: Most runs (150 and above):

So Evin Lewis of the West Indies leads, leaving established stars like ABD and Kohli behind. C Munro is the only one with 2 centuries, while several have three 50+ scores.

Highest innings (75 and above):

Evin Lewis leads the next in line RG Sharma by a large margin (by T20I standards).

Bowling: Most wickets (10 and above):

YS Chahal emerged with a bang, while Williams and Rashid also emerged from the fringes. Chahal is the only one with three 4wis, no one else had more than 1.

Best innings bowling (all instances of 5wi and above):

Chahal and Rashid Khan again.

Fielding: Most dismissals (8 and more):

Dhoni heads this list, although surprisingly Ireland’s GH Dockrell has the most catches as a non-keeper. In fact he has more catches than Dhoni or any other keeper!

Best innings fielding (3 or more dismissals):

While Chandimal, Dhoni and GD Philips have 4 dismissals apiece, several non-keepers have taken 3 catches.

All-round performance-overall:

See criteria below:

Seekuge Prasanna emerges as the only to one to have bowled and batted enough with some pretensions to being an all-rounder.

All-round match performances (20+ runs and 2+ wickets).

The best performances here are by Anshuman Rath (HK) and Shakib Al Hasan.