Differences between home and away batting averages

A common topic of discussion among cricket’s number-crunchers is the difference between home and away batting averages.

Here, we consider the differences for the 534 players who have batted in at least 20 innings both in home and away/neutral Tests.

The full list of Home average-Away/Neutral average can be seen in this spreadsheet.

Home-away main display

This is for Tests up to Oct 25, 2019. The 2005 Test involving the ICC XI is not included.

However, you may find it simpler to look at the top 40, whose home average has the greatest positive difference  with the away/neutral average. Or those who derive the greatest advantage from home conditions.

Note that some prominent players such as RG Sharma do not feature here as they have not completed 20 innings in one of the two categories.

Many of the current Pakistani players are not here because they have played few or no Tests at home.

The top positions are the unlikely trio of VS Hazare, Kamran Akmal and Mominul Haque-all from the Asian teams. Next come Rowe and Walcott from the West Indies. Warner, Khawaja and Clarke are the highest among Australians, Compton and May from the English, HP Tillakratne from Sri Lanka, HW Taylor from South Africa, McCullum from New Zealand and GJ Whittall from Zimbabwe.

We now go to the other extreme, those who have the greatest negative difference, or those who derive the strongest advantage from away and neutral conditions.

Unlike in the first table, the first few positions are from a wider variety of teams.

BC Broad (Eng) has the only such difference less than -30. While he had a reasonable career as a batsman, his bowler son Stuart Broad is better known.

Then other leaders from their teams are DM Bravo (WI), S Wettimuny (SL), M Amarnath (Ind), PA Strang (Zim), WR Endean (SA), JW Burke (Aus), JR Reid (NZ), Saleem Yousuf (Pak). Perhaps it is understandable that there is no one from Bangladesh in the top 40. The best from BD is Javed Omar (102nd with -2.83).

The median difference among the 534 players is 3.14, matched by RJ Shastri and GG Arnold. That might imply that most batsmen would be expected to average 3 runs more at home than away/neutral.

Those closest to a zero difference (whose batting averages are practically the same home and away) are Waqar Younis (-0.04) along with HM Amla (0.09 ) and Intikhab Alam (-0.10)

In case you are wondering, DG Bradman is 457th out of 534, being one of those who did better away. His difference is 98.22-102.84 = -4.62.

 

 

Review of India-West Indies Tests (2019)-1

After India won this away series 2-0, the series record was:

India won 22, West Indies won 30, 46 drawn in a total of 98 Tests.

In India: India won 13, WI 14, 20 drawn in a total of 47 Tests

In West Indies: India won 9, WI 16 and 26 drawn in a total of 51 Tests.

India got the full 120 points here. This is the WTC standing on September 3:

We can see that neither England nor Australia can catch up after their series concludes.

We now go on to individual records, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (750 or more):

Gavaskar has scored the most centuries (13) and the next is 8 by Richards and Sobers.

Gavaskar also has the most 50+ scores (20) followed by Lloyd with 19 and Dravid with 18.

Bravo and Kohli are the only current players here.

Highest innings (150 or more):

Both sides have not recorded a score above 150 since 2016 (200 by Kohli).

Best batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, 30.00):

Sobers is far above the others. Darren Bravo is the only current player here. He also became the second batsmen to warrant a concussion substitute in the second innings. Blackwood batted in this place, making this the first Test scorecard with 12 batsmen.

Best strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced, all instances):

As in many of the older series, full details of balls faced are not available for matches before the 2000s. But it seems clear that no one would have surpassed Sehwag. Kohli and Ashwin (!) have the highest among current players.

To be continued