For measuring all-round performance over the year, I normally consider 20 innings batted and 2000 balls bowled. No one qualifies for these. An alternative set of criteria include 10 innings/1000 balls/1 fifty+/1 4+wi.
Then we get:
Stokes has the best performance, followed by Ashwin and Jansen. His batting average is considerably better than that of the others, while his bowling is not so good. Still, we find that his overall all-round performance is the best.
Finally, we look at all-round match performances: 50+ and 5+wi in a match
/Here we see that Jadeja’s century and 5+wi are the best performances here. Next would be SA’s unsung KA Maharaj, who also crossed 1000 runs/100 wickets in this period.
Now we have compiled the best individual performances for the year. It remains to see the best performances by Test debutants and captains.
Lyon and Rabada both have 47 wickets, with Rabada having a better average.
The most 5wi are 4 by P Jayasuriya and 3 by Lyon. The former made his debut this year.
4 players have taken 10 wm once.
Best innings bowling (including all 6wi or better):
The best performance was MJ Henry’s 7-23. followed by two t-fors by KA Maharaj against Bangldesh. SN Thakur’s 7-for against SA is the best for India. Also note two 6-fors by P Jayasuriya against Australia at Galle on his debut, and Abrar Ahmed’s 7-for against England on his debut.
Best match bowling (Including all 9wm or better):
Led by P Jayasuriya’a 12-177 against Australia on debut, and Abrar Ahmed’s 11-234 also on debut. RA Jadeja’s 9-for is the ebst for India.
Best bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls bowled, all instances):
Only three players have bowled enough. NM Lyon has the best bowling average as well as the best economy rate and strike rate.
Dhoni is the only one with 6 dismissals, followed by the forgotten S Viswanath and today’s Buttler. No fielder took 4 or more catches.
Dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.600):
The current player Buttler is followed by Dhoni at a distance. Azharuddin has the highest rate as a fielder, followed by Dravid who was the keeper in some matches.
All-round performance:
Overall (Minimum 20 innings and 1000 balls bowled):
The current player Jadeja has left Kapil and Flintoff far behind,
Match performance (Minimum 40 and 4wi):
In this short list, Yuvraj’s performance would be followed by Pandya’s in this series.
India won this series 2-1, after winning the T20I series 3-0.
This summarises all ODIs played between these teams:
India lead England 57-44 in ODIs, although England lead 23-18 for ODIs played in England.
We now look at individual performances.
Batting:
Most runs (600 or more):
The most runs are 1546 by Dhoni and 1523 by Yuvraj, and the highest is 1163 by Bell.
Kohli (1340) has the most by current players.
The most centuries are 4 by Yuvraj, followed by 3 by Kohli and Root.
The most 50+ scores are 12 by Kohli, Raina and Tendulkar. The most for England is 9 by Pietersen.
Highest innings scores (115 and more):
The highest by a current player is 137* by RG Sharma, while the highest in this series is 125* by RR Pant. The highest for England is 158 by Strauss in the 2011 World Cup.
Batting averages (Minimum 20 innings and 30.00):
Led by Azharuddin by a large margin. Pietersen has the highest average for England, and Jadeja (!) the highest among current players.
Strike rates (Minimum 500 balls faced and 75.00):
The current pair of Bairstow and Stokes have the highest strike rates, followed by Sehwag and Yuvraj for India.
Now for
Bowling:
Most wickets (20 or more):
The highest are by Anderson and Jadeja. The latter has the highest for India and current players.
The most 5wis are 2 by Harbhajan, and the most 4wis are 2 by several players.
Best innings performances (including all 5wi):
The best performance here is Bumrah’s 6-19 which is the best for Ind vs Eng, surpassing Nehra’s 6-23 (in SA) and K Yadav’s 6-25 in England.
Similarly R Topley’s 6-24 is the best for Eng v Ind, surpassing RS Irani’s 5-26 in 2002
It is also the best for England in all ODIs, surpassing Collingwood’s 6-31 against BD in 2005.
Best bowling averages (Minimum 1000 balls bowled, all cases):
Srinath and current player Jadeja have the best averages. Flintoff has the best for England
The best economy rates are by Kapil and Harbhajan.
The series was drawn 2-2 with 1 draw. India however retained the Pataudi trophy by virtue of their win in India in early 2021.
This is only the second drawn series for India in England, the first being 1-1 in 2002. They had won only in 1971, 1986 and 2007.
The jinx at Birmingham continued, as India have lost 7 and drawn 1 at this venue.
The overall summary:
Note England’s strong home advantage, although India is coming up.
Proceeding to individual performances, starting with
Batting:
Most runs (800 and more):
JE Root has come within a whisker of overtaking Tendulkar’s total of 2535, and has overtaken Gavaskar. Kohli and Pujara are next among current players.
Root has the most centuries (9) followed by Cook, Dravid and Tendulkar with 7.
Gavaskar and Tendulkar have the most 50+ scores (20), followed by Root with 19.
Highest innings scores (180 and more):
The highest score in recent years was 218 by Root in early 2021.
Spare a thought for KK Nair who made India’s highest against England but played only 6 Tests overall. This was his only Test score more than 50.
Highest batting averages (Min 20 innings, 35.00):
Root is in second place, after Barrington. Kohli and Pujara are next among current players.
Pant has the best strike rate among current players, after Kapil and Sehwag. Buttler and Ashwin are a little below, followed by Bairstow. Many of the higher strike rates are from recent years.
Next we take up
Bowling:
Most wickets (40 and more):
Anderson leads by a large margin over Chandrashekhar. Ashwin and Broad are next among current players.
Chandra has the most 5-fors (8) followed by 6 by Anderson, Ashwin and Botham.
Bedser is the only one with 2 10-fors, which came in his first 2 Tests.
Best innings bowling (includes all 7wi and above):
Nothing much from recent years. The 3 best performances were 50 or more years ago.
Best match bowling (includes all 10wm and above):
While there a few from recent years, such as Ashwin’s 12-for in 2016, we can also note AR (Axar) Patel’s 11-for in 2021 which is the best in any pink-ball Test. Note Bedser’s twin 11-wicket hauls at the start of his career. And JK Lever’s 50 and 10-for on debut.
Best bowling average (Minimum 2000 balls bowled, maximum 35.00):
The bowling averages are headed by Illingworth and JK Lever,
The best economy rates are by Illingworth and Nadkarni
The series in 2021-22 resulted in a 2-1 win for South Africa, after India won the first Test. India has failed to win a Test series in SA, although they have won at least one series in all other countries. The best India has done there is an 1-1 draw in 2010-11. The 2021-22 series followed the pattern of 2006-07 where India won the first Test but lost the next two.
Here is an overall summary of Tests between these two countries:
SA leads India 17-15 overall. Both sides appear to have strong home advantages.
We now look at individual performances, starting with
Batting:
Most runs (500 or more):
Led by Tendulkar and Kallis.
These two have the most centuries (7)
Amla, Kallis and Tendulkar have the most 50+ scores (12).
From the above table, the best by current players is 1236 by Kohli, followed by Rahane, Pujara and Elgar with 800+. RG Sharma is further down.
Highest innings (125 or more):
The highest by current players are 254* by Kohli, followed by double centuries by MA Agarwal and RG Sharma. But no one crossed 125 in this series.
Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):
Kallis has the highest average, followed by Kohli at some distance. Other current players here are Rahane, Elgar and Pujara.
Highest strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced, all instances):
Sehwag and Azharuddin lead here. Among current players there are RG Sharma (in 3rd place), Kohli and Rahane. Also note Dravid at the bottom of this list.
Bowling performances:
Most wickets (12 or more):
Led Kumble, followed by Steyn and Srinath at a distance. Ashwin (56) has the most by a current player, followed by Shami, Rabada and Jadeja. Also note M Jansen with 19 in his debut series.
The most 5-fors are 5 by Steyn and Ashwin. No one has taken more than one 10-for.
Best innings bowling (includes all 6wi and more):
The best performance was an 8-for by Klusener on his debut.
Current players here include SN Thakur, Ashwin and Ngidi.
Thakur’s 7-61 in this series is the best for India against SA, surpassing the earlier record of 7-66 by Ashwin (Nagpur, 2015) and 7-120 by Harbhajan (Cape Town, 2011) which was India’s best in SA.
Best match performances (includes all 8wm and more):
Led by Ashwin and Donald with 12-fors, and 10-fors by Steyn, Pollock and V Prasad.
Current players here include Ashwin, Jadeja and Ngidi.
Best bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls bowled, all instances):
Headed by Donald and Jadeja (!) Current players here include Jadeja, Shami, Ashwin and Rabada.
We now look at the other side of the coin-those who have failed to make enough hundreds to match their fifties. And of course we have to consider those who made enough fifties and runs but never a century.
First we look at those who scored at least one century and had the lowest conversion rate:
Headed by the all-rounders Goddard, Jadeja and Noble. Most in this list are not in the side primarily for their batting. But we do have specialist batsmen in Bavuma, Nourse, Wadekar, Contractor, Ramiz Raja and others.
Jadeja, Wadekar, Contractor and Prabhakar represent India.
Current players include Jadeja, Bavuma, Broad and Buttler.
Those who failed to make any century after numerous attempts are covered here:
This is what the final table of the WTC looked like. Note that the recent WI-SA series was also part of the WTC. Clearly these teams were not anywhere near the top 2:
We also look at the ICC ranking tables on June 24:
Here NZ is just ahead of India. There are some differences in the lower rankings.
It may happen that Zimbabwe (or even Afghanistan) will take Bangladesh’s place in the next cycle.
A quick look at the main statistical highlights of the WTC Tests (Remember that they started in 2019):
Most runs (750 or more):
Strangely the first few positions are from those whose teams did not reach the final. Rahane and R Sharma are in 5th and 6th place.
Highest scores (150 or more):
Kohli and Williamson are in 3rd and 4th place.
Highest batting averages (Min 20 innings, 25.00):
Again, the best from India and NZ is in 6th place (Rahane), followed by MA Agarwal and Kohli. Pujara’s decline is clear.
Williamson is not here is he batted in less than 20 innings.
Most wickets (20 or more):
Ashwin has the most wickets, followed closely by Australia’s Cummins and England’s Broad. Southee and Jamieson have the most from NZ.
We can also see that Ashwin, Lyon and AR Patel each took 4 five-fors, and that Broad, Lyon, Jamieson, Embuldeniya and AR Patel each took a ten-for.
Best innings bowling (includes all 6wi or more):
Along with the lesser-known Embuldeniya, Ashwin also took a 7-for. There are startling figures of 5-7 by Bumrah, 5-8 by Hazlewood and Root (!) which were both against India.
Best match bowling (includes all 9wm or more):
AR Patel has the best figures here followed by Jamieson and the newcomer Jayawickrama. Ishant Sharma and Ashwin are also here.
Bowling average (Min 2000 balls, all instances):
Broad and Ashwin have the first two places here.
For economy rate, it is Hazlewood and Ashwin.
For strike rate, it is Broad and Southee.
Jamieson does not appear here as he has not bowled enough in the WTC matches.
Most dismissals (15 and above):
Watling bowed out in 4th place. Pant has the next highest. He also took the most stumpings (6). Root has the most catches by a fielder (34).
Most dismissals in an innings (5 or more):
de Kock is the only one with 6 catches, and Stokes and Thirimanne the only fielders with 5.
Most dismissals in a match (7 or more):
Paine and de Kock dominate here. No fielder has taken more than 6 catches.
Best dismissal rate (Min 20 innings, 0.65):
Paine and Watling lead. SPD Smith and Root have the most by fielders.
Overall all-round performance (see criteria in table):
Jadeja and Stokes (with Holder a distant third) did the best here. But there is no one from NZ.
Match all-round performances (fifty plus 5wi):
The best performances here are by Ashwin (100/5wi) and Broad (50/10wm).
Player of the series? Perhaps Williamson. He did not make the most runs, but how he made them was more important (notably in the final):
We now look at the converse: a fifty-plus and ten wickets in an innings in the same match.
This is a little rarer than the earlier case. It has occurred 30 times, compared to 33 times for the earlier case.
Multibaggers are rarer here. We have 3 instances by Sir Richard Hadlee and 2 by Shakib Al Hasan. That’s all. Botham is here, but only for one instance. Ashwin, Sobers and Mushtaq are not here. But there are others such as Bevan and Border who would not usually be considered to be all-rounders.
The most recent instance was by Stuart Broad during one of the Covid Tests of 2020.
Earlier we saw that Bruce Taylor was the only one to score a century and take 5wi on debut. That was against India in 1965.
There is only instance of someone scoring a 50+ and taking 10 wickets on debut. This was John Lever for England v India in 1976. What is even stranger is that India’s S Venkataraghavan appeared in both of these Tests.
Among current and recent players there are MM Ali, SCJ Broad, RA Jadeja, Dilruwan Perera, Rashid Khan, Shakib Al Hasan and DW Steyn. The only other player from India is Kapil Dev (who never made a century and 5wi together).
Also note AK Davidson, who scored 44 and 80 and took 11 wickets in the tied Test in 1960. He was the first to score over 100 runs and 10 wickets in a match. He had this record to himself until Botham scored a century and took 13 wickets against India in early 1980. Imran Khan and Shakib later followed with a century and 10 wickets in 1983 (against India, who else?) and 2014 (against Zimbabwe).
The first question we asked was “Who is the best opening bowler of the 2010s?”
Here we set the bowling position as #1 or #2, and a minimum of 50 wickets.
You may have thought of someone like Steyn or Mitchell Johnson or Morkel.
In Dec 2015, R Ashwin had the best average, BW Hilfenhaus the best economy rate, and Ashwin again with the best strike rate.
When we consider the entire 2010s:
There is another unexpected result with the burly Rangana Herath having the best bowling average here. He is followed by Bumrah (expected) and Rabada (also expected). Ashwin is 4th.
Other spinners here are MDK (Dilruwan) Perera, and MH Miraz.
This time Mohammad Abbas has the best economy rate and K Rabada the best strike rate.
Next, who is India’s best opening bowler? Surely Kapil or Srinath?
In 2015 we got Ashwin again (followed by Srinath and Kapil). Phadkar had the best economy rate and Ashwin the best strike rate.
Again in 2020, we consider all those who bowled at 1 or 2 for India and took at least 50 wickets up to the end of 2019.
This time Bumrah leads, followed by his contemporaries Ashwin and B Kumar. The first 4 places are held by current players.
Phadkar still has the best economy rate and is now followed by Bumrah. Bumrah has the best strike rate while Ashwin is second.
Finally, who was India’s best all-rounder? We consider all those who scored at least 1000 runs and took 100 wickets up to the end of 2019.
In 2015, it was Ashwin followed by Kapil and Pathan.
In 2020, the topper was not Ashwin but one of his contemporaries.
Indeed, this is led by Jadeja who is followed by Ashwin and Kapil. Of course, anyone below Shastri in this table should not really be called an all-rounder.
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