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DoG's Top 100 Test Batsmen - Finally Revealed! Thread One: Just missing the cut

Days of Grace

International Captain
Hi all,

Well, after about fifteen years of work, tearing my hair out, and driving myself insane at times, I finally settled on a statistical rating formula and thus I have completed a top 100 list of Test Batsmen that I am happy with.

I will now present my top 100 with a thread devoted to each block of ten players, and then as we get into the top 20, I will probably present 2 players at a time, which will make it similar to the CW Top 50 threads last year.

But, first of all, I would like to share how my ratings system works. At its core is the idea that each batsmen's average is adjusted according to the strengh of opposition he faced and the era he played in. Thus, you can expect the averages of such batsmen as Ricky Ponting and Virender Sehwag to drop, whilst the averages of players in the 1990s (an era full of great fast bowlers) to be adjusted upwards slightly.

I worked out the bowling averages of each team for each season of cricket from 1877 to the present day. I will not go into details of how I did so, but in my opinion, it is fairly accurate without being perfect. I did not build my own database. Instead, I relied on making excel spreadsheets and copying information from cricinfo's statsguru. Rating just one player took over 3 hours, so you can imagine how much time it would take to rate more than 100!

I have attached Stephen Fleming's ratings page so you can get some idea of the type of work I have done.

Anyway, here is how each player is judged:

Length of career
Career Average (adjusted)
Runs per innings (adjusted)
Away average (adjusted)
Top opposition average (adjusted)*
Strike-rate for innings of 50+
Number of centuries scored against top opposition
Number of double centures scored against top opposition
Number of significant innings against top oppotition**
Number of great innings***
Significant innings per match
Centuries per innings
Best series in terms of runs scored
Innings worth average****


25 Test peak composising of peak length (days played), adjusted average, adjusted runs per innings, centuries scored and significant innings
50 Test peak composing of peak length (days played), adjusted average, adjusted runs per innings, centuries scored and significant innings


* The top opposition has three levels, from the all time great teams, to very good teams, to middle of the road teams. Runs scored against the top tier teams have more weight. Minnows and poor teams are excluded.
** Posters may remember my top 100 test innings list. Brian Lara topped it with an innings worth around 25 points. A significant innings is an innings worth 3.50 and over in matches won, close draws, fighting draws and close losses. Thus, runs scored in bore draws or heavy losses don't count.
***A great innings is one worth 12.50 points or more.
**** The average points for all innings played, except in team scores under 150 with less than 5 wickets lost.

Finally, the qualification for entry is:
10 matches played AND a career of 1000 days or more between the player's first and last test match

The ratings of batsmen who played less than 50 test matches are adjusted downwards according to how many matches they played.

Thus, don't expect to find Martin Donnelly in this list or Vernon Philander in the upcoming bowler's list (not yet at least).

So, there we have it. Over the next two weeks or so, all will be revealed!

One final word: it is somewhat ironic, but the more work I did on this ratings system, the more I came to appreciate that statistics are by no means the only way to judge a player's worth. Rating systems like this should promote healthy discussion and debate without being the final word on a particular player's standing in the game's history.
 

Attachments

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Days of Grace

International Captain
Test Batsmen 110-106

110: Ian Bell (England) (2004-present day) 647 points

ian-bell.jpg

Career Average: 45.57
Adjusted career average: 41.34
Adjusted away average: 38.76
Adjusted top-opposition average: 35.04
Top Tier centuries: 2
Second tier centuries: 2
Third tier centuries: 9
Significant innings: 29
Significant innings per match: 0.33
Great innings: 0
Innings worth average: 2.96

25 Test peak adjusted average: 60.74
50 Test peak adjusted average: 46.07



109: Mohinder Amarnath (India) (1969-1988) 649 points

mohinder-amarnath.jpg

Career Average: 42.50
Adjusted career average: 40.03
Adjusted away average: 50.87
Adjusted top-opposition average: 38.30
Top Tier centuries: 2
Second tier centuries: 5
Third tier centuries: 3
Significant innings: 16
Significant innings per match: 0.23
Great innings: 0
Innings worth average: 2.72


25 Test peak adjusted average: 51.54
50 Test peak adjusted average: 47.41



108: Tom Graveney (England) (1951-1969) 652 points

107741.jpg

Career Average: 44.38
Adjusted career average: 44.28
Adjusted away average: 39.87
Adjusted top-opposition average: 43.27
Top Tier centuries: 2
Second tier centuries: 1
Third tier centuries: 6
Significant innings: 16
Significant innings per match: 0.20
Great innings: 1
Innings worth average: 2.66

25 Test peak adjusted average: 56.43
50 Test peak adjusted average: 48.01



107: Stephen Fleming (New Zealand) (1994-2008) 653 points

stephen+fleming+%u0025252815%u00252529.jpg

Career Average: 40.06
Adjusted career average: 39.72
Adjusted away average: 46.34
Adjusted top-opposition average: 39.74
Top Tier centuries: 2
Second tier centuries: 5
Third tier centuries: 1
Significant innings: 30
Significant innings per match: 0.27
Great innings: 3
Innings worth average: 3.02

25 Test peak adjusted average: 43.51
50 Test peak adjusted average: 41.94



106: Ranjitsinhji (England) (1896-1902) 655 points

21348.jpg

Career Average: 44.95
Adjusted career average: 53.37
Adjusted away average: 57.51
Adjusted top-opposition average: 53.37
Top Tier centuries: 0
Second tier centuries: 2
Third tier centuries: 0
Significant innings: 5
Significant innings per match: 0.33
Great innings: 2
Innings worth average: 3.58
 
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bagapath

International Captain
Thanks a lot for all the hard work DoG. Looking forward to this list very eagerly. I am taking a wild guess here that don bradman would be no. 1. Lets wait and see if my guess is right.

To start with, these five guys belong here for sure.
 
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Coronis

Cricketer Of The Year
Looks good so far, a lot of hard work has gone into this. Enjoy statistical rankings like this :)

May I ask, how exactly did you adjust players who played less than 50 tests? Like a percentage thing?

Will be interesting to see where players like Headley and Pollock end up being ranked, having played less than 25 tests each.
 
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Days of Grace

International Captain
Looks good so far, a lot of hard work has gone into this. Enjoy statistical rankings like this :)

May I ask, how exactly did you adjust players who played less than 50 tests? Like a percentage thing?

Will be interesting to see where players like Headley and Pollock end up being ranked, having played less than 25 tests each.

Yes, a player like Ranji who only played 15 test matches gets penalised a lot more than someone like Clyde Walcott who played 44 tests.
 

Days of Grace

International Captain
105: Stanley Jackson (England) (1893-1905) 656 points

100462.jpg

Career Average: 48.79
Adjusted career average: 56.12
Adjusted away average: No away matches
Adjusted top-opposition average: 52.87
Top Tier centuries: 0
Second tier centuries: 2
Third tier centuries: 3
Significant innings: 7
Significant innings per match: 0.35
Great innings: 2
Innings worth average: 3.70


104: Robin Smith (England) (1988-1996) 656 points

mfcsmith.jpg

Career Average: 43.67
Adjusted career average: 44.07
Adjusted away average: 36.99
Adjusted top-opposition average: 43.48
Top Tier centuries: 4
Second tier centuries: 2
Third tier centuries: 3
Significant innings: 16
Significant innings per match: 0.26
Great innings: 3
Innings worth average: 3.14

25 Test peak adjusted average: 59.03
50 Test peak adjusted average: 44.55



103: Dean Jones (Australia) (1984-1992) 658 points

Dean-Jones.jpg

Career Average: 46.55
Adjusted career average: 43.41
Adjusted away average: 40.65
Adjusted top-opposition average: 42.05
Top Tier centuries: 3
Second tier centuries: 0
Third tier centuries: 6
Significant innings: 15
Significant innings per match: 0.29
Great innings: 2
Innings worth average: 2.87

25 Test peak adjusted average: 51.80
50 Test peak adjusted average: 44.77



102: Glenn Turner (New Zealand) (1969-1983) 660 points

glenn_turner_walks_off_lancaster_park_during_the_t_4ead0b1365.JPG

Career Average: 44.64
Adjusted career average: 44.15
Adjusted away average: 42.53
Adjusted top-opposition average: 47.05
Top Tier centuries: 2
Second tier centuries: 1
Third tier centuries: 4
Significant innings: 8
Significant innings per match: 0.20
Great innings: 2
Innings worth average: 3.32

25 Test peak adjusted average: 55.36



101: Ted Dexter (England) (1958-1968) 662 points

2663626_2325955b.jpg

Career Average: 47.89
Adjusted career average: 44.72
Adjusted away average: 47.92
Adjusted top-opposition average: 40.51
Top Tier centuries: 1
Second tier centuries: 2
Third tier centuries: 3
Significant innings: 19
Significant innings per match: 0.31
Great innings: 0
Innings worth average: 3.08

25 Test peak adjusted average: 51.20
50 Test peak adjusted average: 47.56
 

watson

Banned
Some nice ideas there - Top Opposition Average, Innings Worth Average, and Peak Adjusted Averages.
 

kyear2

Cricketer Of The Year
Amazing work and effort D.O.G., I am guessing your sig gives some insight into your top 10. Looking forward to it.

Speaking of your sig, and just slightly of topic do you and others who place Hadlee in your first XI actually rate him a better bowler that Mcgrath (and Lillee and Ambrose for that matter) or does he make it for his batting?
 

Howe_zat

Audio File
Tiers of centuries is intriguing - I'm wondering what Bell's two top drawer efforts are. For example, how does the system recognise how much better his ton at Trent Bridge in 2011 was massively better than the ton two tests later at the Oval?
 

Days of Grace

International Captain
Amazing work and effort D.O.G., I am guessing your sig gives some insight into your top 10. Looking forward to it.

Speaking of your sig, and just slightly of topic do you and others who place Hadlee in your first XI actually rate him a better bowler that Mcgrath (and Lillee and Ambrose for that matter) or does he make it for his batting?
I select my alltime XI based on my ratings with a couple of my own selections thrown in. It would be foolish to only go on my ratings since Barry Richards would never make my South African XI.
 

Days of Grace

International Captain
Tiers of centuries is intriguing - I'm wondering what Bell's two top drawer efforts are. For example, how does the system recognise how much better his ton at Trent Bridge in 2011 was massively better than the ton two tests later at the Oval?
It's the tier of opposition he was playing against. His two centuries against top-tier opposition were:
199 vs. South Africa at Lord's 2008
140 vs. South Africa at Durban 2009.

The centuries against India (third-tier opposition) were rated 10.27 (Nottingham) and 11.07 (The Oval) respectively. There is no way my ratings system can incorporate how fluent he was at the crease or how many chances he gave.
 

NUFAN

Y no Afghanistan flag
Awesome work DoG, I can't wait to see the top 100. Although I have never written my own list of 100, I sort of expected Dexter to be in there, so that's already a bit surprising.

Can you please confirm what criteria you are using to split people on the same points like Robin Smith and Stanley Jackson?
 

smash84

The Tiger King
awesome work DOG and great commitment..........was surprised to see that Dean Jones didn't make the top 100 batsmen of all time nor did Glenn Turner. Would be waiting for the countdown anxiously
 

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