mr_mister
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
So here at CW a lot of people have attempted methods of finding a consensus on the best ever test batsmen. Bradman's the #1 and this exercise will still show this, but from 2-15 it varies wildly depending on who you talk to. A lot of people value quality and consistency (average) far over quantity and longevity(runs) while others feel the latter does not get enough of its due when assessing players. I'm gonna attempt to bridge the gap between the 2.
Someone has/had in their signature here "stats is not synonymous with average" or some such thing and I always liked it. It is a bit silly that from all the batting statistics we have at our disposal, a lot are often ignored in favour of just one or two. I'm gonna use the 5 I like the most(one or two might be a little controversial) to give a rough rating of the best test batsmen. I will weight them as I see fit(trying to be as objective as possible). Spoilers.... the final results will look a bit funky
The categories in order of weighting:
Batting average (50% weighting)
Career Runs (20% weighting)
100s per match (15% weighting)
Career 200s (10% weighting)
Highest score (5% weighting)
Batting average is self explanatory. There's a reason Bradman's 99 average has him undisputedly number 1. It rewards consistent performances and plenty of people swear by it as the best assessment of a batsman. It deserves to have a large portion of the points. There will be a 40 innings minimum criteria employed.
Runs favours longevity naturally. Sachin fanboys will love this one. While some of the old timey players were perhaps unfairly hurt by a lack of tests played back in the day, there is still something to be said for modern players who kept performing day in, day out across double and sometimes triple the amount of tests the greats of old did. I think it deserves to be the number 2 slot weighting wise.
Now for the final 30% we get into a bit less of a mathematically sound territory, but we all know rating batsman comes down to more than just aggerates and averages.
Onto centuries. While a 99 is nearly as good as 100 practically speaking, we all know reaching the 3 figures is considered pretty special and the more often you do it, the more of a big time match winner you can claim to be. The 100s stat by itself obviously favours longevity over quality as the longer you play the more chance you get to make them. It also would result in a near identical top 15 to the most runs. So for that reason I will have 100s per match as the method used to continue the theme of quality > quantity. A 40 innings minimum criteria will be employed again.
Double centuries. Getting to 3 figures and turning it into a double is also something I don't want to gloss over. Sometimes the job is only half done after reaching a ton, so some more points will be awarded to those who peeled off the most double tons. I'm not using a ratio here, it's just a list of who hit the most, to give longevity a bit of balance back in its favour.
Lastly we get to highest scores. Personally, I love seeing records broken. As a kid when a batsman came out to bat and their stats/picture came on screen, my eyes immediately shifted to their highest score. Besides, the highest test score being beaten was always a huge deal whenever it happened. So for the final 5%, a few bonus points will be handed out to some of the guys who raised the bar. I feel this is a better stat than simply "triple centuries" for a few reasons, one being only 4 people ever got more than one triple ton. Another being that 200 itself is usually enough to win a match and a 300 just icing on the cake - but breaking the high score is to me just pretty special. I'm not giving Lara double points for breaking it twice, I considered it but decided against it. It feels wrong for Hutton to not get some credit.
The points across individual categories are as follows:
Averages:
Don Bradman - 50
Steve Smith - 49
Graeme Pollock - 48
George Headley - 47
Herbert Sutcliffe - 46
Ken Barrington - 45
Everton Weekes - 44
Wally Hammond - 43
Gary Sobers - 42
Kumar Sangakkara - 41
Jack Hobbs - 40
Clyde Walcott - 39
Len Hutton - 38
Jacques Kallis - 37
Kane Williamson - 36
Greg Chappell - 35
Dudley Nourse - 34
Sachin Tendulkar - 33
Brian Lara - 32
Javed Miandad - 31
Rahul Dravid - 30
Mohammad Yousuf - 29
Younis Khan - 28
Virat Kohli - 27
Ricky Ponting - 26
Andy Flower - 25
Michael Hussey - 24
Shiv Chanderpaul - 23
Sunil Gavaskar - 22
Steve Waugh - 21
Matt Hayden - 20
AB De Villiers - 19
Allan Border - 18
Viv Richards - 17
Denis Compton - 16
Mahela Jayawardene - 15
Inzamam Ul-Haq - 14
Frank Worrell - 13
Virender Sehwag - 12
Michael Clarke - 11
Bruce Mitchell - 10
Thilan Samaraweera - 9
Joe Root - 8
Neil Harvey - 7
Doug Walters - 6
Graeme Smith - 5
Bill Ponsford - 4
Stan McCabe - 3
Dave Warner - 2
Ted Dexter - 1
Runs:
Sachin Tendulkar - 20
Ricky Ponting - 19
Jacques Kallis - 18
Rahul Dravid - 17
Alistar Cook - 16
Kumar Sangakkarra - 15
Brian Lara - 14
Shiv Chanderpaul - 13
Mahela Jayawadene - 12
Allan Border - 11
Steve Waugh - 10
Sunil Gavaskar - 9
Younis Khan - 8
Hashim Amla - 7
Graeme Smith - 6
Graham Gooch - 5
Javed Miandad - 4
Inzamam Ul-Haq - 3
VVS Laxman - 2
AB De Villiers - 1
100s per match:
Don Bradman - 15
George Headley - 14
Steve Smith - 13
Clyde Walcott - 12
Graeme Pollock - 11
Everton Weekes - 10
Herb Sutcliffe - 9
Virat Kohli - 8
Matt Hayden - 7
Younis Khan - 6
Kumar Sangakkarra - 5
Kane Williamson - 4
Gary Sobers - 3
Dave Warner - 2
Greg Chappell - 1
200s:
Don Bradman - 10
Kumar Sangakkarra - 9
Brian Lara - 8
Wally Hammond - 7
Mahela Jayawardene - 7
Virat Kohli - 7
Ricky Ponting - 4
Younis Khan - 4
Virender Sehwag - 4
Sachin Tendulkar - 4
Javed Miandad - 4
Marvin Attapattu - 4
Highest scores:
Brian Lara - 5
Matt Hayden - 4
Mahela Jayawardene - 3
Gary Sobers - 2
Len Hutton - 1
Overall points
Don Bradman - 75
Kumar Sangakkarra - 70
Steve Smith - 62
George Headley - 61
Brian Lara and Graeme Pollock - 59
Sachin Tendulkar - 57
Herb Sutcliffe and Jacques Kallis - 55
Everton Weekes - 54
Clyde Walcott - 51
Wally Hammond - 50
Ricky Ponting - 49
Gary Sobers and Rahul Dravid- 47
Younis Khan - 46
Ken Barrington - 45
Jack Hobbs and Kane Williamson- 40
Len Hutton - 39
Mahela Jayawardene - 37
Greg Chappell and Shiv Chanderpaul- 36
Javed Miandad - 35
Dudley Nourse - 34
Steve Waugh - 30
Allan Border and Mohammad Yousuf - 29
And so on. I think a runs per test stat instead of 200s and Highest scores may have resulted in a more CW friendly list, but that'd have been a pain to calculate(looked for a list but couldn't find one online)
Someone has/had in their signature here "stats is not synonymous with average" or some such thing and I always liked it. It is a bit silly that from all the batting statistics we have at our disposal, a lot are often ignored in favour of just one or two. I'm gonna use the 5 I like the most(one or two might be a little controversial) to give a rough rating of the best test batsmen. I will weight them as I see fit(trying to be as objective as possible). Spoilers.... the final results will look a bit funky
The categories in order of weighting:
Batting average (50% weighting)
Career Runs (20% weighting)
100s per match (15% weighting)
Career 200s (10% weighting)
Highest score (5% weighting)
Batting average is self explanatory. There's a reason Bradman's 99 average has him undisputedly number 1. It rewards consistent performances and plenty of people swear by it as the best assessment of a batsman. It deserves to have a large portion of the points. There will be a 40 innings minimum criteria employed.
Runs favours longevity naturally. Sachin fanboys will love this one. While some of the old timey players were perhaps unfairly hurt by a lack of tests played back in the day, there is still something to be said for modern players who kept performing day in, day out across double and sometimes triple the amount of tests the greats of old did. I think it deserves to be the number 2 slot weighting wise.
Now for the final 30% we get into a bit less of a mathematically sound territory, but we all know rating batsman comes down to more than just aggerates and averages.
Onto centuries. While a 99 is nearly as good as 100 practically speaking, we all know reaching the 3 figures is considered pretty special and the more often you do it, the more of a big time match winner you can claim to be. The 100s stat by itself obviously favours longevity over quality as the longer you play the more chance you get to make them. It also would result in a near identical top 15 to the most runs. So for that reason I will have 100s per match as the method used to continue the theme of quality > quantity. A 40 innings minimum criteria will be employed again.
Double centuries. Getting to 3 figures and turning it into a double is also something I don't want to gloss over. Sometimes the job is only half done after reaching a ton, so some more points will be awarded to those who peeled off the most double tons. I'm not using a ratio here, it's just a list of who hit the most, to give longevity a bit of balance back in its favour.
Lastly we get to highest scores. Personally, I love seeing records broken. As a kid when a batsman came out to bat and their stats/picture came on screen, my eyes immediately shifted to their highest score. Besides, the highest test score being beaten was always a huge deal whenever it happened. So for the final 5%, a few bonus points will be handed out to some of the guys who raised the bar. I feel this is a better stat than simply "triple centuries" for a few reasons, one being only 4 people ever got more than one triple ton. Another being that 200 itself is usually enough to win a match and a 300 just icing on the cake - but breaking the high score is to me just pretty special. I'm not giving Lara double points for breaking it twice, I considered it but decided against it. It feels wrong for Hutton to not get some credit.
The points across individual categories are as follows:
Averages:
Don Bradman - 50
Steve Smith - 49
Graeme Pollock - 48
George Headley - 47
Herbert Sutcliffe - 46
Ken Barrington - 45
Everton Weekes - 44
Wally Hammond - 43
Gary Sobers - 42
Kumar Sangakkara - 41
Jack Hobbs - 40
Clyde Walcott - 39
Len Hutton - 38
Jacques Kallis - 37
Kane Williamson - 36
Greg Chappell - 35
Dudley Nourse - 34
Sachin Tendulkar - 33
Brian Lara - 32
Javed Miandad - 31
Rahul Dravid - 30
Mohammad Yousuf - 29
Younis Khan - 28
Virat Kohli - 27
Ricky Ponting - 26
Andy Flower - 25
Michael Hussey - 24
Shiv Chanderpaul - 23
Sunil Gavaskar - 22
Steve Waugh - 21
Matt Hayden - 20
AB De Villiers - 19
Allan Border - 18
Viv Richards - 17
Denis Compton - 16
Mahela Jayawardene - 15
Inzamam Ul-Haq - 14
Frank Worrell - 13
Virender Sehwag - 12
Michael Clarke - 11
Bruce Mitchell - 10
Thilan Samaraweera - 9
Joe Root - 8
Neil Harvey - 7
Doug Walters - 6
Graeme Smith - 5
Bill Ponsford - 4
Stan McCabe - 3
Dave Warner - 2
Ted Dexter - 1
Runs:
Sachin Tendulkar - 20
Ricky Ponting - 19
Jacques Kallis - 18
Rahul Dravid - 17
Alistar Cook - 16
Kumar Sangakkarra - 15
Brian Lara - 14
Shiv Chanderpaul - 13
Mahela Jayawadene - 12
Allan Border - 11
Steve Waugh - 10
Sunil Gavaskar - 9
Younis Khan - 8
Hashim Amla - 7
Graeme Smith - 6
Graham Gooch - 5
Javed Miandad - 4
Inzamam Ul-Haq - 3
VVS Laxman - 2
AB De Villiers - 1
100s per match:
Don Bradman - 15
George Headley - 14
Steve Smith - 13
Clyde Walcott - 12
Graeme Pollock - 11
Everton Weekes - 10
Herb Sutcliffe - 9
Virat Kohli - 8
Matt Hayden - 7
Younis Khan - 6
Kumar Sangakkarra - 5
Kane Williamson - 4
Gary Sobers - 3
Dave Warner - 2
Greg Chappell - 1
200s:
Don Bradman - 10
Kumar Sangakkarra - 9
Brian Lara - 8
Wally Hammond - 7
Mahela Jayawardene - 7
Virat Kohli - 7
Ricky Ponting - 4
Younis Khan - 4
Virender Sehwag - 4
Sachin Tendulkar - 4
Javed Miandad - 4
Marvin Attapattu - 4
Highest scores:
Brian Lara - 5
Matt Hayden - 4
Mahela Jayawardene - 3
Gary Sobers - 2
Len Hutton - 1
Overall points
Don Bradman - 75
Kumar Sangakkarra - 70
Steve Smith - 62
George Headley - 61
Brian Lara and Graeme Pollock - 59
Sachin Tendulkar - 57
Herb Sutcliffe and Jacques Kallis - 55
Everton Weekes - 54
Clyde Walcott - 51
Wally Hammond - 50
Ricky Ponting - 49
Gary Sobers and Rahul Dravid- 47
Younis Khan - 46
Ken Barrington - 45
Jack Hobbs and Kane Williamson- 40
Len Hutton - 39
Mahela Jayawardene - 37
Greg Chappell and Shiv Chanderpaul- 36
Javed Miandad - 35
Dudley Nourse - 34
Steve Waugh - 30
Allan Border and Mohammad Yousuf - 29
And so on. I think a runs per test stat instead of 200s and Highest scores may have resulted in a more CW friendly list, but that'd have been a pain to calculate(looked for a list but couldn't find one online)
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