As fun as they are, armchair discussions on who the greatest batsmen in Test history are tend to unravel very quickly. Estimating a batsman’s worth — and then measuring how this stacks up against other players across eras — is difficult business.
Simply comparing batting averages is flawed — a batsman in an era could have faced better bowlers (or worse) than someone from another age. Then, there are the changes in rules, conditions, and technology (the covering of pitches; the limit on the bouncers per over; the introduction of helmets; DRS — just a few of these).
It is, therefore, not accurate to say that batsman X, with an average of 50 from 20 innings in the 1990s, is better than batsman Y, who averaged 45 from 60 innings in the 1970s.
We need a method of normalisation that accounts for changes in eras and is able to compare batsmen across them. One way is to measure how a batsman has done in his time — the extent to which he has outperformed his peers. We can then compare this margin with the margins of other batsmen in their eras.
To do this, we find the difference between a player’s batting average and the average number of runs scored by all other batsmen during the period the player was active. For instance, Sachin Tendulkar averaged 53.78 between his debut in 1989 and retirement in 2013. All other players in this 24-year period averaged 33.14. The difference between Tendulkar and the rest in his time is 20.64.
This difference in averages gives an indication of how much better (or worse) the batsman was in comparison to his peers. We tabulate this difference for all cricketers who have batten in Tests, from 1877 to the present. The top 20 batsmen (minimum: 40 innings) are listed below:
The Don, an extreme outlier in sport if there ever was one, is obviously head and shoulders ahead of anyone else. Current Australian captain Steve Smith’s career is at a real sweet spot and his consistency places him second only to the Don. Among recently retired players, Kumar Sangakkara ranks just above Jacques Kallis, even as Tendulkar and Brian Lara round out the top 20.
Another factor of greatness is longevity. The difference in averages alone doesn’t account for it. Some players who were more consistent over a long period might have had a lower average-difference than those who with shorter careers who retired close to their peaks.
We need a measure of the relative weight of a batsman’s runs. ‘Runs above mean batsman’ does this well. This is the difference between the total number of runs scored by a batsman in his career and the runs a batsman of his era with a mean average would have scored in the same number of innings
If that sounds a little complicated, an example will clear it up: let’s take Tendulkar again and see how he compares with someone like Viv Richards.
Tendulkar’s overall average is 53.78 across 329 innings with 33 not outs (296 effective innings). The mean average between 1989 and 2013 was 33.14. So the value Tendulkar added over a batsman with the mean average across the same number of innings is 53.78*296 – 33.14*296, which equals 6109.44 runs.
For a more precise measure, the averages are not rounded to two decimals in the calculation, and this value is 6111.56. Richards’ overall value, similarly calculated between 1974 and 1991, is 3059.2 runs across 170 effective innings.
Clearly, those who had long careers dominate this list, but here too, the Don is present at No 6. Sangakkara’s high average (57.40) propels him to third place behind Kallis and above higher run getters, Rahul Dravid and Ricky Ponting.
Tying it together
What we have are two different variables which need to be combined to isolate the elite batsmen. The economist Nicholas Rohde approached a similar problem using an econometric method to rank the best batsmen in a paper titled “An economic ranking of batters in Test cricket” in 2011.
A less sophisticated method is to plot both variables — average-difference and runs-above-mean-batsmen — in a scatter graph and identify the highest bracket of intersection. This bracket is set at runs-above-mean-batsmen greater than 3000 – close to half of the highest value – and average-difference of 18.8, which is close to 30% of the highest value (that of Don Bradman). Some batsmen lie just outside the periphery of this top bracket (Steve Waugh — average-diff: 18.7 and runs-above: 3991, Alan Border —18.4 and 4064, Steve Smith —30.5 and 2896 and Greg Chappell — 21.7 and 2862). The elite batsmen are identified in the plot.
To explore the complete interactive, click here
The away equation
We use the same method to identify who the best batsmen in away Tests were. Doing well in alien conditions, being forced to step out of your comfort zone, is a trait that is highly valued. Bradman, Hammond, Barrington, Tendulkar, Border, Steve Waugh, Kallis, Dravid, Sangakkara, Graeme Smith, Gavaskar, Viv Richards and Jack Hobbs were found to be best performers overseas.
To explore the complete interactive, click here
Graphics and visualisation: Vignesh Radhakrishnan and Varun B. Krishnan
