500 Not Out: India in Test matches

Ashwin has the lowest bowling average for an Indian bowler with more than 200 wickets

Decade-wise player evaluation

During the 70s, India’s chances in a match relied more on the wicket-taking ability of its famous spin quartet than on the run-making ability of its batsmen. This trend has seen a stunning reversal, especially post the 90s and since then, the dependability has been reversed.

Nevertheless, as most of you would agree, India has produced lesser number of ‘great’ bowlers than its rivals in international cricket (bar New Zealand, Sri Lanka), which is one of the reasons why India has not been able to win overseas on a consistent basis.

Fancy this, amongst all Indian bowlers to have taken 200 test wickets, no bowler averages lower than Ravichandran Ashwin’s 25.06. This is the highest (worst, that is!) average amongst all test playing nations, all of which have at least one bowler with an average of less than 23.

Table 5: Lowest Bowling Average

Team	Bowler	Average
India	Ravichandran Ashwin	25.06
South Africa	Dale Steyn	22.24
Australia	Glenn Mcgrath	21.64
West Indies	Malcolm Marshall	20.94
Sri Lanka	Muttiah Muralitharan	22.72
England	Fred Trueman	21.57
New Zealand	Richard Hadlee	22.29
Zimbabwe	Heath Streak	28.14
Pakistan	Imran Khan	22.8

One way to ascertain the extent of this dependability is to look at how better/worse off the batting and bowling averages have been when compared to the overall averages in the said period. Taking a decade-wise look at this trend just goes to prove the hypothesis stated above.

There has only been one decade (1990s) where Indian bowlers conceded lesser number of runs than the average yield in that decade. Batting, on the other hand, has seen a tremendous reversal, from scoring terribly less than other batsmen in the 1930s (29%), Indian batsmen have gone ahead of the curve in the 1990s and 2000s.

The number for the 2010s presents a challenge, as replacements for India’s retired stellar batsmen look to find their mark.

Table 6: Decade-wise Bowling efficacy

Decade	1930s	1940s	1950s	1960s	1970s	1980s	1990s	2000s	2010s
All Teams	32.15	35.34	28.54	32.10	31.90	32.09	33.75	34.10	31.51
India	38.40	46.67	35.09	34.14	33.40	36.39	33.46	34.98	34.32
Factor	19%	32%	23%	6%	5%	13%	-1%	3%	9%

Table 7: Decade wise Batting efficacy

Decade	1930s	1940s	1950s	1960s	1970s	1980s	1990s	2000s	2010s
All Teams	31.12	34.26	27.38	30.81	30.76	30.45	29.45	32.02	32.30
India	22.04	24.66	26.45	28.06	30.05	32.13	33.10	35.98	33.03
Factor	-29%	-28%	-3%	-9%	-2%	6%	12%	12%	2%

Decade-wise batsmen evaluation

If your average cricket fan is asked to name three of the greatest cricketers that India has produced over the years, the most probable names would be: Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar. Although Rahul Dravid might replace Gavaskar for younger Indian cricket fans, the question is unlikely to bring out any other names beyond these four people.

Without ever contesting the stature of the players named above, one should also concede that there have been many who have contributed significantly to India’s performances over the years. We shall now take a decade-wise look at the most prolific and the most pivotal players in each of them.

For this exercise, I have followed a very simple arithmetic:

#1 Mentioned the most prolific batsman/bowler in a said decade.

#2 Calculate a prolificacy factor, arrived at by dividing his total runs by the number of runs of the next best.

#3 Calculate an efficacy factor, by dividing the average of the most prolific batsman/bowler by the next best.

#4 In case some other cricketer has a better batting/bowling average (considering a suitable cut-off), that average is considered as the benchmark.

#5 Multiply both the factors to arrive at an overall ‘Value Factor’.

A similar arithmetic has been followed to calculate the value factor for performance in wins, to give a balanced/alternate view of performance value.

Higher the value factor for a player during any decade would mean that the team’s fortunes depended more on his shoulders than anyone else. A high-value factor would likely have an adverse affect on the team’s W/L ratio (though it hasn’t been tested).

The table brings out names that won’t surprise many; those who follow the game would have known that Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, and Sunil Gavaskar’s name to come up as the most prolific batsmen in their respective decades. What the table demonstrated is the extent to which these batsmen were better than the next best. From the 1940s onwards, Vijay Hazare, with a factor of 1.58, has been the most prolific batsmen in any decade, followed by Sachin Tendulkar (1.55-1990s) and Sunil Gavaskar (1.22-1970s).

Sachin Tendulkar’s scores seem all the more remarkable because more players than ever were having an extended run. Rahul Dravid’s factor is also remarkable given the talent around in that decade, and his ability to outshine them is a testament to his value and genius.

Table 8: Batsman Value (All Matches)

Decade	Player Name	Mtchs	Runs	Avg	Following Batsman	Runs	Following Batsman (Avg)	Avg	Prolificacy Factor	Efficacy Factor	Value Factor
1930s	V.Merchant	6	460	38.33	CK Nayadu	350	D.Hussain	42.33	1.31	0.91	1.19
1940s	V.Hazare	13	1095	49.77	R. Modi	695	R.Modi	49.78	1.58	1.00	1.58
1950s	P.Umrigar	43	2520	39.38	P. Roy	2280	V.Hazare	45.7	1.11	0.86	0.95
1960s	C.Borde	45	2562	37.13	MAK Pataudi	2552	P.Umrigar	51.47	1.00	0.72	0.72
1970s	S.Gavaskar	60	5647	55.91	G. Vishwanath	4611	S.Gavaskar	55.91	1.22	1.00	1.22
1980s	D.Vengsarkar	71	4501	46.89	S. Gavaskar	4475	M.Amarnath	47.73	1.01	0.98	0.99
1990s	S.Tendulkar	69	5626	58.00	M. Azharuddin	3880	V.Kambli	54.20	1.45	1.07	1.55
2000s	R.Dravid	102	8535	55.42	S.Tendulkar	7129	G.Gambhir	56.73	1.20	0.98	1.17
2010s	V.Kohli	45	3245	45.07	S.Tendulkar	2951	S.Tendulkar	50.01	1.10	0.90	0.99

Decade-wise bowler evaluation

If the bowling chart brings out one stunning statistic, it is that Kapil Dev in 80s carried the entire bowling on his shoulders, he was doing with an effect that none of the Indian bowlers have even come close to. His factor of 2.17 is followed by Anil Kumble (1.75-1990s) and Erapalli Prasanna (1.38-1960s).

India’s low W/L ratio during the 1980s and 1960s (0.524 and 0.429) is a likely outcome of it’s over dependence on one star performer.

Table 9: Bowler Value (All Matches)

Decade	Player Name	Mtchs	Wkts	Ave	Following Bowler (Wkts)	Wkts	Following Bowler (Avg)	Avg	Wkts Factor	Ave Factor	Overall Factor
1930s	Amar Singh	7	28	30.64	M.Nisar	25	M.Nisar	28.25	1.12	0.92	1.03
1940s	V.Mankad	13	40	41.65	L.Amarnath	29	D.Phadkar	30.22	1.38	0.73	1.00
1950s	S.Gupte	31	134	29.13	V.Mankad	122	G.Ahmed	28.18	1.10	0.97	1.06
1960s	E.Prasanna	22	113	27.05	B.Nandkarni	76	S.V'Raghavan	25.17	1.49	0.93	1.38
1970s	B.Bedi	48	196	29.79	B.C'Shekhar	180	Kapil Dev	27.73	1.09	0.93	1.01
1980s	Kapil Dev	80	272	29.54	R.Shastri	141	R.Binny	33.28	1.93	1.13	2.17
1990s	A.Kumble	58	264	27.81	J.Srinath	162	V.Raju	29.79	1.63	1.07	1.75
2000s	A.Kumble	74	355	31.03	H.Singh	322	H.Singh	30.31	1.10	0.98	1.08
2010s	R Ashwin	36	193	25.20	I.Sharma	155	R.Jadeja	23.71	1.25	0.94	1.17