Stats: Winning the Toss and Batting First Propensities

Percentage of Batting First After Winning Toss- Comparison by Host Country

The purpose of this part is to find out which host countries are most likely to see a team batting first after winning the toss. In other words, teams playing in which parts of the world are afraid of ultimately chasing down a target.

India hosted 248 tests, and only in 20 of those, it saw a team batting second after winning the toss. So, an incredibly high percentage of 91 is carried by Indian grounds when it comes to batting first after winning the toss.

Among top 8 nations, 5 hosting countries have a win/ loss ratio in excess of 1. So, a team winning the toss and batting first is more likely to win the game here than the team batting second.

Pakistan, West Indies and New Zealand have a lower win/loss ratio among top 8 nations for a team batting first after winning the toss.

New Zealand is again at the bottom of the table when it comes to percentage. It is the only host country where a toss-winning captain has decided to field first or more occasions than not.

Host Country	Matches Played	Won Toss- Batted First	Percentage	Won	Lost	Tied	Drawn	W/L Ratio
India	248	228	91.94	68	61	1	97	1.114
U.A.E.	25	20	80.00	9	7	0	4	1.285
England	499	397	79.56	148	110	0	139	1.345
Pakistan	151	112	74.17	20	32	0	60	0.625
Bangladesh	52	38	73.08	11	17	0	10	0.647
Australia	401	290	72.32	132	102	1	55	1.294
South Africa	211	150	71.09	61	52	0	37	1.173
Sri Lanka	126	89	70.63	35	28	0	26	1.25
West Indies	233	149	63.95	40	45	0	64	0.888
Zimbabwe	52	31	59.62	9	12	0	10	0.75
New Zealand	193	93	48.19	22	30	0	41	0.733

Percentage of Batting First After Winning Toss- Comparison by Host Country (Tests)

We selected as many as 53 grounds from around the world, and this is what we came across.

4- Number of stadiums with a percentage of won toss-batting first is exact 100. Interestingly, all four stadiums are on Indian soil.

4- Number of Stadiums to have a percentage lower than 50 – 2 out of them are from New Zealand.

7- 7 stadiums with the highest percentage are in India.

49- Out of selected 53 stadiums, 49 of them have a percentage higher than 50 – meaning thereby that winning the toss implies batting first on occasions more than fielding first events.

34- Number of stadiums that have a W/L ratio equal to or more than 1. 19 stadiums, on the other hand, have a W/L ratio lower than 1.

4- Out of the bottom 7 grounds – grounds with lowest won toss-bat first percentage belong to New Zealand.

Ground	Played	Won Toss-Batted First	Percentage	Won	Lost	Tied	Drawn	W/L Ratio
Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi	33	33	100.00	5	13	0	14	0.384
Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai	18	18	100.00	2	5	0	11	0.4
Nehru Stadium, Madras	9	9	100.00	5	1	0	3	5
Vidarbha C.A. Ground, Nagpur	9	9	100.00	2	2	0	5	1
MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai	31	30	96.77	10	9	1	10	1.111
Green Park, Kanpur	21	20	95.24	6	3	0	11	2
Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad	12	11	91.67	3	2	0	6	1.5
Old Wanderers, Johannesburg	22	20	90.91	7	6	0	7	1.166
M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore	21	19	90.48	6	5	0	8	1.2
P Sara Oval, Colombo	20	18	90.00	7	7	0	4	1
Old Trafford, Manchester	76	68	89.47	26	14	0	28	1.857
Adelaide Oval	74	66	89.19	29	19	0	18	1.526
Dubai Cricket Stadium	9	8	88.89	3	3	0	2	1
Sharjah Cricket Ground	8	7	87.50	3	3	0	1	1
Eden Gardens, Kolkata	39	34	87.18	10	8	0	16	1.25
Kennington Oval, London	98	85	86.73	30	24	0	31	1.25
Bourda, Georgetown, Guyana	30	26	86.67	5	7	0	14	0.714
Trent Bridge, Nottingham	61	51	83.61	19	12	0	20	1.583
The Wanderers, Johannesburg	35	29	82.86	15	7	0	7	2.142
Newlands, Cape Town	52	43	82.69	17	19	0	7	0.894
Galle International Stadium	27	22	81.48	12	5	0	5	2.4
National Stadium, Karachi	41	33	80.49	4	12	0	17	0.333
Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad	24	19	79.17	5	2	0	12	2.5
Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai	24	19	79.17	9	5	0	5	1.8
Sydney Cricket Ground	103	81	78.64	34	34	0	13	1
Zahur Ahmed Stadium, Chittagong	14	11	78.57	3	3	0	5	1
Headingley, Leeds	74	58	78.38	23	22	0	13	1.045
Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica	48	37	77.08	12	14	0	11	0.857
Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo	19	14	73.68	2	7	0	5	0.285
Melbourne Cricket Ground	107	77	71.96	39	28	0	10	1.392
Lord's, London	131	93	70.99	34	24	0	35	1.416
Edgbaston, Birmingham	48	34	70.83	10	13	0	11	0.769
Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore	40	28	70.00	3	11	0	14	0.272
McLean Park, Napier	10	7	70.00	1	0	0	6	-
Asgiriya Stadium, Kandy	21	14	66.67	6	4	0	4	1.5
Punjab C.A. Stadium, Mohali	12	8	66.67	3	3	0	2	1
Kingsmead, Durban	40	26	65.00	10	7	0	9	1.428
Shere Bangla Stadium, Dhaka	14	9	64.29	3	4	0	2	0.75
SSC, Colombo	39	25	64.10	8	11	0	6	0.727
Bellerive Oval, Hobart	11	7	63.64	5	1	0	1	5
Queen's Park Oval, Trinidad	59	37	62.71	12	11	0	14	1.09
Brisbane Cricket Ground	58	35	60.34	15	10	1	9	1.5
Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka	19	11	57.89	1	4	0	6	0.25
St George's Park, Port Elizabeth	26	15	57.69	6	7	0	2	0.857
Antigua Recreation Ground, Antigua	22	12	54.55	2	3	0	7	0.666
W.A.C.A. Ground, Perth	42	22	52.38	8	10	0	4	0.8
Eden Park, Auckland	49	25	51.02	7	6	0	12	1.166
Basin Reserve, Wellington	57	29	50.88	5	14	0	10	0.357
Harare Sports Club	32	16	50.00	7	5	0	4	1.4
AMI Stadium, Christchurch	40	19	47.50	5	6	0	8	0.833
Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados	51	24	47.06	4	8	0	12	0.5
Super Sports, Centurion	20	6	30.00	3	1	0	2	3.00
Seddon Park, Hamilton	20	6	30.00	2	4	0	0	0.500