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Building a 'Peak XI'

Nintendo

Nintendo

Cricketer Of The Year
Why is 33 the metric for batting peaks? Smith, ponting and tendulkar all had period's averaging 70+ over 50 test's if memory serves.
 
h_hurricane

h_hurricane

International Vice-Captain
The Sean said:
Kapil really was a workhorse wasn't he?

Do those numbers just take their total balls bowled and divide by the length of their Test career, whether or not they were playing every year?

EDIT - yes, it appears that they do. In which case yeah, Imran is certainly hurt by the fact he didn't play any Test cricket in 1972, 1973 or 1975, and didn't bowl a ball in anger in 1984. Taking this into consideration, his average number would still be behind the others, but not by quite as much.

It's an indication of Botham's massive workload during his peak in the late '70s and early '80s that he didn't play any Test cricket in 1988 or 1990, and hardly bowled in his final couple of years after that either, and yet his average is still so high.
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Those numbers were for the entire length of their test career, without taking into account their injury/ other breaks.

Also some other interesting numbers.

Kapil bowled 3553 deliveries in 1979 when he was barely 20. And 3469 in 1983. Understandably, He never was the same bowler since that year.
Also bowled more than 2000 deliveries in 3 other calendar years. He really would have benefitted with the kind of workload management the likes of Bumrah get these days.

Botham too was bowled to the ground in 1981 and 1982 when he bowled 3338 and 3270 deliveries respectively. He wasn't the same bowler since then either.

Neither of these two had their workload properly managed by the team management those days. Certainly would have made a lot of difference to their overall numbers.
 
Coronis

Coronis

International Coach
35 overs per match for Kapil and Botham, 36 for Imran and 42 for Hadlee. All hard workers.
 
R

RossTaylorsBox

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
subshakerz said:
Imran was a fairly fit bowler in normal circumstances, his shin injury was an unusually bad one that stopped him from bowling for two years.

I am genuinely curious how Imran missed out 28 tests in that period, even with his two year absence.
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D R O P P E D
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Dropped
 
smash84

smash84

The Tiger King
Teja. said:
He played 2/3rd of this allotted tests. Lillee played less than 60%. Wasim and Waqar played 75%-80%. The majority of ATG fast bowlers played 85%+ of tests in their peak decades which is 20%-30% more than Imran.

It's not useful to say Imran played as much as Hadlee because he missed a lot more. Absolute tests played cannot be used to absolve Imran as in absolute tests terms, McGrath played close to twice as many in a decade. The percentage of tests played is a more useful measure.
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Not only that, I think some of the tests played during this "peak" period had Imran playing only as a batsman because his shin injury didn't allow him to bowl.
 
0

_00_deathscar

International Regular
The Sean said:
Jaywardene made more runs, though not more centuries (Bradman made more of both, but he doesn't count).

Speaking of Jayawardene, Sangakkara is another one I'm a little surprised isn't on that list.
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Flat/home track bully and easy batting era. Sachin had sadly already waned by that point and although he had a great second peak it wasn’t the same as the 90s Sachin.
 
The Sean

The Sean

Cricketer Of The Year
_00_deathscar said:
Flat/home track bully and easy batting era. Sachin had sadly already waned by that point and although he had a great second peak it wasn’t the same as the 90s Sachin.
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Yeah, not trying to argue for Jayawardene over Tendulkar but any means - just noting your point about who had the most runs on that table. :p

I've said it before but what really sets Tendulkar apart isn't a 20- or 33- or even 50-Test peak, it's the sheer sustained excellence over such an extraordinarily long time. Over a period of 155 Tests across 18 years, he averaged 59.
 
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Coronis

Coronis

International Coach
S

subshakerz

Hall of Fame Member
smash84 said:
Not only that, I think some of the tests played during this "peak" period had Imran playing only as a batsman because his shin injury didn't allow him to bowl.
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As mentioned, Imran also skipped entire home series in 87 and 88 for different reasons even after his injury.
 
S

subshakerz

Hall of Fame Member
The Sean said:
Yeah, not trying to argue for Jayawardene over Tendulkar but any means - just noting your point about who had the most runs on that table. :p

I've said it before but what really sets Tendulkar apart isn't a 20- or 33- or even 50-Test peak, it's the sheer sustained excellence over such an extraordinarily long time. Over a period of 155 Tests across 18 years, he averaged 59.
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Yes, to me Tendulkar's consistency across countries and over time sets him apart from every other batsman.
 
Teja.

Teja.

Global Moderator
smash84 said:
Not only that, I think some of the tests played during this "peak" period had Imran playing only as a batsman because his shin injury didn't allow him to bowl.
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Yeah, tbf, I don't want to come across like I'm bashing Imran - he's one of my favourite cricketers of all time. He's still easily the cricketer of the 70s/80s and the third best cricketer of all time for me. However, there's a reason why that oft quoted stat about him averaging 19 with the ball and 50 with the bat over 10 years as an all rounder sounds a bit too good to be true. It's still mind-blowing but there are a few T & C associated with those numbers.
 
S

subshakerz

Hall of Fame Member
Teja. said:
View attachment 29641

33 test peaks since that list:

PlayerTeamStart DateRunsAverage100s50s
Virat KohliInd2016-11-013500 (exactly)701310
Steve SmithAus2014-12-01367175.221612
Kane WilliamsonNZ2013-10-09342265.81217
Joe RootEng2014-06-14314861.72819

Kohli would squeak into that table while Smith would be second.
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Steve's Smith peak from 2014 to 2019 is 46 tests with an average of 77! I forgot to include him in my XI but I think he belongs there.
 
Teja.

Teja.

Global Moderator
subshakerz said:
Steve's Smith peak from 2014 to 2019 is 46 tests with an average of 77! I forgot to include him in my XI but I think he belongs there.
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Yes, I was abiding by that 33 test rule. Kohli had a 34 test streak averaging 72 during his absolute peak with a double century on either end of it and I had to exclude one of them to make it 33 tests.

Will be interesting to see longer peak of 50 tests. I imagine Smith will dominate.
 
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