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Batsmen's highest / lowest / final averages

The Sean

The Sean

Cricketer Of The Year
The Sean said:
As for SJS's question of which great batsman with a very high average has such a gap between his highest and lowest points after 20 Tests, I haven't crunched the numbers yet but I'd suggest possibly Kallis? He took quite a long time to really get going as a Test batsman, but when the runs started flowing his average really exploded.
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To follow up on this, after 21 Tests Kallis was averaging 30.78. His highest average - achieved in his 111th Test - was 58.20. This gives a high/low differential of 89%.

Even if we take the position that - like Tendulkar - Kallis' volume of Tests means that 20 isn't a big enough sample size, consider this. After 50 Tests, Kallis was averaging 41, which compared to his career high is still a high/low differential of 42%.

There might be players with bigger differentials, but I can't imagine there are many.
 
L Trumper

L Trumper

State Regular
The Sean said:
To follow up on this, after 21 Tests Kallis was averaging 30.78. His highest average - achieved in his 111th Test - was 58.20. This gives a high/low differential of 89%.

Even if we take the position that - like Tendulkar - Kallis' volume of Tests means that 20 isn't a big enough sample size, consider this. After 50 Tests, Kallis was averaging 41, which compared to his career high is still a high/low differential of 42%.

There might be players with bigger differentials, but I can't imagine there are many.
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Steve Waugh, VVS might be up there. I think Waugh was averaging in mid 30s before 89 Ashes. VVS opened for a fair bit early in his career and has horrendous record there.
 
The Sean

The Sean

Cricketer Of The Year
L Trumper said:
Steve Waugh, VVS might be up there. I think Waugh was averaging in mid 30s before 89 Ashes. VVS opened for a fair bit early in his career and has horrendous record there.
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Actually mate Waugh is a great shout - embarrassed to say I'd completely overlooked him!
 
The Sean

The Sean

Cricketer Of The Year
Yep, after 20 Tests Waugh was averaging 26.25, compared to a peak average of 51.87 - a differential of nearly 98%!!

And even after 50 Tests he was averaging just 36.16 - a high/low differential of 43%.

I wonder if anyone can top Waugh?
 
Spikey

Spikey

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He's not gonna beat Waugh (or Kallis), but Amla would have been around 30 odd after 20 matches, no? And he's up to 50 after 65 odd matches. s
 
The Sean

The Sean

Cricketer Of The Year
The blokes we've talked about so far all improved their averages greatly after early-career mediocrity, but what about those who suffered huge declines compared to their peak average? There are probably quite a few but off the top of my head I'm thinking Jimmy Adams might rank pretty highly on that list.
 
Spikey

Spikey

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Kevin Walters was 67.46 after 20 and 48.26 by the end, so a big drop, but hardly massive. This is tricky 'cause the guys like Rowe suffer such a decline they get kicked out of the team before it really bites their average!

It's a slightly different note, but just a little discussion about Chanderpaul and Ponting and their conversion rates. Chanders in his first 51 tests made 21 50's and 2 tons. So it was a lousy conversion rate. Since then he's gone 38 50's and 25 100's, which are very good numbers. On the other hand, Ponting was 46's 50s and 38 100s over his first 132 matches, brilliant numbers, but in his last 35 odd matches he went 16's 50 and 3 100's, with two of those doubles. Not quite a Chander-esque ratio, but I think it's interesting
 
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The Sean

The Sean

Cricketer Of The Year
:laugh: Ha ha, somehow I don't think Dougie would have been quite as big a cult hero had everyone called him Kevin.
 
L Trumper

L Trumper

State Regular
Spikey said:
Kevin Walters was 67.46 after 20 and 48.26 by the end, so a big drop, but hardly massive. This is tricky 'cause the guys like Rowe suffer such a decline they get kicked out of the team before it really bites their average!

It's a slightly different note, but just a little discussion about Chanderpaul and Ponting and their conversion rates. Chanders in his first 51 tests made 21 50's and 2 tons. So it was a lousy conversion rate. Since then he's gone 38 50's and 25 100's, which are very good numbers. On the other hand, Ponting was 46's 50s and 38 100s over his first 132 matches, brilliant numbers, but in his last 35 odd matches he went 16's 50 and 3 100's, with two of those doubles. Not quite a Chander-esque ratio, but I think it's interesting
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I think Strauss has similar record, 18 100s 14 50s till Lord's test in 09 and then 3 100s 13 50s till retirement.
 
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