Test cricket aggregates 3: World
Test cricket resumes at Lord's today after a two-month break for the ODI Champions Trophy. To mark this hiatus, I’ve taken some lists of test cricketers, ranked by aggregate career runs scored or wickets taken, and divided them into teams based mainly on the chronology of their career span, with adjustments to improve team balance where necessary. The reason for doing this is that I enjoy staring at these lists, and wanted to interpret them in some way. The result of doing it is, in my opinion, an interesting collection of names, numbers and notes, which helps to crystallise the progression of test cricket and its stars over the years.
Having done it with England and Australia, I decided to take on the world. This should be the longest list, but should also demand significantly higher entry criteria than for the single-nation lists. I therefore reverted to selecting the top 50 test batsmen by career run aggregate, and added the top 30 bowlers by wickets taken. Due to the higher minimum aggregates, no players appear on both lists (although one gets extremely close) and none warrant selection as a specialist wicket keeper. Adding the top eight keepers from the career dismissals list gives 88 men – eight teams.
*= 10,000 runs (13 players), 500 wickets (5) or 400 dismissals (2)
Team 1: the early years
All of these players’ aggregates were unprecedented in their day, and as such, the older the player, the more mythical their status. Bradman is the greatest statistical outlier in all sport, and in my opinion these particular statistics don’t lie. Hammond is England’s Bradman, Hutton his post war equivalent. Cowdrey, by test caps, became the game’s first centurion in 1968.
The left-handed Sobers, the world’s first great all-rounder, is at seven and bowls first change – he is only on the batting list but took a more than useful 235 left-arm wickets. Trueman was the first to 300, and Gibbs’ 309 stood as the highest by a spinner for 20 years.
Moving forward, we have Boycott and Knott, Englishmen heralding the modern era of openers and keepers respectively. Lloyd, a left-hander before they became commonplace, led Caribbean cricket into the modern era; Lillee did likewise for Australian bowling.
Team 2: new nations
England provided six of Team 1, but now contribute only classy left-handed batsman Gower, and Willis, who bowled in the same years as Lillee but excelled later in his career. Australia add two again: Chappell, successor to Bradman – or at least to Harvey; and Marsh, the first of four baggy green keepers to benefit from their edge-friendly conditions. The Caribbean contingent stays at three: Marshall was the best of Lloyd’s lethal army of seamers; Greenidge is half of a famous opening partnership, separated here; Richards casually, brutally, changed the face of batting.
There are first contributions from India, with Gavaskar first to 10,000 runs, New Zealand, with Hadlee first to 400 wickets, and Pakistan, who add two players: Miandad’s run aggregate was a national record for 20 years; Khan’s wicket figure was passed a little sooner, but he added nearly 4,000 runs for good measure. This team illustrates the increasing globalisation of cricket during the ‘70s and ‘80s.
Team 3: early modern
The traditional three sources dominate this team, but now in full colour - all of these careers stretched into the ‘90s, and four saw this century begin. Greenidge’s friend Haynes instead partners Gooch, third on a conveyor belt of English openers.
Australia provide the entire middle order. Border is the sole left-hander, like Lloyd and Gower before him; as captain and number five, he asks Steve Waugh, his successor in both roles, to instead reprise the all-round contribution of his early career, providing a fourth bowler. Steve's brother Mark and Boon are in their customary positions.
Stewart divided his long England career between opening and keeping; here he is relieved of both roles, free to hit at seven. Botham follows, the great all-rounder sharing the new ball with the prolific Walsh, who is in turn aided behind the stumps by his Caribbean teammate Dujon. The only selection from the ‘new’ nations is India’s Dev, another bowling all-rounder batting unusually low.
Team 4: the global ‘90s
Seven test entities are now represented, as the quantity of matches played increases exponentially and these chronological teams overlap more and more as a result. Kiwi captain Fleming and, post apartheid, a first South African in Kirsten, provide the grit in the middle order. The inimitable, run plundering style comes from Lara, an all-time great, he of the quadruple century, whose Caribbean teammate Ambrose takes the new ball.
Atherton and Taylor, Ashes adversaries, strong captains, predecessors to greatness, form a mutually respectful opening pair (forcing Kirsten to bat out of position) while Healy is the next Australian keeper in line. Spinner Kumble is one of only three men to take 600 wickets. The rest of the team is Pakistani, with Akram the first left-armer since Sobers and the last exhibit of the ‘80s all-rounder trend after Khan, Hadlee, Botham and Dev. He is joined by fellow paceman Younis as he often was, while ul-Haq brings beef to the batting.
It seems that the '90s saw left-handers suddenly in fashion. After seeing only one of them in each of the previous three teams, this time Taylor, Kirsten, Lara, Fleming and Akram make the batting order extremely southpaw-heavy.
Team 5: statistical giants, part one
The next two teams, overlapping around the turn of the century, each contain five players to have surpassed extremely rare landmarks. Only this one has Tendulkar though: in amassing his all-time record 15,971 runs he was first to debut and last to retire among this team. Over 2,500 runs adrift but above all others comes Ponting; McGrath is history's most prolific fast bowler; Warne is the second highest overall wicket taker; Boucher, with 555 dismissals, is in a class of his own and will be comfortable keeping to Pollock and Donald in addition to the aforementioned Australians.
The opening pair is all left-handed: Langer will deliver even if he misses Hayden; Jayasuriya is the first Sri Lankan featured and will also operate as a second spinner. A third left-hander, Ganguly, captained Tendulkar in his prime. With Yousuf the other supporting batsman, this team has no Caribbean representation, which reflects the decline of the region and the futility of manufactured transnational pride.
Team 6: statistical giants, part two
The headliners this time are as follows: Muralitharan, the only man with 800 test wickets; Kallis, at 3rd on the runs list and 32nd in wickets, statistically the greatest batting all-rounder of all time; Dravid and Chanderpaul, the most unyielding of batsmen who shared over 25,000 runs; and Gilchrist, second on the dismissals list and, with his revolutionary attacking style, the best batsman among full-time wicket keepers.
Laxman and Sehwag give the batting an Indian flavour, with Hayden partnering the latter as opener. The left-arm guile of Vaas and raw pace of Lee exploit the new ball, while the versatility of Kallis at first change accommodates Vettori, left-arm spinner and an extremely useful batsman. He is the third and final New Zealander in this discussion, the lowest figure of those represented, although Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have no players featured.
The trend towards left-handers continues. Hayden and Chanderpaul are the only two in the top six, but Gilchrist, Vettori and Vaas are a dangerous lefty lower order, with 13,000 runs between them.
Team 7: 21st century
Anyone old enough to read this is old enough to remember these guys. In fact, Younis Khan only retired after playing in the most recent test match of all, last month, after a 17-year career. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka continue to make up for lost time, with their most prolific batsmen, Sangakkara and Jayawardene, together as always at three and four. Pietersen and Dhoni bring an explosive quality to the lower middle order, likewise Gayle at the top.
A more traditional opener, Strauss, who completes a left-handed top three, played his 100 tests in just eight years, reflecting the proliferation of test matches in the modern era. Johnson’s eight-year career featured only 73 tests, so his wicket haul is impressive, but his pace combination with Ntini and Khan still seems slightly less formidable than other teams can boast, and is overbalanced, with Ntini the only right-armer of the three. Likewise, Singh is a quality spinner but the three previous teams each boast a true giant.
Team 8: present day
The most recent team contains eight players from England and South Africa, of whom four will resume hostilities today when Cook, Anderson and Broad host Amla. Furthermore, Bell, de Villiers and Steyn, not playing in the July series, have not officially retired from test cricket. Smith has though, stranded alone between 9 and 10,000 runs, second only to Kallis on his nation’s list. He and Cook provide yet another left-handed opening partnership.
Left-armer Herath is the most prolific active spinner, battling gamely in Muralitharan’s shadow. Two recently retired Australians complete the team: Clarke - Taylor’s equal as modern era captain and batsman, if not quite at the exalted level of Border, Waugh and Ponting; and Haddin, whose 270 dismissals in just seven years, level with Dujon and one more than Knott, are, with respect, proof that conditions favour wicket keepers in one nation above all others.
Next in line?
I’ll do this again in two years, during the 2019 world cup, by which time the batting and bowling lists will almost certainly have changed – or grown to encompass more teams. Among batsmen, the popular ‘big four’ of Joe Root, Virat Kohli, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson spring to mind as likely entrants to the top 50, although the latter two would first have to overhaul their compatriots David Warner and Ross Taylor, while Pakistan’s Azhar Ali is within reach.
The bowling situation is more straightforward: Ravichandran Ashwin is one good series away from joining the elite, and would do so in record time – his next test will be his 50th. Morne Morkel, Nathan Lyon, Ishant Sharma and the New Zealand pair of Tim Southee and Trent Boult are next in line, although some are bound to fall short through diminished form or fitness.
Finally, what is almost certain about the next iteration of this project is that any effort to rearrange the world list into national teams will not succeed nearly as neatly as it did this time... Below is the delightfully tidy result, just for fun:
England
There is no spinner, because Derek Underwood is one place outside the world list, but, once you've chosen two from the plethora of openers, this team virtually picks itself.
Australia
The omission of Chappell and inclusion of Johnson show that Australia’s batting is historically stronger than its bowling.
‘West Indies’
Lloyd and Gayle miss out while Chanderpaul is a makeshift three. The attack is beautifully balanced and menacing.
India
They all played together except Gavaskar and Dev. Short on pace, but with so much batting this is some team.
South Africa
With their series in England starting today, I should probably analyse the South African aggregates in more detail next. There would be a very good pre-apartheid team, but here at the top of the aggregates we have an all-modern XI (readmission was 1992) with no spin but extensive, formidable pace. And, yes, I went there…
Pakistan / Sri Lanka combined XI
Pakistani pace, Sri Lankan spin and plenty of runs. Sangakkara dons the gloves.
Miscellaneous XI
All three Kiwis and everyone else’s spare parts yields a really excellent team.
Surplus
In which we learn that England produces all the openers, and Australia has all the middle order batsmen and keepers.
