Being a Robin.

Today, India became the no. 1 Test side in the world. While I may miss an occasional hour or two of a match, I still think that Test cricket is the purest form of cricket. There is no better sight in the world  than a fast bowler steaming-in in slightly overcast conditions with four slips, gully, point and cover. And if the batsman on the other end is of the caliber of  Dravid, then the contest is simply riveting.  Just who can forget the match at Headingly where he blunted everything England threw at him.

This being  a lazy Sunday evening, I decided to do some casual number crunching of my own. This was to identify who among the batsmen has the most profound effect in India reaching where it is. And what result this has thrown in.

Any statistical analysis needs to be baselined. Arguably, India reached its cricketing nadir in 1999-2000 series against Australia in Australia. Just mention this series in front of Ajit Agarkar and see him sweat. Nothing went right for India except for Player of the series award to Sachin and that magnificent century by Laxman. Since then India has only gone better.  So lets see how India has fared since that series. In this period, India has played 102 Test matches winning 40 and losing 26 with the highest score being 726 and lowest 76.

I have taken the liberty of adding Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh to the Fab Four. Sehwag is a natural inclusion and with the retirement of Ganguly, Yuvraj is a regular feature in the Indian Side. So here is the overall record

Overall Record

Player	Test	Runs	HS	Avg	100.
Rahul Dravid	101	8506	270	55.96	22
Sachin Tendulkar	88	7080	248	53.63	21
VVS Laxman	91	6117	281	49.33	13
Saurav Ganguly	80	4754	239	39.61	9
Virendar Sehwag	72	6248	319	52.50	17
Yuvraj Singh	31	1545	169	36.78	3

Very good record all round. Now lets see how do these batsmen fare in home and away tests.

Home Series

Player	Test	Runs	HS	Avg	100.
Rahul Dravid	46	3683	222	53.37	11
Sachin Tendulkar	42	3290	201	52.22	10
VVS Laxman	42	2703	281	51.98	6
Saurav Ganguly	35	2068	239	39.76	5
Virendar Sehwag	34	3202	319	56.17	9
Yuvraj Singh	14	861	169	45.31	1

Away Series

Player	Test	Runs	HS	Avg	100.
Rahul Dravid	55	4823	270	58.10	11
Sachin Tendulkar	46	3790	248	54.92	11
VVS Laxman	49	3414	178	47.41	7
Saurav Ganguly	45	2686	144	39.50	4
Virendar Sehwag	38	3046	309	49.12	8
Yuvraj Singh	17	684	122	29.73	2

Lets see how these players fare in won and lost matches.

Matches that India Won

Player	Test	Runs	HS	Avg	100.
Rahul Dravid	39	3810	270	74.70	11
Sachin Tendulkar	35	3163	248	67.29	12
VVS Laxman	35	2364	281	50.29	4
Saurav Ganguly	31	1944	136	46.28	4
Virendar Sehwag	27	2382	309	59.55	5
Yuvraj Singh	13	585	85	39.00	0

Matches that India Lost

Player	Test	Runs	HS	Avg	100.
Rahul Dravid	27	1410	92	27.11	0
Sachin Tendulkar	22	1457	155	33.88	2
VVS Laxman	22	1131	109	29.00	1
Saurav Ganguly	23	1105	87	24.555	0
Virendar Sehwag	17	1246	201	36.64	3
Yuvraj Singh	6	389	122	32.41	2

In matches that India has won, Dravid averages whopping 7 runs more than the world’s best batsman. Yet, Dravid would always be  the Robin, never the Batman. Its time that we start acknowledging people who just do their job.

Player	Test	Runs	HS	Avg	100.
Rahul Dravid	46	3683	222	53.37	11
Sachin Tendulkar	42	3290	201	52.22	10
VVS Laxman	42	2703	281	51.98	6
Saurav Ganguly	35	2068	239	39.76	5
Virendar Sehwag	34	3202	319	56.17	9
Yuvraj Singh	14	861	169	45.31	1

Advertisement