They will be hoping to get at least Axar back, whose batting will allow them to play a more attacking spinner in Kuldeep

Sidharth Monga11-Feb-2021With the first Test of the series being India’s second home defeat in more than eight years, it had to be a rare event. While England played excellent cricket from the moment they won the toss, they needed some good fortune to go their way too. One hundred and sixty-six Tests have been played since the start of 2017. There have been results in 146 of those. Only five times has a team made fewer errors with the bat than India’s 102 in Chennai to lose a Test. To lose 19 wickets to just 102 uncontrolled responses is terrible luck – Cheteshwar Pujara got out in the first innings despite being in full control of the shot – especially when England’s first innings alone took 136 not-in-control responses to end.Given the toss, the conditions and England’s resolute batting, India had to work harder for their wickets. It’s the opposite of what happened in Australia when it was the visitors who enjoyed some luck in the last three Tests when the ball was in play.Events in the final innings of the last two Tests in Australia and also in the recent game between Bangladesh and West Indies in Chattogram might have had some impact on England’s lack of declaration and fans’ expectations, but the Test was – as most of them are – won and lost in the first two innings. Not only did India’s first innings feature three unlucky wickets and some sensational catching, but the surge in the effectiveness of bowling was also huge.Related

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England enjoyed at least a bonus day of batting before the ball started to misbehave at all, which is not how the other Tests in the aforementioned list played out. Four out of the five Tests mentioned earlier were typically low-scoring affairs, the fifth was between India and Afghanistan.The penalty for batting errors went up considerably day three onwards in Chennai. The first innings took 13.6 false responses for a wicket to fall, the next three took 6.8, 5.7 and 4.1 respectively. Interestingly, the frequency of false responses didn’t really follow a linear pattern: there was one false response every 10.7 balls in the first innings, and every 9.4, 4.9 and 8.5 balls in the subsequent ones. Arguably, England were batting for a declaration in the third innings and played a few shots too many, which might be reflecting in poor control percentage on the fourth day; or perhaps India saw something in how England tackled the misbehaving ball on day four, which gives them confidence for the rest of the series.This points to two factors other than dumb luck. England could afford to bowl more attacking lengths because they had the runs on the board and a more responsive pitch to bowl on. While the economy rate went up, the errors were likelier to bring them wickets. Also, on more difficult pitches, you pay more for your errors. And this pitch got really difficult after the first two days. This was perhaps the kind of pitch that MS Dhoni used to rail against because it made the toss crucial, especially when Anil Kumble had retired and he had just Harbhajan Singh as the settled spinner.Washington Sundar might have to sit out despite his batting hand in the last Test if India play both Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav•BCCIThis is not to say that this is the first time a team has enjoyed good luck in Test cricket. India did so in Australia. England did so when they were in India last time, winning three tosses and having to induce fewer false responses for a wicket, but this time they backed it up with the big runs to make any slice of luck became significant.This time around, England are more determined to grind India out if they get to bat first, which shows in their squad composition. India are missing a key bowler: with a complete and relentless attack in the past, India could contain teams to 450-500 instead of the 578 England got here. Also, India are towards the end of a long season, which began with the IPL and carried into the gruelling tour of Australia. In the absence of Ravindra Jadeja, the fitness of the other bowlers will continue to be tested should England win the toss on a similar pitch again.Good examples of how India negated the toss disadvantage by restricting the opposition to 400-450 include the Mohali Test against Australia in 2013, the Mumbai and Chennai Tests against England in 2016, and the Ranchi Test against Australia in 2017. They will be hoping they get at least Axar Patel back, whose batting will allow them to play a more attacking spinner in Kuldeep Yadav. That might mean Washington Sundar might have to sit out despite his batting hand in the last Test, but when playing a spinner at No. 7, you are looking more at his bowling than batting.Virat Kohli’s press conference after the first Test betrayed a hint of annoyance at questions looking for any larger issue with the team. Kohli himself made just nine mistakes when he batted, and was out two times. The team knows they were in a tough situation, the kind they have made look easy in the past.Should they lose the toss again and find the pitch to be similar – the latter is less likely to happen – India will ask for better control from their bowlers and a little bit more luck when they bat in the first innings. For the first time in four years, India have been properly challenged at home. The next three Tests will make for fascinating cricket.

Not for the first time in this series, Bangladesh’s quicks have given them a chance, and that’s rare for them in Test cricket

Mohammad Isam30-Apr-2021Taskin Ahmed hands his hat to his captain, takes the ball, grips it with his index and middle fingers, and gives it a bit of a flip… all fast bowlers do it, but it has been a curiously reassuring sight for followers of Bangladesh cricket in the ongoing Test series.That Bangladesh pace attack, led by Ahmed, nearly derailed Sri Lanka in the morning session on the second day of the second Test in Pallekele, and both Abu Jayed and Shoriful Islam supported Ahmed with meaningful spells. Maybe so little is expected from the Bangladesh pacers that even a three-wicket session is seen as a triumph but it can’t be denied that they made themselves relevant on the day, and that’s rare enough to be remarkable.The morning session was the third time in this Test series that the Bangladesh bowlers seemed to be getting things right.On the third evening of the first Test, Ahmed had Oshada Fernando caught down the leg side, after which Angelo Mathews fell to Taijul Islam. Dhananjaya de Silva came in, edged a couple that could have gone to hand with the right field placements, and Taijul couldn’t reach a caught-and-bowled chance from Dimuth Karunaratne. And the initiative was lost.Related

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The quicks were impressive at the start of the second Test, too. They bowled 20 out of the first 26 overs – spin is usually in for Bangladesh by that stage – and Ahmed and Shorfiul got the batters to play and miss on a number of occasions before Ahmed found Karunaratne’s edge. But Najmul Hossain Shanto dropped the dolly at slip. And the initiative was taken away.Sri Lanka ended the first day on 291 for 1, so when Bangladesh again started well on Friday, it seemed like only a matter of time before they would run out of steam – Sri Lanka would turn a corner with a spate of boundaries, or the heat of Pallekele would have a say, or the unresponsive pitch would break their will.But after Sri Lanka got 18 runs in the first hour, Mominul Haque did the wise thing by bringing back Ahmed and Shoriful for second spells. Ahmed had already beaten the bat a number of times in a tight first spell, so he had his tail up, looking for wickets. He zeroed in on more length and short-of-length deliveries – he conceded just three runs off the 20 deliveries he bowled on these lengths, picking up one of his two wickets. The other one came from a short ball down the leg side. Shoriful and Jayed also targeted the good length; Jayed bowled a few more full deliveries than the others, but the general plan was to offer fewer half-volleys.As the first session on the first day, there wasn’t any swing on offer, but the bowlers found a bit of movement off the pitch. More crucially, they bowled consistent lines.Sri Lanka perhaps expected their ultra-defensive batting plan could be built upon once the bowlers tired. But Bangladesh remained disciplined, and they cashed in on the home side’s caution.Enthusiasm might help him get through this Test, but giving Shoriful Islam more long-form experience is key•AFP via Getty ImagesBangladesh’s pace bowlers also ended up giving the spin duo of Mehidy Hasan and Taijul a good platform. It is usually the other way around. But Ahmed’s improved consistency and the strong support acts made it a different sort of day for Bangladesh.Jayed may not have picked up a wicket in the series so far, but he is the highest wicket-taker among the pacers in the Bangladesh squad. They have got three four-wicket hauls out of him in the last 18 months, and he has bowled well in India, New Zealand and the West Indies, and recently at home too.Shoriful impressed on debut, not much by using his height or pace but by being consistent outside the off stump. He is young, having been fast-tracked from the Under-19 set-up, and this was his first first-class game in more than two years. Enthusiasm might help him get through this Test, but giving him more long-form experience is key.The three pace bowlers perhaps could have bowled a little better against Niroshan Dickwella and Ramesh Mendis later in the day, but better hands in the slips could have helped too – Ahmed did get Mendis’ edge, but Shanto dropped that.This day could, however, be a turning point for Bangladesh’s pace-bowling strategy – or the lack of it until this series. There hasn’t been much in the conditions, but the pace trio has kept Bangladesh going for much of the day. This isn’t common for them, not in the subcontinent.

From being called up for the Ashes to freak injuries and an inaugural Hundred title, he has had an up-and-down career that may truly take off at the IPL this year

Vishal Dikshit29-Sep-2021An out-of-nowhere Test call-up at the age of 20 for the 2017-18 Ashes. A freak injury at the Los Angeles Airport in 2018 while picking up a suitcase to rush for a connecting flight. An ODI call-up in the summer of 2021 but still no England cap. A Hundred trophy for Southern Brave in its inaugural edition. And now a prospective IPL debut for Royal Challengers Bangalore.If there was a rollercoaster to be opened in Sussex any time soon, it could be named after their 24-year-old bowling allrounder George Garton.Garton is a left-arm quick who could possibly slot into the No. 7 position for Royal Challengers. It’s a batting position they did not need in the first leg of the 2021 IPL and a bowling spot they would want to get all four overs out of, especially in the absence of Washington Sundar and Daniel Sams. As AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell and are going to be two obvious overseas picks, Garton will have to fight for a spot with a proven name in Kyle Jamieson, but will bring that X-factor of a left-arm quick that the franchise has lacked for a while.Like Sams, Garton can bowl in the powerplay, something he did with aplomb in the Hundred recently with a dot-ball percentage of over 54 (minimum 30 balls), only behind Adam Milne’s 62%, and he can even add some value with the bat down the order.In the Hundred Eliminator against Trent Rockets, for example, Garton sent back the hard-hitting top order of Dawid Malan, Alex Hales and D’Arcy Short single-handedly to take home the Player-of-the-Match award. Malan was undone by extra bounce which Garton’s height and unique action extract, Hales was deceived by a slow cutter, and Short spliced a catch to midwicket, also possibly because of bounce.The night before the IPL resumed this month, Garton delivered in yet another knockout match, but in a lost cause for Sussex against Kent with a first spell of 2 for 12 from three overs by dismissing Zak Crawley (off a slower ball again) and Joe Denly. He later smashed a 23-ball 41 with some big swings, sweeps and reverse sweeps to hammer four fours and three sixes.George Garton leaps in celebration•Getty ImagesGarton’s knack for removing the big fish began well before the Hundred though. In April this year, he dismissed Joe Root with a late inswinger in a county match and a format the batter is unmatchable in many ways around the world. Just a week before that, Garton scored a career-best 97 against Glamorgan to further add to his batting credentials. And against Essex in last year’s Bob Willis Trophy, his maiden first-class five-for – in a total of nine wickets in the match – included the scalps of Alastair Cook and Dan Lawrence, his Under-19 team-mate from the 2016 World Cup in Bangladesh.With the wickets of a former and current England captain in the bag, it’s somewhat fitting that he has landed himself a contract with a team led by India captain Virat Kohli, thanks to a call team director and acting coach Mike Hesson made at the back-end of the Hundred. Some of Garton’s intense celebrations – a leap with a clenched fist in his follow through – are already a perfect match for the on-field gesticulations a forthright and passionate character like Kohli believes in.”I’m a very competitive person myself, being upfront and honest. And that seems exactly like how he is,” Garton said of Kohli before leaving the UK for the IPL. “He’s one of the icons of the game worldwide, so it’ll be brilliant to share a dressing room with him. People like him and AB de Villiers, Glenn Maxwell, Dan Christian, who is a proven T20 player all around the world…It’s certainly a star-studded team who I’m looking forward to tapping into a bit of knowledge when I can and just being around them.”What makes Garton stand out, apart from the value he will add as a sought-after left-arm quick, is his repertoire and the adaptability to mould his skills for the five formats he has played. Yes, five: the Hundred and T10 to add to the usual three. Since he was fast-tracked into the Ashes set-up nearly four years ago via the Lions route, Garton has excelled with the white ball too. He was the leading wicket-taker in the 2019 Abu Dhabi T10 and more recently joint-seventh in the Hundred with 10 wickets.George Garton claimed two in two balls•Getty ImagesBowling around the 135kmh-mark, Garton is a smash-the-deck-hard kind of bowler with his back-breaking action, releasing the ball like a vertical slingshot that gets him extra bounce. His slower delivery can dip below 120kmh and the offcutter moving away from right-hand batters makes the angle tougher to tackle. If he gets a good run with Royal Challengers, Garton’s skillsets could come in handy the way James Pattinson’s did last year for Mumbai Indians on the same UAE surfaces – tie up the oppositions with pace and bounce from hard lengths in the powerplay and slip in some cutters in the middle overs.”I think there’s a lot more to bowling than just trying to bowl fast and I think especially with the white ball, I guess all cricket is now the faster you bowl, the faster you go to the boundary if you don’t put it in the right place,” Garton said. “It’s certainly learning more about my skills, being more accurate and you just have to look at someone like Jimmy [Anderson] who, at the age of 39 is, probably as skilful as he ever has been and that’s probably why he’s taking more wickets than he has at a better average. So there’s certainly more to bowling than just raw pace but it’s nice to be able to fall back on that for sure, and go, ‘ok, well, I might be struggling a little bit today with my skills so just ramp it up a bit and put some pressure on the batters that way’.”Developing his array of skills and maturing with his mentality is something Garton worked on since almost getting a taste of international cricket in 2017, when he couldn’t convert a trial with Rajasthan Royals before the 2020 IPL into a contract.”I think I’ve developed massively, both on and off the pitch,” Garton said remembering his Ashes call-up. “I’m not just an angry fast bowler that runs in and tries to bowls fast. There’s a few more strings to my bow – batting has come on a lot, my knowledge of my bowling, when to turn it on and when to bowl within myself, my skills around red-ball cricket as well. I feel like I’m developing nicely, I’m still got a long way to go but definitely if I look back to the bowler I was or the cricketer I was three years ago, there’s been big developments.”In these years, Garton has had to cope with the sudden pressures of being fast-tracked into the Lions and England’s international set-up, but sometimes not even finding a place in the Sussex XI which already had Jofra Archer, Ollie Robinson, Chris Jordan, Tymal Mills and Reece Topley in the ranks. Whether getting game time or not, Garton also tapped into his team-mates’ wealth of experience, especially taking death-bowling tips and tricks from Jordan and Mills.”Off CJ it’s just staying calm and collected and really picking your moments and try and take wickets but also picking your moments to try and take a medicine and go for a single,” Garton says of his conversations with Jordan. “CJ is brilliant, especially in the death overs, very experienced. Millsy has got the best record I know of bowling in the death as well. So they’re two pretty good people to tap into for the death. It means I don’t bowl too much at death for Sussex but definitely in the nets I tap into them as much as possible. I’ve learnt a lot from those two and Jof as well, Ollie in the powerplay so we’re very lucky to have such a good bowling unit to tap into.”George Garton took Sussex across the line•Getty ImagesMore death-overs experience in Garton is something Royal Challengers might have valued, but being in red-hot form in recent years and the ability to think on his feet is what his IPL team bought him for.”Recently I’ve been thrown the ball in the powerplay a lot and I think wickets in the powerplay is the biggest thing,” Garton says. “My mindset in the powerplay is to be as aggressive as possible, try and take wickets because that really sets the game up in your team. If I’m coming in the middle and towards the death then you have to assess, are there two set batsmen, is there one in and one not? Can I get that bloke off strike and then looking at the opportunity to take wickets as well? I think shorter-format cricket, the more wickets you take the better off you are but you also have to sometimes concede and take your medicine and try and be smart as well.”This, being a gun fielder, and a handy batter down the order to become a “genuine allrounder” has drawn Garton a lot of praise from several coaches he has played under. A “real gem,” Sussex bowling coach Jon Lewis called him. “Great package,” said Mahela Jayawardene for Brave in the Hundred.”He is one of several players that we see as pillars of our side in the years to come,” Sussex’s T20 head coach James Kirtley said recently. “He adds great balance to any side and is one of the best fielders in the world.”Garton says he is in a “really good space physically and mentally” before the IPL, which, in some ways, is like his third coming even before his career has taken off on the big stage. He may not have an England cap yet but a Royal Challengers and IPL debut could do justice to the hype that has been built around him.

A look at the teams with the longest, and most imposing, dominant streaks, and a comparison of the best Australia and West Indies teams

Anantha Narayanan26-Jun-2021This is the second part of my two-part essay on rating Test teams. The first part covered Test cricket from 1877 to 1991 – which I divided into five periods. The explanations on the methodology are not repeated here. In this article, I will cover the next two periods, from 1992 to 2021 (including the recently concluded World Test Championship final), and provide details of various related analyses.In this pair of articles, I have analysed and rated teams across 145 years of Test cricket. This is different to the ICC ratings. I consider the results, location, relative team strengths, relative team positions, and the nature of the win/draw/loss in each case. I have also introduced decay in the methodology so that recent matches carry more weight.If you have not read part one yet, it is time read that article first. Otherwise, this article will not make any sense to you.Let us first look at the 15-year period that includes the birth of the current millennium.Anantha NarayananWe saw in the first article that in the team standings as on December 31, 1991, West Indies were on top with 631 TRI points, but Australia had almost drawn level – they were just a point behind. The era of West Indian domination was about to end. Barring a blip during 1994, when Pakistan led the standings, Australia finished on top with 14 first places in this 1992-2006 period, and in four more years in the next one.It was not just that Australia led the table; they did it in style. In the 14 years in which they topped the table, they had an average TRI value of 749. The average of the 14 second-placed teams’ TRI values was 662. This shows that Australia had an average lead of 87 points, or nearly 15%. That is a massive level of domination. If we narrow this down to 2000-2009, this gap is a huge 143 TRI points on average. This was exceeded only by the Australian teams of the 1940s and ’50s. Initially it was Allan Border who led the team in this phase, then Mark Taylor, followed by Steve Waugh.Among the who took Australia to their lofty heights and kept them there is a who’s who of Australian cricket. In no particular order – Taylor, Michael Slater, Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh, Mark Waugh, Michael Clarke, Ian Healy, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie. Pakistan’s lone success, in 1994, was built around Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. However, the team that made ripples was South Africa, who re-entered the Test scene in 1992 and had a string of second- or third-place finishes from 1995 through 2004. England, who had an average start, ended the period strongly.Anantha NarayananIn the 15 years between 2007 and 2021, three teams dominated. Australia led during the first four years, South Africa topped for three years, and India finished the period well with five consecutive No. 1 placings. England took the top spot once, Australia managed another as well, while New Zealand ended the period with the WTC title and the No. 1 ranking.Ricky Ponting took over as Australia’s captain in 2004 and he was assisted by Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey and Mitchell Johnson. Warne, McGrath and Gilchrist left at the beginning of this period. Australia did not feel their absence immediately. But as years passed, their dominance waned. South Africa were the team to beat. Led very well by Graeme Smith, they had Jacques Kallis, Hashim Amla, Dale Steyn, AB de Villiers and Vernon Philander. They were on top for three years between 2012 and 2014. Australia had a one-year stint at the top in 2015, thanks to the efforts of the likes of Nathan Lyon and Pat Cummins.Then India took over and they ruled the roost for the next five years. Led by Virat Kohli, India have had R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishant Sharma, and recently Rishabh Pant and Jasprit Bumrah in their ranks. The series win in Australia last season was crucial, as they would have lost the top ranking had they not won there.New Zealand’s away series win in England, just before the WTC final, narrowed the gap with India. Kyle Williamson, Ross Taylor, Tom Latham and their world-class pace bowlers provided them a strong base. They followed this with their excellent win in the WTC final and have overtaken India in the ratings. It is clear that New Zealand and India are the two best teams playing now.Anantha NarayananExactly 100 year-end ratings have been calculated in this exercise. Of these, the first 25 belonged to the pre-WWII years, when it was virtually a two-horse race. As such, it is not worthwhile including those years in the summaries. So the table above covers only the years from 1946 to 2021. By 1950, West Indies and South Africa were becoming stronger and Pakistan entered with a bang. Hence one can say that there was strong competition from the end of World War II.In the 75 year-end calculations after World War II, Australia led in 36 – nearly half of all years in this period. West Indies led in 16 year-end tables and shared the lead in one. England led in 11, and India in five. South Africa topped the table in four (of the 58 tables in which they were present) and Pakistan finished with 1.5. New Zealand managed to post one entry with their takeover of the 2021 table (as on June 24).Australia’s domination has been phenomenal. For them, this 75-year period started with Don Bradman and ended with Steven Smith, the top two batters in terms of batting average (with a 1500-run cut-off). I would venture to say that this domination is akin to that of Bradman over other batters. Add to this the fact that Australia have 25 second- and third-place finishes, which means that only 14 times did they drop out of the top three positions.West Indies started becoming a force once the three Ws emerged. They were followed by Garry Sobers, then Clive Lloyd and a galaxy of magnificent pace bowlers. Brian Lara was on the scene towards the end of West Indies’ period of dominance, but unfortunately he had to preside over their subsequent decline. However, the last 20 years do not take anything away from the glittering three decades during which West Indies reached the top 16 (and a half) times. They were second an equal number of times.England were there or thereabouts right through this 75-year period, but they never had a really great sustained run. Possibly their best stretch was between 1968 and 1980, when they led the table seven times. Ian Botham, Geoffrey Boycott, Bob Willis, Derek Underwood and Alan Knott formed the core of this team.These trends are mostly mirrored when we look at the leaders at the Test-match level. A total of 2150 Tests have been played from 1946 through the WTC final in 2021. Five teams were rated in all these Tests. Australia led in 1037, just short of 50%. West Indies in around 22%, and South Africa, England and India shared the bulk of the remaining Tests. Pakistan led in 72 tables. New Zealand led in four tables, in 2021: at the end of England’s Test in Chennai this year, after West Indies’ win in Dhaka, and after the two most recent Tests (West Indies vs South Africa, and the WTC final).Australia’s highest TRI value, 919, was reached in February 1951. West Indies reached theirs, 856, on October 15, 1986. England’s peak of 868 points was way back in 1889.Australia have averaged a score of 646 across all the matches they played. England’s average is 541. West Indies, pulled down considerably over the past 25 years, and India, weighed down by those unproductive early decades, now have virtually identical averages. Pakistan and South Africa have performed well overall, crossing 500 TRI points on average.Team Graphs
Presenting all eight teams in one graph would have been very cluttered, so the four best teams in terms of number of year-end top ranks – Australia, West Indies, England and India – are shown in one graph, and the other four in another. In view of the chalk-and-cheese nature of the teams competing and their strengths, the four major teams of the pre-WWII years are shown in one graph, while the 1947-to-2021 period is depicted in two. Only the year-end values are plotted.Anantha NarayananThe first of these graphs portrays the post-World-War scene very nicely. The pre-eminence of Australia immediately after the war, followed by periods of good performance, the slump in the 1980s, and the dominance either side of the turn of the millennium. The gradual rise of West Indies is captured as well, culminating in their glory days in the 1980s and a free fall afterwards. England have had their peaks here and there but no sustained superlative period. India have been the dominant team recently with five successive No. 1 finishes from 2016 through 2020.Anantha NarayananThe second of these graphs is equally illuminating. The rise to lofty heights of South Africa in the early 1950s and then again in the late ’60s, followed by their banishment, and then their return and rise to the top again a few years after the millennium and in the first half of the last decade. Pakistan’s intermittent rise to the top and their recent middling positions are reflected. Also the way New Zealand have moved to the top, and how they were second to West Indies in the 1980s. Finally, Sri Lanka have made some game attempts to move to the top, and achieved good placements in the mid-2000s.Anantha NarayananThe graph for the first period of Test cricket is dominated by England and Australia (note the huge gap between the two sides in the late 1880s, though). The graph also illustrates the rise to the top of Australia after the First World War, their plunge in the 1920s and subsequent sharp rise again.Anantha NarayananThe top TRI values
The 850-mark has been breached 98 times in the history of Test cricket: twice by England in 1889, when they had a run of six wins against Australia; five times by West Indies in 1986; and a whopping 91 times by Australia. The post-war Australians breached the mark 36 times between 1949 and 1952. This included five occasions when they crossed 900 and one of these resulted in the highest TRI ever reached, 919, in February 1951. The other great Australian team achieved the 850-mark no fewer than 55 times between 2003 and 2008. This included two instances when they crossed 900. The highest they reached was 913.The most dominant teams
Now we come to the most important part of this exercise: determining the greatest Test team in history by assessing dominance across long periods.Anantha NarayananThe first table is a strictly defined one. I have looked for team streaks in which the teams exceeded 800 TRI points. I have identified three such streaks. (England are the only other team to have ever crossed 800, and that streak was just three Tests long, so they have been left out of the graph above.) Let us now regard the three dominant streaks individually. Note that if a team had consecutive identical values, only the first occurrence is shown.At the end of the Ashes Test played at Trent Bridge in 1948, Australia reached 846 TRI points. They maintained a level of over 800 TRI points for the next 66 Tests. The streak ended with the drawn Test in Adelaide against South Africa in 1953. A home loss in the next Test took them to 765 TRI points. Their average TRI over this span was an imposing 864. Their high average TRI indicates how far ahead of the others Australia were during this dominant phase. It can be noted that of these 66, 54 values are above 850.West Indies reached 800 during a Test in which they did not play, in 1985. Their TRI value was 801. They stayed above 800 during the next 57 Tests, and averaging 822, and reaching a high of 856 in October 1986. During most of these Tests, New Zealand were in second place, though well over 250 points behind.The third and most impressive of these dominant streaks was the six-year supremacy of Australia between 2002 and 2008. On 28 July 2002, they went past 800 TRI points during a Test between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and they stayed above 800 for the next 280 Tests. It is a fact that this number is higher than it would have been in previous eras because more Tests are being played these days, but it is still an amazing period of total domination. Australia reached a peak of 913 TRI points in January 2008, and they averaged 850 TRI points during this six-year period. It was the loss in Nagpur during their 2008 tour of India that got them below 800 and broke the streak (though they regained the 800 mark a couple of Tests later). They went past 850 on 142 occasions during that streak.Anantha NarayananThis table is a variant of the graph above it (with a massive basic difference). For each Test for each team, I have looked at every Test played in the period from seven to 12 years before that match and computed the average TRI value. I have then determined the highest TRI average for that team for that Test and selected the three greatest team periods ever on that basis. The lower limit of seven years is to make sure that the period considered is long enough to be of relevance. The upper limit of 12 years is to make sure that the core players are there at either end of each period.Again, there were periods for three teams with TRI averages that exceeded 750 points and have been taken for further consideration. Australia 1, between 1946 and 1953; West Indies between 1983 and 1991; and finally, Australia 2 between 2001 and 2009.The best Test teams ever
The West Indies team from 1983 to 1991 really does not have the numbers to be in contention for the title of the best team ever. There is no doubt that they had a long unbeaten streak, but the many draws, both in Tests and series, worked against them.That leaves us with the two Australian teams. Australia 1 was outstanding, with an average TRI of 828. Australia 2 was equally impressive and secured an even higher average TRI of 842. So, round one to the recent Australian team.However, the overall results favoured the earlier Australian team – 83.8% to 77.8%, a full six points. So, round two to Bradman and Lindsay Hassett’s Australians. Does the fact that the Australia of Waugh and Ponting maintained the high numbers over a much bigger number of matches count? Probably not. The average number of Tests played per year in the 1950s was only around 15-20, against 40-50 in 2005. So that cannot really be a factor. What about the opposition? Australia 1 had England and an emerging West Indies and South Africa to contend with. Australia 2 had England, South Africa, India and Pakistan to contend with. Maybe a slight edge to Australia 2 in terms of competition.Australia 1’s more impressive team performance is enough to offset the slightly lower average TRI. And Australia 2’s higher average TRI and the slightly higher quality of opposition are enough to offset their lower performance percentage.I have to conclude that these two Australia teams were jointly the greatest to ever play Test cricket. Readers might have their preferences and justifications to favour one over the other, but as far as I am concerned, the two cannot be separated. This may not be the American way, in which there has to be a winner. However, this is not a single match. It is a complex collection of myriad factors and I am comfortable placing the two teams on the same pedestal.A few observations
1. The highest ever TRI value reached was 919 by Australia in 1951, as mentioned earlier. The lowest TRI value for a team in top position was 549, for West Indies. All six teams were within 138 points of each other at this point, at the end of the Madras Test of 1982.2. The highest TRI value for a team in second place was reached when the unfortunate South Africa team reached a magnificent total of 747 TRI points at the end of the Multan Test of 2003. South Africa had to contend with the immovable juggernaut of Australia who finished nearly 100 points ahead.3. The biggest margin of difference achieved by a team that finished on top was by the magnificent Australian team led by Bradman in August 1948. Interestingly it was after Bradman’s last Test, when Australia had 844 TRI points and England’s tally was 387. If ever the numbers told a story, it was then, during those late summer days in England.4. On four occasions, two teams finished with equal TRI points. One of these was a year-end rating and has already been covered. The four instances are: The Bombay Test of December 1978 when England and West Indies finished with 625 points. The December 1982 Karachi Test, and the Melbourne Ashes Test that same month, when West Indies and Pakistan finished with 570 points each. And India’s 1992 Test in Zimbabwe, when Australia finished level with West Indies with 643 points. All four Tests feature West Indies. There are 18 instances when the two teams are separated by one point.5. The average of TRI values for the top-placed teams for all 2424 Tests is 718. The average gap to second place is 113.6. The average of top TRI values for the 100 year-end tables is 714. It is amazing how the numbers do seem to gravitate to certain values in a frequency distribution. The average gap to second place is 140. Possibly because the sample size is quite low.7. The highest mean value of a single table was achieved recently at the end of Pakistan’s Test in Harare in May 2021. The mean of the TRI values was a huge 537. The top four teams exceeded 600 points apiece.8. At the other end, after the 1947 Christchurch Test featuring England, Australia’s tally was 774 TRI points, England’s 448 points, and the other teams had points just above 100. The mean was the lowest, a miserable 281.5.9. Coming to standard deviation, the Test with teams bunched closest was the India-England Madras Test of 1982, already featured for the low first-placed score of West Indies. The TRI points for the six teams were 549, 519, 504, 473, 425 and 411. This leads to a very low standard deviation of 48.4 and an unbelievable coefficient of variation of 0.101. This is the lowest CoV among all Tests.10. At the other end of the spectrum, after the Adelaide Ashes Test of 1951, Australia topped with the all-time high TRI of 919. West Indies secured 704, England 340, South Africa 178, India 178, and New Zealand 163. The standard deviation is a huge 292.0 and the CoV a somewhat high 0.701. However, the highest CoV is for the Christchurch Test of 1947. The low mean of 281.5 and a high standard deviation of 251.9 mean that the CoV is a whopping 0.895.

After being the top wicket-taker in the Vitality T20 Blast, and stints in various leagues, the Afghanistan quick bowler is raring to go in his first senior World Cup

Interview by Deivarayan Muthu24-Oct-2021Afghanistan fast bowler Naveen-ul-Haq has established himself as a T20 – and T10 – globetrotter, following in the footsteps of his seniors Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi. Having featured in the CPL, BPL, Lanka Premier League and the Vitality T20 Blast, the 22-year-old is now preparing for his first ICC world event with the Afghanistan senior team.You captained Afghanistan in the 2018 Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand. How excited are you to play for the senior team in the T20 World Cup?
As a kid or as a teenager, when you start playing cricket and then you captain your Under-19 side in a World Cup, you dream of all this, representing your country in the men’s World Cup also. So, yeah, it was a dream since childhood. I started playing cricket when I watched Afghanistan qualify for our first T20 World Cup, which was in the West Indies, I think [in 2010].Related

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What are your memories of watching that 2010 T20 World Cup?
I remember we played against India and South Africa. It wasn’t as competitive as we are now in T20 cricket, but it was our first World Cup and the team qualified, so it was a joy to watch that tournament.Hamid Hassan was part of that Afghanistan squad in 2010 and you grew up idolising him. At the upcoming World Cup, you could get a chance to bowl alongside him
Growing up, I always looked up to him. He inspired me to take up cricket and fast bowling. Not everybody is lucky to play a World Cup with someone who was his hero or idol during his childhood. So it will be a great experience for me.Your slingy action can potentially be quite tricky to pick for batters who haven’t played against you before. Do you see that as an advantage?
Nowadays there are stats, videos and footage available, so I don’t think it will be a positive or something like an X-factor for me. I’ll do whatever I’ve been doing for the last two, three years. I just have to concentrate on the basics and focus on the things that have worked for me rather than thinking about who has faced my bowling before or hasn’t. We haven’t played against the Indian players, but we have played against a lot of other teams and some of us have also played alongside a lot of the guys in T20 leagues, so nowadays you know the [opposition] players well.Did this action come naturally to you?
I’ve always had this action since I started cricket. I’ve just done little tweaks on it, adjusted some things here and there because of back issues and injuries coming back in 2015-16.3:37

Naveen-ul-Haq: ‘Playing for Afghanistan in a World Cup is a dream’

Afghanistan’s series with Pakistan was recently postponed and you have a new captain for the World Cup. Has that affected the team’s preparation?
Yeah, it does [affect the preparation] and does not help the team. But our team was preparing back home earlier – we had camps in Kabul and Nangarhar. The other guys like Nabi, Rashid and Mujeeb [Ur Rahman] were part of IPL teams and I was in the CPL. So there were about five, six players who were busy in league cricket. The Pakistan series postponement we couldn’t do anything about, and then Covid struck again in Sri Lanka. They had to go into lockdown and we had to deal with visa issues.We actually planned to come to the UAE three weeks ago before our warm-up games were to start, but visa issues kept the team in Qatar. So we have prepared, just not as well as we have wanted to as a team to gel together before a big event, but we can’t do much. It is what it is. We have to just cope with the situation.In your first T20 Blast stint in England, you finished as the top wicket-taker. What was that experience like?
It was actually my first experience playing in English conditions, I hadn’t been there for club-level cricket or on national duty for Afghanistan. So I was looking forward to it, enjoyed every bit of it, and luckily finished as the top wicket-taker of the tournament.You were asked to bowl the tough overs up front and at the death in the Blast. How did you deal with that pressure?
To be honest, it has become normal for me to bowl two overs in the powerplay and then two at the death. This has become my role in T20 cricket – that’s why Leicestershire brought me in to do this job. Luckily, I did well there and it wasn’t a strange thing to me. Wherever I go now, I’m told to bowl in the powerplay and at the death.”All the Afghanistan players know the conditions in the UAE quite well; you need to come up with slower ones and variations on these pitches”•Abu Dhabi CricketIt all depends on how much you practise and how much you back yourself in a match situation. I’m just backing myself to bowl against anybody, and just do what has made me and worked for me. The result is not in our hands. Sometimes when you bowl a good delivery, you get hit. Sometimes when you bowl a bad delivery, you get a wicket. It can also go the other way, so you’ve got to take it in your stride.In the game against Durham in the T20 Blast, you bowled two beamers in the 19th over and had to be pulled out of the attack. How did you overcome that setback?
Before that [two beamers] happened, I think I had bowled three overs for about 17 runs and I bowled well, but I don’t know what happened during that over. I couldn’t figure it out, because normally I don’t bowl beamers – I don’t remember when I bowled one before that game. It slipped out of my hand. I bowled two no-balls and we lost the match.After that I was a bit upset but not much, because I knew nothing was wrong in my rhythm or in my thinking. I backed myself and throughout the tournament it did work for me.You got your slower balls to dip in the Blast. Is that something you’ve been working on in recent times?
Yes, I’ve worked a lot on my slower balls. In the Blast you play a home game and then an away game against the same opposition. Once, when I played one team, they started targeting my slower balls – they were standing back and waiting for them. This stuck in my mind and I worked it out during the tournament that if teams are standing back for my slower balls, then I will bowl fewer.ESPNcricinfo LtdThen, at the back end of the tournament, most of my wickets were not off slower ones. I maybe bowled three-four slower balls in my four-over spell. Earlier I would be bowling ten slower balls in a four-over spell. Since they were lining me up for them, I changed it up. So slower balls became like a surprise [weapon].You also bowled into the pitch at the CPL for Guyana Amazon Warriors. Is that something that will help you in the UAE as well?
Yes, we’ve also been watching the IPL, and the UAE is like a second home to us – we’ve played a lot of cricket here. All the Afghanistan players know the conditions quite well; you need to come up with slower ones and variations on these pitches. The pitches will only get slower, [as you can see in] the IPL games also. So we need these variations to do well at the back end of the innings or after the powerplay. Whoever varies his pace or length well, I feel their team will do well. As a T20 side, we have that in the back of our minds.Speaking of variety, your attack has plenty of it. How do you assess Afghanistan’s overall attack?
Afghanistan has been known for their bowling attack lately but now we also have a few good batters coming up. So we are a strong side. We have more variations or experience [than some of the other sides]. We have Rashid, Mujeeb, Nabi, and I’m quite hopeful that we will do well with this bowling line-up in these conditions.You were born in Kabul, then went to Pakistan as a refugee. Now you are a T20 globetrotter and an Afghanistan international who plays all around the world. Is that something you dreamt of?
I was born in Kabul and then we had to move to Pakistan for some time because of our condition back home. I didn’t start playing cricket there, I was just going to school there for five, six years. I started taking cricket seriously and watching cricket when I was back in Afghanistan.”Every league has experienced players with whom you share a dressing room and learn from, so league cricket is not just about financial benefit”•Getty ImagesEvery professional cricketer wants to experience different conditions and different leagues and environments. It was the same for me also. First [the goal] was to represent my country, do well for my country, and the next was to explore different leagues and conditions, get to know different players and cultures. You play in the Caribbean league, you get together with West Indies players… I enjoyed playing with [Shimron] Hetmyer and [Nicholas] Pooran. When you play for your country in an ICC event, you are against them. So yeah, it does help you become a better professional cricketer and also helps you develop as a person.LPL, CPL, T10 – every league nowadays has experienced players in a team with whom you can share a dressing room and learn from them. You see them how they prepare and how they go into a match, or you can ask them how they go through their down patches. So league cricket is not just about financial benefits for a player, you can get more out of the experience. How have you coped with bubble life?
After Covid struck, the only tournament that I played with some [attending] crowd was CPL and there was some crowd in the UK for the T20 Blast too. I was asking other players about the [challenges of] bubble life also. They said it is very difficult and it gives you mental stress and you get tired of it. I earlier felt like I didn’t feel any [stress] doing this, but once I came to Abu Dhabi from the UK it struck me, and now I also think it is hard. It is just six days [of quarantine] but I feel fatigued now. So, fingers crossed that I come out, relax a bit and start training. But, yes, the bubble life is now getting to me.Have you picked up any new hobby or skill in your quarantine?
Nothing new (). I think I’ve finished watching everything on Netflix and Amazon Prime. I don’t know what to do next, but I’ll find a new hobby for myself to keep me busy in the bubble.