Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting is the best Australian batsman of his generation, probably of several generations. His relentless run scoring during this last decade has won world cups and test series. However, it can be clearly seen on his graph above that he has been in decline for a number of years. The start of which seems to coincide with the retirement of Shane Warne and Glen McGrath. He has been captain of Australia since the beginning of 2004.

Sachin Tendulkar

Yesterday Sachin Tendulkar scored his 50th Test century. An astonishing achievement having scored 20% more centuries than anyone else. Sachin also has 46 ODI centuries and so it only seems a matter of time before he hits a century of centuries in International cricket. It seems likely that his records will stand for a long time (Kallis has 38 Test and 17 ODI centuries, Ponting has 39 Test and 29 ODI centuries). In addition to being a one-man run machine his humility and general demeanour make him a genuinely nice guy. Congratulations Sachin Tendulkar.

Sachin has scored centuries in his last three Test matches against South Africa - maybe that is why Graeme 'Sour Puss' Smith doesn't like him. We have news for you Graeme...

Ricky Ponting

A special request for Danny -- Ricky Ponting is surely one of, if not the test batsman of this millennium; his attacking style and prodigious run-scoring has put him regularly at the top of the world rankings. On ten occasions his three match average has been over 100 with a highest of 149. It is worth remembering that Ponting has rarely played against Bangladesh (260 test runs) and that he has been captain of Australia since the beginning of 2004.


Ricky Ponting Test Career up to 23rd April 2008

Kevin Pietersen

Here is another in the series of graphs showing current player test histories. The three match average shows a trend downwards since early summer 2007, something I am sure Kevin aims to put right. Pietersen's figures also suggest that he is better against quality opposition.


Kevin Pietersen Test Career up to 14th April 2008

Andrew Strauss

Andrew Strauss made a big impact when when he started to play test cricket, he almost had two hundreds on his test début. I have blogged about his reintroduction to the test team. I thought it may help to give some facts rather than shooting from the hip. The graph below shows Andrew's test career. The blue line is his average as it has progressed. The red line is a three match rolling average. This means that the last red point is the average of the Hamilton test and the previous two he played (against India).

His average has been on a slow decline before the 2005 Ashes and is nor just above 40. His three match average indicates that his average has been regularly below 30 and is also trending downwards. It looks like it is now or never for Stauss.

I intend to follow this post up with a few other players figures for comparison.


Andrew Strauss Test Career up to 10th March 2008