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List of Test batsmen with the best defence

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Harsh Thakor

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My list of batsman with the best defence technically or best exponents of defence stroke in order of merit.



1.Geoff Boycott/Hanif Mohammad





3.Vijay Merchant





4.Sunil Gavaskar.





5.Len Hutton




6.Rahul Dravid





7.Sachin Tendulkar





8.Barry Richards




9.Mohinder Amarnath






10.Rohan Kanhai




11.Alvin Kalicharan





12.Gordon Greenidge/Lawrence Rowe





.










I simply can't separate Hanif and Boycott who were simply the equivalent of boulders at a crease weathering a most turbulent storm.No batsman could occupy the cease for longer hours or hold such a straight bat.Vijay Merchant never got beaten by the new ball,technically even overshadowing Gavaskar.Gavaskar andHutton were an epitome of concentration and correctness.Tendulkar wa s perfection personified just like Barry could occassionally contribute to their own dismissals.Dravid wast he ultimate wall and on bad wicket the ultimate master.Kanhai could wear down an attack on bad wicket like few being so technically sound,with Alvin Kalicharan a virtual left -handed equivalent.Grenidge wa srock solid in defence.Rowe was technically close to the best of al.Amarnath took grit to unsurpassed regions.
 
Where is Jacques Kallis? He is up there with Dravid for having an immaculate defense. I also think AB Devilliers is not far behind. He is master of the blockathon.
 
subshakerz said:
Where is Jacques Kallis? He is up there with Dravid for having an immaculate defense. I also think AB Devilliers is not far behind. He is master of the blockathon.
Click to expand...

Like other choices?I agree on Kalllis,who all but made it.What about Hanif,Boycott and Gavaskar or even Dravid?
 
Good list but Kallis, Cook and Pujara have got better defense than Greenidge in my opinion. Even Tendulkar or Kanhai was not a natural defensive batsman either.

Kallis has been a rock for South Africa for many years in test cricket and would always chip in with runs and hundreds with bat as lead role or even in supporting role.

Cook had the ability to bat for hours and hours and score big tons and change the course of the game.

Pujara's blockathons in the previous Australian summer is a testament of his grit and resillience with the bat.
 
Last edited:
A name not familiar to too many is Shoaib Mohammed.

Not the greatest player but he had an excellent defensive technique against pace and spin.
 
Ab Fan said:
Good list but Kallis, Cook and Pujara have got better defense than Greenidge in my opinion. Even Tendulkar or Kanhai was not a natural defensive batsman either.

Kallis has been a rock for South Africa for many years in test cricket and would always chip in with runs and hundreds with bat as lead role or even in supporting role.

Cook had the ability to bat for hours and hours and score big tons and change the course of the game.

Pujara's blockathons in the previous Australian summer is a testament of his grit and resillience with the bat.
Click to expand...
h
How would you compare Hanif,Sunny,Boycott ,Dravid and Merchant in this regard?Any order?
 
Saj said:
A name not familiar to too many is Shoaib Mohammed.

Not the greatest player but he had an excellent defensive technique against pace and spin.
Click to expand...

He was a tough cookie but easily one of the ugliest batting stance.
 
Good list [MENTION=132062]Harsh Thakor[/MENTION]. Wouldn’t change much.

Curiously I would advance Botham who had a better defensive game than his Three Gs team-mates, not that he bothered to use it often. There was that time when he batted all day for just fifty against Imran, Wasim and Qadir.
 
Harsh Thakor said:
My list of batsman with the best defence technically or best exponents of defence stroke in order of merit.



1.Geoff Boycott/Hanif Mohammad





3.Vijay Merchant





4.Sunil Gavaskar.





5.Len Hutton




6.Rahul Dravid





7.Sachin Tendulkar





8.Barry Richards




9.Mohinder Amarnath






10.Rohan Kanhai




11.Alvin Kalicharan





12.Gordon Greenidge/Lawrence Rowe





.










I simply can't separate Hanif and Boycott who were simply the equivalent of boulders at a crease weathering a most turbulent storm.No batsman could occupy the cease for longer hours or hold such a straight bat.Vijay Merchant never got beaten by the new ball,technically even overshadowing Gavaskar.Gavaskar andHutton were an epitome of concentration and correctness.Tendulkar wa s perfection personified just like Barry could occassionally contribute to their own dismissals.Dravid wast he ultimate wall and on bad wicket the ultimate master.Kanhai could wear down an attack on bad wicket like few being so technically sound,with Alvin Kalicharan a virtual left -handed equivalent.Grenidge wa srock solid in defence.Rowe was technically close to the best of al.Amarnath took grit to unsurpassed regions.
Click to expand...

Good list!
Some comments from me.
1. As others have picked maybe Kallis should be there. Agree with Saj on Shoaib M that he is an honorable mention
2. Michael Atherton to some extent
3. Martin Crowe also had an excellent technique and defence when he wanted to put the brakes
4. Pujara?
5. While his career did not reach what it should have but Sanjay Manjrekar also had an excellent defence
6. Justin Langer - depends on how you describe defence but he could be really guard his wicket
7. Graham Gooch
8. Ravi Shastri when he wanted to could really put people to sleep
9. Desmond Haynes

I am not so sure about Rowe and Kallicharan. They were both dashers from what I recall them to be.
 
umarf76 said:
Good list!
Some comments from me.
1. As others have picked maybe Kallis should be there. Agree with Saj on Shoaib M that he is an honorable mention
2. Michael Atherton to some extent
3. Martin Crowe also had an excellent technique and defence when he wanted to put the brakes
4. Pujara?
5. While his career did not reach what it should have but Sanjay Manjrekar also had an excellent defence
6. Justin Langer - depends on how you describe defence but he could be really guard his wicket
7. Graham Gooch
8. Ravi Shastri when he wanted to could really put people to sleep
9. Desmond Haynes

I am not so sure about Rowe and Kallicharan. They were both dashers from what I recall them to be.
Click to expand...

Great choices.Particularly Atherton ,Pujara and Crowe.What about Greenidge or Steve Waugh?
 
My personal favorites
1. Jacques Kallis
2. Kumar Sangakkara
3. Rahul Dravid
4. Shiv Chanderpaul

Have heard a lot of good stuff about Hanif Mohammad, Geoff Boycott and Sunil Gavaskar.
 
It would be helpful to know the average number of balls played before getting out. Unfortunately, I don't think that stat is available.
 
Napa said:
It would be helpful to know the average number of balls played before getting out. Unfortunately, I don't think that stat is available.
Click to expand...
Isn't that basically average multiplied by 100/str rate.? Although not outs will pollute the data.
Basically a better avg to str rate ratio means the player plays more balls before getting out.
 
I think the list is fine. Unlike others, I agree with Tendulkar on this list. He had a great defense, though at times his feet movement was flow.

I think AB Devilliers ranks up there. Masters of the blockathon and very assured against pace and spin.
 
Napa said:
It would be helpful to know the average number of balls played before getting out. Unfortunately, I don't think that stat is available.
Click to expand...

It's a fairly straightforward statistic, however, the availability of data prior to the 1990s is a little bit tricky given that the primary metric back in the day for assessing the period that a batsman stays at the crease was minutes batted rather than balls faced. This was also complicated by the fact that not many matches outside England and Australia were properly televised.

Nonetheless, we can get a basic approximation of the tightness of a batsman's defence through this stat. I ran it for the top 80 batsmen by number of balls faced in a career:

  1. Boycott 124.66
  2. Dravid 123.06
  3. Border 122.18
  4. Kallis 120.43
  5. Chanderpaul 118.59
  6. A. Flower 114.37
  7. S. Smith 112.13
  8. Boon 106.56
  9. Sangakkara 105.94
  10. Tillakaratne 105.21
  11. S. Waugh 104.96
  12. M. Taylor 104.86
  13. Misbah 104.70
  14. Kirsten 104.24
  15. Williamson 104.19
  16. Samaraweera 103.94
  17. Pujara 103.76
  18. Wright 103.68
  19. Azhar 103.18
  20. Hussey 102.78
  21. J. Edrich 102.57
  22. M. Crowe 101.58
  23. Atherton 100.53
  24. Younis 99.87
  25. Yousuf 99.81
  26. Tendulkar 99.45
  27. G. Chappell 99.08
  28. Thorpe 97.30
  29. Jayawardene 96.87
  30. Cook 96.59
  31. Amla 93.33
  32. Laxman 93.12
  33. de Villiers 92.93
  34. Mathews 92.83
  35. Richardson 92.54
  36. Hussain 92.08
  37. Inzamam 91.83
  38. Kohli 91.69
  39. Miandad 90.26
  40. Root 89.61
  41. Ponting 88.30
  42. Atapattu 87.83
  43. Clarke 87.82
  44. Haynes 87.50
  45. Gower 87.46
  46. Fleming 87.44
  47. Lara 87.40
  48. Gooch 86.48
  49. Bell 86.31
  50. G. Flower 85.58
  51. Sarwan 85.51
  52. K. Hughes 85.43
  53. Hayden 84.41
  54. Strauss 83.63
  55. Langer 83.48
  56. H. Gibbs 83.47
  57. Malik 82.62
  58. Ganguly 82.28
  59. Brathwaite 82.09
  60. Stewart 81.26
  61. Vaughan 81.04
  62. G. Smith 80.86
  63. M. Butcher 80.69
  64. Slater 80.38
  65. Trescothick 80.34
  66. M. Waugh 80.00
  67. Karunaratne 77.65
  68. Gavaskar 77.41
  69. R. Taylor 76.64
  70. Pietersen 76.62
  71. de Silva 76.01
  72. Greenidge 74.19
  73. Hooper 72.54
  74. Vengsarkar 70.25
  75. Gayle 70.00
  76. Warner 66.18
  77. Jayasuriya 61.48
  78. Boucher 60.47
  79. Sehwag 60.01
  80. McCullum 59.81

I don't think the numbers for Gavaskar and Vengsarkar are necessarily correct, given that Indian scoreboard archives don't contain balls faced data for many matches played during the 70s and 80s.

It's no surpise to see Misbah ranking high on the metric, while McCullum, Sehwag, Jayasuriya, Warner, and Gayle are at the bottom.
 
Batsman with min 45+ avg and 5000 test runs sorted by Strike Rate
[table=class: grid, align: center]
[tr][td]Player [/td][td]Span [/td][td]Mat [/td][td]Runs [/td][td]Ave [/td][td]SR [/td][td]100 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]G Boycott [/td][td]1964-1982 [/td][td]108 [/td][td]8114 [/td][td]47.72 [/td][td]35.48 [/td][td]22 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]L Hutton [/td][td]1937-1955 [/td][td]79 [/td][td]6971 [/td][td]56.67 [/td][td]37.94 [/td][td]19 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]WR Hammond [/td][td]1927-1947 [/td][td]85 [/td][td]7249 [/td][td]58.45 [/td][td]38.07 [/td][td]22 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]DCS Compton [/td][td]1937-1957 [/td][td]78 [/td][td]5807 [/td][td]50.06 [/td][td]38.76 [/td][td]17 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]WM Lawry [/td][td]1961-1971 [/td][td]67 [/td][td]5234 [/td][td]47.15 [/td][td]39.18 [/td][td]13 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AR Border [/td][td]1978-1994 [/td][td]156 [/td][td]11174 [/td][td]50.56 [/td][td]41.09 [/td][td]27 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]KF Barrington [/td][td]1955-1968 [/td][td]82 [/td][td]6806 [/td][td]58.67 [/td][td]42.42 [/td][td]20 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]R Dravid [/td][td]1996-2012 [/td][td]164 [/td][td]13288 [/td][td]52.31 [/td][td]42.51 [/td][td]36 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]S Chanderpaul [/td][td]1994-2015 [/td][td]164 [/td][td]11867 [/td][td]51.37 [/td][td]43.31 [/td][td]30 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]G Kirsten [/td][td]1993-2004 [/td][td]101 [/td][td]7289 [/td][td]45.27 [/td][td]43.43 [/td][td]21 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]RN Harvey [/td][td]1948-1963 [/td][td]79 [/td][td]6149 [/td][td]48.41 [/td][td]43.51 [/td][td]21 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]SM Gavaskar [/td][td]1971-1987 [/td][td]125 [/td][td]10122 [/td][td]51.12 [/td][td]44.42 [/td][td]34 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Misbah-ul-Haq [/td][td]2001-2017 [/td][td]75 [/td][td]5222 [/td][td]46.62 [/td][td]44.53 [/td][td]10 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]MD Crowe [/td][td]1982-1995 [/td][td]77 [/td][td]5444 [/td][td]45.36 [/td][td]44.65 [/td][td]17 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]CA Pujara [/td][td]2010-2021 [/td][td]85 [/td][td]6244 [/td][td]46.59 [/td][td]44.9 [/td][td]18 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]JH Kallis [/td][td]1995-2013 [/td][td]166 [/td][td]13289 [/td][td]55.37 [/td][td]45.97 [/td][td]45 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Javed Miandad [/td][td]1976-1993 [/td][td]124 [/td][td]8832 [/td][td]52.57 [/td][td]45.99 [/td][td]23 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]JB Hobbs [/td][td]1908-1930 [/td][td]61 [/td][td]5410 [/td][td]56.94 [/td][td]46.54 [/td][td]15 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]TT Samaraweera [/td][td]2001-2013 [/td][td]81 [/td][td]5462 [/td][td]48.76 [/td][td]46.92 [/td][td]14 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AN Cook [/td][td]2006-2018 [/td][td]161 [/td][td]12472 [/td][td]45.35 [/td][td]46.95 [/td][td]33 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]RB Kanhai [/td][td]1957-1974 [/td][td]79 [/td][td]6227 [/td][td]47.53 [/td][td]47.87 [/td][td]15 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]SR Waugh [/td][td]1985-2004 [/td][td]168 [/td][td]10927 [/td][td]51.06 [/td][td]48.64 [/td][td]32 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]KD Walters [/td][td]1965-1981 [/td][td]74 [/td][td]5357 [/td][td]48.26 [/td][td]49.16 [/td][td]15 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]VVS Laxman [/td][td]1996-2012 [/td][td]134 [/td][td]8781 [/td][td]45.97 [/td][td]49.37 [/td][td]17 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]HM Amla [/td][td]2004-2019 [/td][td]124 [/td][td]9282 [/td][td]46.64 [/td][td]49.97 [/td][td]28 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]MEK Hussey [/td][td]2005-2013 [/td][td]79 [/td][td]6235 [/td][td]51.52 [/td][td]50.13 [/td][td]19 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]DPMD Jayawardene [/td][td]1997-2014 [/td][td]149 [/td][td]11814 [/td][td]49.84 [/td][td]51.45 [/td][td]34 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]GS Chappell [/td][td]1970-1984 [/td][td]87 [/td][td]7110 [/td][td]53.86 [/td][td]51.53 [/td][td]24 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]KS Williamson [/td][td]2010-2021 [/td][td]83 [/td][td]7115 [/td][td]54.31 [/td][td]52.12 [/td][td]24 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Younis Khan [/td][td]2000-2017 [/td][td]118 [/td][td]10099 [/td][td]52.05 [/td][td]52.12 [/td][td]34 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Mohammad Yousuf [/td][td]1998-2010 [/td][td]90 [/td][td]7530 [/td][td]52.29 [/td][td]52.39 [/td][td]24 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]GS Sobers [/td][td]1954-1974 [/td][td]93 [/td][td]8032 [/td][td]57.78 [/td][td]53.47 [/td][td]26 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Inzamam-ul-Haq [/td][td]1992-2007 [/td][td]120 [/td][td]8830 [/td][td]49.6 [/td][td]54.02 [/td][td]25 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]SR Tendulkar [/td][td]1989-2013 [/td][td]200 [/td][td]15921 [/td][td]53.78 [/td][td]54.04 [/td][td]51 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]KC Sangakkara [/td][td]2000-2015 [/td][td]134 [/td][td]12400 [/td][td]57.4 [/td][td]54.19 [/td][td]38 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]JL Langer [/td][td]1993-2007 [/td][td]105 [/td][td]7696 [/td][td]45.27 [/td][td]54.22 [/td][td]23 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AB de Villiers [/td][td]2004-2018 [/td][td]114 [/td][td]8765 [/td][td]50.66 [/td][td]54.51 [/td][td]22 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]JE Root [/td][td]2012-2021 [/td][td]103 [/td][td]8617 [/td][td]49.24 [/td][td]54.95 [/td][td]20 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]SPD Smith [/td][td]2010-2021 [/td][td]77 [/td][td]7540 [/td][td]61.8 [/td][td]55.11 [/td][td]27 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]MJ Clarke [/td][td]2004-2015 [/td][td]115 [/td][td]8643 [/td][td]49.1 [/td][td]55.92 [/td][td]28 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]V Kohli [/td][td]2011-2021 [/td][td]91 [/td][td]7490 [/td][td]52.37 [/td][td]57.12 [/td][td]27 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]CH Lloyd [/td][td]1966-1985 [/td][td]110 [/td][td]7515 [/td][td]46.67 [/td][td]57.77 [/td][td]19 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]M Azharuddin [/td][td]1984-2000 [/td][td]99 [/td][td]6215 [/td][td]45.03 [/td][td]57.8 [/td][td]22 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]DG Bradman [/td][td]1928-1948 [/td][td]52 [/td][td]6996 [/td][td]99.94 [/td][td]58.6 [/td][td]29 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]RT Ponting [/td][td]1995-2012 [/td][td]168 [/td][td]13378 [/td][td]51.85 [/td][td]58.72 [/td][td]41 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]GC Smith [/td][td]2002-2014 [/td][td]117 [/td][td]9265 [/td][td]48.25 [/td][td]59.67 [/td][td]27 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]LRPL Taylor [/td][td]2007-2021 [/td][td]105 [/td][td]7379 [/td][td]45.83 [/td][td]59.8 [/td][td]19 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]ML Hayden [/td][td]1994-2009 [/td][td]103 [/td][td]8625 [/td][td]50.73 [/td][td]60.1 [/td][td]30 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]BC Lara [/td][td]1990-2006 [/td][td]131 [/td][td]11953 [/td][td]52.88 [/td][td]60.51 [/td][td]34 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]KP Pietersen [/td][td]2005-2014 [/td][td]104 [/td][td]8181 [/td][td]47.28 [/td][td]61.72 [/td][td]23 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]IVA Richards [/td][td]1974-1991 [/td][td]121 [/td][td]8540 [/td][td]50.23 [/td][td]70.19 [/td][td]24 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]DA Warner [/td][td]2011-2021 [/td][td]86 [/td][td]7311 [/td][td]48.09 [/td][td]72.68 [/td][td]24 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AC Gilchrist [/td][td]1999-2008 [/td][td]96 [/td][td]5570 [/td][td]47.6 [/td][td]81.95 [/td][td]17 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]V Sehwag [/td][td]2001-2013 [/td][td]104 [/td][td]8586 [/td][td]49.34 [/td][td]82.23 [/td][td]23 [/td][/tr]
[/table]
 
Harsh Thakor said:
Great choices.Particularly Atherton ,Pujara and Crowe.What about Greenidge or Steve Waugh?
Click to expand...

Agree on Steve Waugh. Good defence.

Greenidge had an excellent technique. However his first nature was to attack and was known for that. So hard in my view to call him out for defence because he did not do much of it till say 1981/82. I
 
jeeteshssaxena said:
Isn't that basically average multiplied by 100/str rate.? Although not outs will pollute the data.
Basically a better avg to str rate ratio means the player plays more balls before getting out.
Click to expand...

Not outs shouldn't be a problem, a not out innings essentially is continued on to the next innings.

Yes, S/R would answer the question, but I could not find S/R either for batsmen of Gavaskar, Boycott etc. era.
 
Saj said:
A name not familiar to too many is Shoaib Mohammed.

Not the greatest player but he had an excellent defensive technique against pace and spin.
Click to expand...

I remember him as a kid! he had an awkward stance too back leg was behind and to the leg side....also seemed to my 5 year old self that he would come wearing all the utensils in his house (because of the thigh pads and chest guard )...very boring to watch but could put a price on his wicket
 
Last Monetarist said:
It's a fairly straightforward statistic, however, the availability of data prior to the 1990s is a little bit tricky given that the primary metric back in the day for assessing the period that a batsman stays at the crease was minutes batted rather than balls faced. This was also complicated by the fact that not many matches outside England and Australia were properly televised.

Nonetheless, we can get a basic approximation of the tightness of a batsman's defence through this stat. I ran it for the top 80 batsmen by number of balls faced in a career:

  1. Boycott 124.66
  2. Dravid 123.06
  3. Border 122.18
  4. Kallis 120.43
  5. Chanderpaul 118.59
  6. A. Flower 114.37
  7. S. Smith 112.13
  8. Boon 106.56
  9. Sangakkara 105.94
  10. Tillakaratne 105.21
  11. S. Waugh 104.96
  12. M. Taylor 104.86
  13. Misbah 104.70
  14. Kirsten 104.24
  15. Williamson 104.19
  16. Samaraweera 103.94
  17. Pujara 103.76
  18. Wright 103.68
  19. Azhar 103.18
  20. Hussey 102.78
  21. J. Edrich 102.57
  22. M. Crowe 101.58
  23. Atherton 100.53
  24. Younis 99.87
  25. Yousuf 99.81
  26. Tendulkar 99.45
  27. G. Chappell 99.08
  28. Thorpe 97.30
  29. Jayawardene 96.87
  30. Cook 96.59
  31. Amla 93.33
  32. Laxman 93.12
  33. de Villiers 92.93
  34. Mathews 92.83
  35. Richardson 92.54
  36. Hussain 92.08
  37. Inzamam 91.83
  38. Kohli 91.69
  39. Miandad 90.26
  40. Root 89.61
  41. Ponting 88.30
  42. Atapattu 87.83
  43. Clarke 87.82
  44. Haynes 87.50
  45. Gower 87.46
  46. Fleming 87.44
  47. Lara 87.40
  48. Gooch 86.48
  49. Bell 86.31
  50. G. Flower 85.58
  51. Sarwan 85.51
  52. K. Hughes 85.43
  53. Hayden 84.41
  54. Strauss 83.63
  55. Langer 83.48
  56. H. Gibbs 83.47
  57. Malik 82.62
  58. Ganguly 82.28
  59. Brathwaite 82.09
  60. Stewart 81.26
  61. Vaughan 81.04
  62. G. Smith 80.86
  63. M. Butcher 80.69
  64. Slater 80.38
  65. Trescothick 80.34
  66. M. Waugh 80.00
  67. Karunaratne 77.65
  68. Gavaskar 77.41
  69. R. Taylor 76.64
  70. Pietersen 76.62
  71. de Silva 76.01
  72. Greenidge 74.19
  73. Hooper 72.54
  74. Vengsarkar 70.25
  75. Gayle 70.00
  76. Warner 66.18
  77. Jayasuriya 61.48
  78. Boucher 60.47
  79. Sehwag 60.01
  80. McCullum 59.81

I don't think the numbers for Gavaskar and Vengsarkar are necessarily correct, given that Indian scoreboard archives don't contain balls faced data for many matches played during the 70s and 80s.

It's no surpise to see Misbah ranking high on the metric, while McCullum, Sehwag, Jayasuriya, Warner, and Gayle are at the bottom.
Click to expand...

This is a good alternative, probably the best we can do. Thanks for the effort.

Also, like you I don't think the numbers are accurate for Gavaskar and Vengsarkar.
 
jeetu said:
Batsman with min 45+ avg and 5000 test runs sorted by Strike Rate
[table=class: grid, align: center]
[tr][td]Player [/td][td]Span [/td][td]Mat [/td][td]Runs [/td][td]Ave [/td][td]SR [/td][td]100 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]G Boycott [/td][td]1964-1982 [/td][td]108 [/td][td]8114 [/td][td]47.72 [/td][td]35.48 [/td][td]22 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]L Hutton [/td][td]1937-1955 [/td][td]79 [/td][td]6971 [/td][td]56.67 [/td][td]37.94 [/td][td]19 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]WR Hammond [/td][td]1927-1947 [/td][td]85 [/td][td]7249 [/td][td]58.45 [/td][td]38.07 [/td][td]22 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]DCS Compton [/td][td]1937-1957 [/td][td]78 [/td][td]5807 [/td][td]50.06 [/td][td]38.76 [/td][td]17 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]WM Lawry [/td][td]1961-1971 [/td][td]67 [/td][td]5234 [/td][td]47.15 [/td][td]39.18 [/td][td]13 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AR Border [/td][td]1978-1994 [/td][td]156 [/td][td]11174 [/td][td]50.56 [/td][td]41.09 [/td][td]27 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]KF Barrington [/td][td]1955-1968 [/td][td]82 [/td][td]6806 [/td][td]58.67 [/td][td]42.42 [/td][td]20 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]R Dravid [/td][td]1996-2012 [/td][td]164 [/td][td]13288 [/td][td]52.31 [/td][td]42.51 [/td][td]36 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]S Chanderpaul [/td][td]1994-2015 [/td][td]164 [/td][td]11867 [/td][td]51.37 [/td][td]43.31 [/td][td]30 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]G Kirsten [/td][td]1993-2004 [/td][td]101 [/td][td]7289 [/td][td]45.27 [/td][td]43.43 [/td][td]21 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]RN Harvey [/td][td]1948-1963 [/td][td]79 [/td][td]6149 [/td][td]48.41 [/td][td]43.51 [/td][td]21 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]SM Gavaskar [/td][td]1971-1987 [/td][td]125 [/td][td]10122 [/td][td]51.12 [/td][td]44.42 [/td][td]34 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Misbah-ul-Haq [/td][td]2001-2017 [/td][td]75 [/td][td]5222 [/td][td]46.62 [/td][td]44.53 [/td][td]10 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]MD Crowe [/td][td]1982-1995 [/td][td]77 [/td][td]5444 [/td][td]45.36 [/td][td]44.65 [/td][td]17 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]CA Pujara [/td][td]2010-2021 [/td][td]85 [/td][td]6244 [/td][td]46.59 [/td][td]44.9 [/td][td]18 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]JH Kallis [/td][td]1995-2013 [/td][td]166 [/td][td]13289 [/td][td]55.37 [/td][td]45.97 [/td][td]45 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Javed Miandad [/td][td]1976-1993 [/td][td]124 [/td][td]8832 [/td][td]52.57 [/td][td]45.99 [/td][td]23 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]JB Hobbs [/td][td]1908-1930 [/td][td]61 [/td][td]5410 [/td][td]56.94 [/td][td]46.54 [/td][td]15 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]TT Samaraweera [/td][td]2001-2013 [/td][td]81 [/td][td]5462 [/td][td]48.76 [/td][td]46.92 [/td][td]14 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AN Cook [/td][td]2006-2018 [/td][td]161 [/td][td]12472 [/td][td]45.35 [/td][td]46.95 [/td][td]33 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]RB Kanhai [/td][td]1957-1974 [/td][td]79 [/td][td]6227 [/td][td]47.53 [/td][td]47.87 [/td][td]15 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]SR Waugh [/td][td]1985-2004 [/td][td]168 [/td][td]10927 [/td][td]51.06 [/td][td]48.64 [/td][td]32 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]KD Walters [/td][td]1965-1981 [/td][td]74 [/td][td]5357 [/td][td]48.26 [/td][td]49.16 [/td][td]15 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]VVS Laxman [/td][td]1996-2012 [/td][td]134 [/td][td]8781 [/td][td]45.97 [/td][td]49.37 [/td][td]17 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]HM Amla [/td][td]2004-2019 [/td][td]124 [/td][td]9282 [/td][td]46.64 [/td][td]49.97 [/td][td]28 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]MEK Hussey [/td][td]2005-2013 [/td][td]79 [/td][td]6235 [/td][td]51.52 [/td][td]50.13 [/td][td]19 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]DPMD Jayawardene [/td][td]1997-2014 [/td][td]149 [/td][td]11814 [/td][td]49.84 [/td][td]51.45 [/td][td]34 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]GS Chappell [/td][td]1970-1984 [/td][td]87 [/td][td]7110 [/td][td]53.86 [/td][td]51.53 [/td][td]24 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]KS Williamson [/td][td]2010-2021 [/td][td]83 [/td][td]7115 [/td][td]54.31 [/td][td]52.12 [/td][td]24 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Younis Khan [/td][td]2000-2017 [/td][td]118 [/td][td]10099 [/td][td]52.05 [/td][td]52.12 [/td][td]34 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Mohammad Yousuf [/td][td]1998-2010 [/td][td]90 [/td][td]7530 [/td][td]52.29 [/td][td]52.39 [/td][td]24 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]GS Sobers [/td][td]1954-1974 [/td][td]93 [/td][td]8032 [/td][td]57.78 [/td][td]53.47 [/td][td]26 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Inzamam-ul-Haq [/td][td]1992-2007 [/td][td]120 [/td][td]8830 [/td][td]49.6 [/td][td]54.02 [/td][td]25 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]SR Tendulkar [/td][td]1989-2013 [/td][td]200 [/td][td]15921 [/td][td]53.78 [/td][td]54.04 [/td][td]51 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]KC Sangakkara [/td][td]2000-2015 [/td][td]134 [/td][td]12400 [/td][td]57.4 [/td][td]54.19 [/td][td]38 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]JL Langer [/td][td]1993-2007 [/td][td]105 [/td][td]7696 [/td][td]45.27 [/td][td]54.22 [/td][td]23 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AB de Villiers [/td][td]2004-2018 [/td][td]114 [/td][td]8765 [/td][td]50.66 [/td][td]54.51 [/td][td]22 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]JE Root [/td][td]2012-2021 [/td][td]103 [/td][td]8617 [/td][td]49.24 [/td][td]54.95 [/td][td]20 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]SPD Smith [/td][td]2010-2021 [/td][td]77 [/td][td]7540 [/td][td]61.8 [/td][td]55.11 [/td][td]27 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]MJ Clarke [/td][td]2004-2015 [/td][td]115 [/td][td]8643 [/td][td]49.1 [/td][td]55.92 [/td][td]28 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]V Kohli [/td][td]2011-2021 [/td][td]91 [/td][td]7490 [/td][td]52.37 [/td][td]57.12 [/td][td]27 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]CH Lloyd [/td][td]1966-1985 [/td][td]110 [/td][td]7515 [/td][td]46.67 [/td][td]57.77 [/td][td]19 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]M Azharuddin [/td][td]1984-2000 [/td][td]99 [/td][td]6215 [/td][td]45.03 [/td][td]57.8 [/td][td]22 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]DG Bradman [/td][td]1928-1948 [/td][td]52 [/td][td]6996 [/td][td]99.94 [/td][td]58.6 [/td][td]29 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]RT Ponting [/td][td]1995-2012 [/td][td]168 [/td][td]13378 [/td][td]51.85 [/td][td]58.72 [/td][td]41 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]GC Smith [/td][td]2002-2014 [/td][td]117 [/td][td]9265 [/td][td]48.25 [/td][td]59.67 [/td][td]27 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]LRPL Taylor [/td][td]2007-2021 [/td][td]105 [/td][td]7379 [/td][td]45.83 [/td][td]59.8 [/td][td]19 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]ML Hayden [/td][td]1994-2009 [/td][td]103 [/td][td]8625 [/td][td]50.73 [/td][td]60.1 [/td][td]30 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]BC Lara [/td][td]1990-2006 [/td][td]131 [/td][td]11953 [/td][td]52.88 [/td][td]60.51 [/td][td]34 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]KP Pietersen [/td][td]2005-2014 [/td][td]104 [/td][td]8181 [/td][td]47.28 [/td][td]61.72 [/td][td]23 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]IVA Richards [/td][td]1974-1991 [/td][td]121 [/td][td]8540 [/td][td]50.23 [/td][td]70.19 [/td][td]24 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]DA Warner [/td][td]2011-2021 [/td][td]86 [/td][td]7311 [/td][td]48.09 [/td][td]72.68 [/td][td]24 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]AC Gilchrist [/td][td]1999-2008 [/td][td]96 [/td][td]5570 [/td][td]47.6 [/td][td]81.95 [/td][td]17 [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]V Sehwag [/td][td]2001-2013 [/td][td]104 [/td][td]8586 [/td][td]49.34 [/td][td]82.23 [/td][td]23 [/td][/tr]
[/table]
Click to expand...

Assuming the numbers above are correct, we can determine the average number of balls a batsman faced before getting out by dividing average by S/R and multiplying by 100 as suggested by [MENTION=146232]jeeteshssaxena[/MENTION]

Top 10 players are: DG Bradman, WR Hammond, L Hutton, KF Barrington, G Boycott, DCS Compton, R Dravid, AR Border, JB Hobbs and JH Kallis.

I copied the above data and a bit of Excel manipulation produces the following.

Player Span Ave SR Number of Balls
DG Bradman 1928-1948 99.94 58.6 170.55
WR Hammond 1927-1947 58.45 38.07 153.53
L Hutton 1937-1955 56.67 37.94 149.37
KF Barrington 1955-1968 58.67 42.42 138.31
G Boycott 1964-1982 47.72 35.48 134.50
DCS Compton 1937-1957 50.06 38.76 129.15
R Dravid 1996-2012 52.31 42.51 123.05
AR Border 1978-1994 50.56 41.09 123.05
JB Hobbs 1908-1930 56.94 46.54 122.35
JH Kallis 1995-2013 55.37 45.97 120.45
WM Lawry 1961-1971 47.15 39.18 120.34
S Chanderpaul 1994-2015 51.37 43.31 118.61
SM Gavaskar 1971-1987 51.12 44.42 115.08
Javed Miandad 1976-1993 52.57 45.99 114.31
SPD Smith 2010-2021 61.8 55.11 112.14
RN Harvey 1948-1963 48.41 43.51 111.26
GS Sobers 1954-1974 57.78 53.47 108.06
KC Sangakkara 2000-2015 57.4 54.19 105.92
SR Waugh 1985-2004 51.06 48.64 104.98
Misbah-ul-Haq 2001-2017 46.62 44.53 104.69
GS Chappell 1970-1984 53.86 51.53 104.52
G Kirsten 1993-2004 45.27 43.43 104.24
KS Williamson 2010-2021 54.31 52.12 104.20
TT Samaraweera 2001-2013 48.76 46.92 103.92
CA Pujara 2010-2021 46.59 44.9 103.76
MEK Hussey 2005-2013 51.52 50.13 102.77
MD Crowe 1982-1995 45.36 44.65 101.59
Younis Khan 2000-2017 52.05 52.12 99.87
Mohammad Yousuf 1998-2010 52.29 52.39 99.81
SR Tendulkar 1989-2013 53.78 54.04 99.52
RB Kanhai 1957-1974 47.53 47.87 99.29
KD Walters 1965-1981 48.26 49.16 98.17
DPMD Jayawardene 1997-2014 49.84 51.45 96.87
AN Cook 2006-2018 45.35 46.95 96.59
HM Amla 2004-2019 46.64 49.97 93.34
VVS Laxman 1996-2012 45.97 49.37 93.11
AB de Villiers 2004-2018 50.66 54.51 92.94
Inzamam-ul-Haq 1992-2007 49.6 54.02 91.82
V Kohli 2011-2021 52.37 57.12 91.68
JE Root 2012-2021 49.24 54.95 89.61
RT Ponting 1995-2012 51.85 58.72 88.30
MJ Clarke 2004-2015 49.1 55.92 87.80
BC Lara 1990-2006 52.88 60.51 87.39
ML Hayden 1994-2009 50.73 60.1 84.41
JL Langer 1993-2007 45.27 54.22 83.49
GC Smith 2002-2014 48.25 59.67 80.86
CH Lloyd 1966-1985 46.67 57.77 80.79
M Azharuddin 1984-2000 45.03 57.8 77.91
LRPL Taylor 2007-2021 45.83 59.8 76.64
KP Pietersen 2005-2014 47.28 61.72 76.60
IVA Richards 1974-1991 50.23 70.19 71.56
DA Warner 2011-2021 48.09 72.68 66.17
V Sehwag 2001-2013 49.34 82.23 60.00
AC Gilchrist 1999-2008 47.6 81.95 58.08
 
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