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Fantastic effort by this poster to present facts in a simple yet comprehensive manner.
Congratulations to [MENTION=137475]AnasK[/MENTION] for this weeks POTW
Congratulations to [MENTION=137475]AnasK[/MENTION] for this weeks POTW
The title says it all. When it comes to choosing one Pakistani batsman in Tests, it always is a tough thing to do. There have been a lot of good batmen till date from Pakistan but none of them can be put equal to the Greats produced by other Cricketing Nations. Although we have produced good batsmen but at maximum they usually are tier two or three greats.
Picking the best bowler from Pakistan is quite easy because we've produced really exceptional bowlers over the years. But picking best batsman is not that easy. I cannot judge someone's batting technique, batting style, limitations nor I have watched former players. The stats are the way to do it. Therefore, I am going to do a method of my own and from which I believe can tell us which Pakistani batsman has been the best in Tests or atleast has high probability of telling us correctly.
First of all, one thing which I believe and on which this whole thing is based on is that the all top players have great home records, their main challenge is always overseas tours and their worth is known in those tours. So my work is 90% based on the overseas records against Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand and West Indies.
Now, let me explain a few things I am going to make tables for different stats that I think can help us decide the best and then I will be awarding them points depending on how they fare and it would be RELATIVE POINTS on how every player on table fares. In case of less amount of data available in order to award points, the relative points will given by dividing the table in suitable parts. There are some other terms that would be explained later.
So, starting off I needed top batsmen who have performed well overseas; simple result which arguably shows the Top Pakistani Test batsmen ever even without the stats. But here is the first table:
So there we have 6 big names from Pakistan in terms of batting. I hope there are no other batsmen people are thinking of. We'll be going ahead with these 6 names.
The main reason for selecting batsmen because of their away records is to find out which player played better in tough conditions. This sort of shows which batsman had a good technique, temperament, skill to score against good fast bowlers in their backyard in tough conditions. Even if they were technically flawed, they knew how to play fast bowling in those conditions.
Similar table which only focuses of runs made in 1st & 2nd match innings. Showing how they fared on fresh pitch with grass on. This also tests their temperament and focus being batting in first innings.
Now it is narrowed down to only 1st innings; either its a good track to bat or its a bowling paradise and you have been forced to bat.
Now lets consider, the track is a green one. Lots of grass. Or maybe it is overcast conditions out there. Or maybe both. And the opposing captain has sent you in...
Now we should move towards these players' winning contributions. Which of these batsmen have set it up for the team in 1st innings and contributed towards the victory...
Now lets consider the same green pitch scenario. But this time we want to see which players have contributed towards victory despite all odds. Here I would like to mention that the sample size was very less in this case and so here I did my best not to give anyone advantage or big disadvantage.
Chasing a target in the 4th innings or playing for a draw in always tough away from home...
Now lets look deeper into their performance against pace bowlers and spin bowlers. The pace bowlers have always been very tough from overseas countries and therefore it is important to play them better than you have done at home. For this there is a weighted average which is 70% of pace bowlers and 30% of spin bowlers.
Now lets see their milestone reaching rate. That in after how many innings they score a 50, 100. And then how many of those 50s are converted to 100s. Here I am using Inverse Conversion Rate, the reason for using inverse is that the simple conversion rate needs to be high to be said good while other two rates need to be low to be said as good. So this brings all three to same page. If you don't understand no worries, just trust me I am an Engineering student
Here weighted rate has 33% of all three rates here.
Now the last table. I think we should now come back to Pakistan. Shows the winning contributions of the batsmen in home and neutral Test matches.
So now after all these aspects seen, we are going to the result by just calculating points in each table and according to my statistics we get him as Pakistan's greatest batsman in Tests.
Hopefully, everyone will appreciate my hard work and effort and give their thoughts. Constructive criticism is always welcomed. Do discuss it. Who according to you is the greatest Pakistani batsman?
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