Top 50 Test batters with best match factors

[Narayana59]

A player's match factor is their batting average divided by the match average.

The match average is the total number of runs scored by everyone else in those matches, divided by the total number of innings played by everyone else in those matches.

Because of recent high scoring series ind vs ENG

Joe Root's match AVG has increased from 28.93 to 29.27

Pant's match AVG has increased from 25.34 to 26.57

Due to consistent bowling friendly pitches marnus lebuschagne match average has decreased from 28.13 to 26.52 in the last 4-5 months.

 

[sweep_shot]

View attachment 157781

Great list.

I know it is a great list when Tendulkar is not among top 5.

 

[Sachin fan]

Ha ha ha ha ha. The things some trolls do to get attention

 

[mominsaigol]

Ha ha ha ha ha. The things some trolls do to get attention

Maybe debate @Narayana59 properly? He isn't a troll by any metric however he has clearly rattled many on this forumn.

I expected this from the gang but not from a respectable poster such as yourself.

If you disagree then counter his stats. BTW I dont agree with everything he has said either but that doesn't mean I attack him to feed my ego.

 

[mominsaigol]

Great list.

I know it is a great list when Tendulkar is not among top 5.

Tendulkar is overrated by Indian fans cause he is their greatest test batsmen and hence they need to protect him at all costs.

However all his stats are tied down to either longetivity or consistency.

Steve Smith basically did all that but achieved more records that aren't tied down to his match count such as 700+ runs in ashes, Giving India run drubbings in their den(irrespective if his side won or lost)

As well as better stats in general vs Top 5 sides and a higher peak as compared to Tendulkar who's avg falls to just a touch over 50 of you exclude all the minnows he bashed such as Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

Steve Smith never got to play minnows on a consistent basis. Imagine if he got 9 games vs Zimbabwe?

Despite being the god of cricket, the god of cricket doesn't have the highest avg, nor the best performances of his era against top sides nor the best series either.

 

[sweep_shot]

Tendulkar is overrated by Indian fans cause he is their greatest test batsmen and hence they need to protect him at all costs.

However all his stats are tied down to either longetivity or consistency.

Steve Smith basically did all that but achieved more records that aren't tied down to his match count such as 700+ runs in ashes, Giving India run drubbings in their den(irrespective if his side won or lost)

As well as better stats in general vs Top 5 sides and a higher peak as compared to Tendulkar who's avg falls to just a touch over 50 of you exclude all the minnows he bashed such as Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

Steve Smith never got to play minnows on a consistent basis. Imagine if he got 9 games vs Zimbabwe?

Despite being the god of cricket, the god of cricket doesn't have the highest avg, nor the best performances of his era against top sides nor the best series either.

Yeah.

Tendulkar is a great ODI batter (top 3). But, he is not among top 5 in Test cricket. Tendulkar's Test runs were mostly soft runs.

 

[mominsaigol]

Yeah.

Tendulkar is a great ODI batter (top 3). But, he is not among top 5 in Test cricket. Tendulkar's Test runs were mostly soft runs.

Naw he is a really good test batsmen. For all his worth he is still > Ponting in his era. Ponting who is vastly overrated as a test batsmen.

However Tenda is in the same tier as Lara, Root(who is underrated on this forumn by indians due to Propaganda), Kallis and a few others.

Steve Smith clears all of em.

Ironically Sunny is actually > Sachin in test considering they avg exactly the same if you remove sachin against minnows and Sunny had to open as well.

I doubt sachin would have avg > 50 or maintained a 40+ avg against every opposition if he had to open.

 

[ElRaja]

interesting list, the only thing id say is that to be fair for changes in condiiton, and to control for minnows bringing down match averages, the average should be against the average of the rest of the players in your team.

 

[sweep_shot]

Naw he is a really good test batsmen. For all his worth he is still > Ponting in his era. Ponting who is vastly overrated as a test batsmen.

However Tenda is in the same tier as Lara, Root(who is underrated on this forumn by indians due to Propaganda), Kallis and a few others.

Steve Smith clears all of em.

Ironically Sunny is actually > Sachin in test considering they avg exactly the same if you remove sachin against minnows and Sunny had to open as well.

I doubt sachin would have avg > 50 or maintained a 40+ avg against every opposition if he had to open.

Yes.

Sunny was definitely better than Sachin in Test. I think Sunil Gavaskar is best Indian Test batter of all time.

 

[ElRaja]

Naw he is a really good test batsmen. For all his worth he is still > Ponting in his era. Ponting who is vastly overrated as a test batsmen.

However Tenda is in the same tier as Lara, Root(who is underrated on this forumn by indians due to Propaganda), Kallis and a few others.

Steve Smith clears all of em.

Ironically Sunny is actually > Sachin in test considering they avg exactly the same if you remove sachin against minnows and Sunny had to open as well.

I doubt sachin would have avg > 50 or maintained a 40+ avg against every opposition if he had to open.

punters eye went later in his career, at his peak he was in a league of his own against fast bowlers, and i dont mean just in his era, i mean in the thirty odd years i watched test cricket, from 1999 to 2006 he scored 8000+ runs at 65. however much like other natural talents, his numbers outside his peak arent that special, 5000 runs at 38, and he hung around for too long at the end of his career.

 

[Narayana59]

Naw he is a really good test batsmen. For all his worth he is still > Ponting in his era. Ponting who is vastly overrated as a test batsmen.

However Tenda is in the same tier as Lara, Root(who is underrated on this forumn by indians due to Propaganda), Kallis and a few others.

Steve Smith clears all of em.

Ironically Sunny is actually > Sachin in test considering they avg exactly the same if you remove sachin against minnows and Sunny had to open as well.

I doubt sachin would have avg > 50 or maintained a 40+ avg against every opposition if he had to open.

Do you rate those pre world war 2 batters among the Goat of Test like Hobbs, Hutton, hammond etc?

 

[Hitman]

Some people really need to grow up and start acting their age.

 

[mominsaigol]

Yes.

Sunny was definitely better than Sachin in Test. I think Sunil Gavaskar is best Indian Test batter of all time.

Another reason people never account for Root is that Root's era is much harder as batters.

@Narayana59 recently showed the economy, excluding WI every bowling side in this era has a better economy and wicket ratio then the past era.

This shows that despite bowling quality declining for example Pakistan's bowling being crap compared to wasim, This pitch doctoring era has allowed home sides to have a better advantage cough sajid Khan cough.

A tulla like Afridi avg 37 in test cricket in Sachin's era.

Its a fact that Sachin got the easiest era to bat in overall despite this root and sachin have the exact same avg if you take out minnows.

However Sachin is better then root due to Australia, I'll acknowledge that. Aussie conditons are the only conditions that have remained consistent across all eras.

But root and Sachin are extremely close. Indians don't want to accept this and will bring in racism though.

 

[Narayana59]

Another reason people never account for Root is that Root's era is much harder as batters.

@Narayana59 recently showed the economy, excluding WI every bowling side in this era has a better economy and wicket ratio then the past era.

This shows that despite bowling quality declining for example Pakistan's bowling being crap compared to wasim, This pitch doctoring era has allowed home sides to have a better advantage cough sajid Khan cough.

A tulla like Afridi avg 37 in test cricket in Sachin's era.

Its a fact that Sachin got the easiest era to bat in overall despite this root and sachin have the exact same avg if you take out minnows.

However Sachin is better then root due to Australia, I'll acknowledge that. Aussie conditons are the only conditions that have remained consistent across all eras.

But root and Sachin are extremely close. Indians don't want to accept this and will bring in racism though.

00 era aus pitches were highways, aus pitches were terrible for bowling till 2017/18.
Aus People started to loose interest in test due to boring draws that is one of the main reason behind the reinforcing of kookaburra.

 

[mominsaigol]

Do you rate those pre world war 2 batters among the Goat of Test like Hobbs, Hutton, hammond etc?

I rate them era by era.

I don't rate Bradman as the greatest of all time due to his avg. I rate him as the greatest cause post Bradman we never got a player in test cricket who was > everyone in every metric.

We got them for odi in Viv and Kohli. I put viv > due to icc wc while Kohli wasnt needed in 2011. But overall these 2 are the goats of odi as their unmatched in status.

Their is no reason why someone couldn't have achieved bradman's status post his death but they did not.

Sobers came close, Steve Smith at one point came close but didn't stick the landing.

When it comes to the guys you mentioned they are atg's of their era and Hobbs should easily rank in the pantheon of goat openers alongside Sunny and Hayden, Same as Sutcliff.

 

[Sachin fan]

Maybe debate @Narayana59 properly? He isn't a troll by any metric however he has clearly rattled many on this forumn.

I expected this from the gang but not from a respectable poster such as yourself.

If you disagree then counter his stats. BTW I dont agree with everything he has said either but that doesn't mean I attack him to feed my ego.

When your list shows Inzamam and Pant above Sachin, then you stop and question yourself and your methodology, not post it for all to see.

He has rattled people the same as any flat earther or any science deniers, "rattles" someone. And his maths and stats are even more laughably biased and flawed than them. People dont indulge with them not because they are rattled, its because its simply a waste of time. Which is why you dont see prominent scientists countering flat earthers.

I know you are young, but not every attention seeking person deserves a decent reply or your time and effort. Many time you just laugh and move on. Thats a lesson which will serve you well in life.

 

[jnaveen1980]

ANother nostalgia list? lol Let us leave it to experts who played with/against them.

 

[Narayana59]

When your list shows Inzamam and Pant above Sachin, then you stop and question yourself and your methodology, not post it for all to see.

He has rattled people the same as any flat earther or any science deniers, "rattles" someone. And his maths and stats are even more laughably biased and flawed than them. People dont indulge with them not because they are rattled, its because its simply a waste of time. Which is why you dont see prominent scientists countering flat earthers.

I know you are young, but not every attention seeking person deserves a decent reply or your time and effort. Many time you just laugh and move on. Thats a lesson which will serve you well in life.

Pant is playing in the wrost era for batting while sachin played 70 percent of matches in an era where technique less batters like sehwag used to have Career average in high 50s for most of the times , he will struggle to cross crawley's AVG in current era.
Even average batters like Laxman averaged , Samaraweera averaged 50 in that highways era.

 

[Golu-m]

Its astonishing that these jokers are haunted that much by greatest ever complete batsman only comparable to don bradman that every second day these Pakistani and bangla trolls (not Pakistani cricketers and experts though and legends) made fake acc and try to fit every factor existed in universe too downplay daddy of cricket ,Biggest superstar (stars of other games like nadal, messi, ronaldo, knows only srt and kohli where even cricket isnt played their prime minister and president knew who was tendulkar that kind of aura he had And these guys who don’t have anything to do are tryna hard to expert who cares about you? And your analysis

On this forum every second post after gap of a few week about tedulkarsuch desperate trolls ,most of the times like 80% times they are talking about indian players and thats obvious

When you have joke of players like naseem shah, babru, saim ayub, rizwan ,inzi,imran, waqar, afridi ??you cant talk about them
Because they are no match.

and top of that few jokers pretend to be neutral or either Aussie, british.

 

[DeadlyVenom]

POTW

Tendulkar myth has been one of the main plagues of cricket. It is nice to see his legacy being rated appropriately

 

[Golu-m]

Nobody cares your opinions and rant about him he’s greatest batsman
You can cry or die it wont change
>>for haters>

 

[BouncerGuy]

GUYS, PLEASE NO PERSONAL REMARKS....

 

[jeeteshssaxena]

@Narayana59 ok so this metric is based on which player actually played in a weaker batting lineup.

Now Sachin batted more than half of his career with giants like Dravid, Sehwag, Laxman and Ganguly. Isn’t it pretty obvious that his match factor will be lesser than someone like Root who played alongside Denly, Sibley, Crawley, Burns etc.

 

[jeeteshssaxena]

This list clears one thing for sure.

You cannot find Younis Khan here, so basically let alone Kohli and Laxman, he is worse than Culinan.

@Narayana59 do you find Younis khan as the most overrated batsman ever?

 

[Golu-m]

According to this list Javed miandad, mohd Yusuf, inzi, Kohli these avg test batsman are better than Ab devillirs?

Poor gilchrist isn’t even in list supposed to be greatest wk but but guys we won’t discuss that? Why we will discuss that being Sachins haters that doesn’t suit us?Hypocrits

 

[Hitman]

POTW

Tendulkar myth has been one of the main plagues of cricket. It is nice to see his legacy being rated appropriately

Here is your post from a certain thread -

Very enjoyable videos where he mentions his methodology and analysis. Most of the list looks spot on, there are some names missing however, but this is to be expected as everyone's list will be subjective.

The author mentions in one of the videos that up until Inzi he feels his list is solid but after that it gets even more subjective.

From a Pakistani perspective I do feel that Hanif Mohammed should be on the list but understand he perhaps wouldn't have met some of the filters put in by Kimber.

But it's a high quality piece of work, undoubtedly and I've actually purchased the book now.

The thread is Top 50 Test Batters of All Time by Jarod Kimber.

Thread '[VIDEO] Top 50 Test Batters of All Time'

Aug 24, 2025

Taken from Jarrod Kimber's book titled The Art of Batting published this year.

1. Don Bradman
2. Sachin Tendulkar
3. Jack Hobbs
4. Len Hutton
5. Brian Lara
6. Steve Smith
7. Sunil Gavaskar
8. Viv Richards
9. Garry Sobers
10. Jacques Kallis
11. Wally Hammond
12. Kumar Sangakkara
13. Herbert Sutcliffe
14. Joe Root
15. Rahul Dravid
16. W.G. Grace
17. Ken Barrington
18. George Headley
19. Ricky Ponting
20. Greg Chappell
21. Allan Border
22. Younis Khan
23. Javed Miandad
24. A.B. De Villers
25. Virat Kohli
26. Geoffrey Boycott
27. Graeme Smith
28. Gordon Greenidge
29. Alistair Cook
30. Shiv Chanderpaul...

• Hitman
• Replies: 126
• Forum: Cricket

• 

You brought the book, right? Who is #2 in his list? Or is he looking for an IPL contract?

 

[DeadlyVenom]

Here is your post from a certain thread -



The thread is Top 50 Test Batters of All Time by Jarod Kimber.

Thread '[VIDEO] Top 50 Test Batters of All Time'

Aug 24, 2025

Taken from Jarrod Kimber's book titled The Art of Batting published this year.

1. Don Bradman
2. Sachin Tendulkar
3. Jack Hobbs
4. Len Hutton
5. Brian Lara
6. Steve Smith
7. Sunil Gavaskar
8. Viv Richards
9. Garry Sobers
10. Jacques Kallis
11. Wally Hammond
12. Kumar Sangakkara
13. Herbert Sutcliffe
14. Joe Root
15. Rahul Dravid
16. W.G. Grace
17. Ken Barrington
18. George Headley
19. Ricky Ponting
20. Greg Chappell
21. Allan Border
22. Younis Khan
23. Javed Miandad
24. A.B. De Villers
25. Virat Kohli
26. Geoffrey Boycott
27. Graeme Smith
28. Gordon Greenidge
29. Alistair Cook
30. Shiv Chanderpaul...

• Hitman
• Replies: 126
• Forum: Cricket

• 

You brought the book, right? Who was #2 in his list?

And what?

No issues with people who rate Tendulkar highly. Its a subjective game. People will prefer one over the other. Issue is with those who peddle lies, exaggerations, threaten others and belittle other players because they feel Tendulkar deserves an extra level of respect. That he is above all other batsmen and is a god of the game.

Kimber is a top journalist. No issues with him rating players as he sees fit. I think his ratings of most were spot on. He captured the Pakistanis appropriately. If his methodology means he rates Sachin highly or if he knows his book will sell more in India and gives Sachin a bump then so be it.

Tendulkar myth isn't that Sachin was a great batsman. Its that he was way clear above all others and left them in the dust. That's the point of contention. Of course when you add in his various scandals then it tells another story but that doesn't effect his batting stature.

 

[Hitman]

And what?

No issues with people who rate Tendulkar highly. Its a subjective game. People will prefer one over the other. Issue is with those who peddle lies, exaggerations, threaten others and belittle other players because they feel Tendulkar deserves an extra level of respect. That he is above all other batsmen and is a god of the game.

Kimber is a top journalist. No issues with him rating players as he sees fit. I think his ratings of most were spot on. He captured the Pakistanis appropriately. If his methodology means he rates Sachin highly or if he knows his book will sell more in India and gives Sachin a bump then so be it.

Tendulkar myth isn't that Sachin was a great batsman. Its that he was way clear above all others and left them in the dust. That's the point of contention. Of course when you add in his various scandals then it tells another story but that doesn't effect his batting stature.

Is it? I head a lot of noise about Kallis and Sangakkara averaging better. Border, Gavaskar, Miandad and G. Chappell were all King Viv's contemporaries, and all of them averaged more than King Viv in Tests. Kindly confess that all of them were better than King Viv.​

 

[DeadlyVenom]

Is it? I head a lot of noise about Kallis and Sangakkara averaging better. Border, Gavaskar, Miandad and G. Chappell were all King Viv's contemporaries, and all of them averaged more than King Viv in Tests. Kindly confess that all of them were better than King Viv.​

I didn't watch that era. Viv is rated highly nto just for his test cricket stats but the manner in which he batted and his ODI cricket. He was ahead of his time when it comes to domination. I don't know a huge amount of AB and Chapel but enough that they were fine players. Gavaskar is one of the GOATs although he plays in different position to VIv he usually feature in ATG XI whereas VIV sometimes doesn't make the cut.

So again it depends how you want it. If you want attack flair and domination VIv. If you want solid defense, price on a wicket and tough runs Suny G.

 

[Hitman]

I didn't watch that era. Viv is rated highly nto just for his test cricket stats but the manner in which he batted and his ODI cricket. He was ahead of his time when it comes to domination. I don't know a huge amount of AB and Chapel but enough that they were fine players. Gavaskar is one of the GOATs although he plays in different position to VIv he usually feature in ATG XI whereas VIV sometimes doesn't make the cut.

So again it depends how you want it. If you want attack flair and domination VIv. If you want solid defense, price on a wicket and tough runs Suny G.

The question is whether anyone with a proper functioning brain would rate Gavaskar, Miandad, Border and G. Chappell ahead of King Viv because they averaged better?​

 

[Narayana59]

@Narayana59 ok so this metric is based on which player actually played in a weaker batting lineup.

Now Sachin batted more than half of his career with giants like Dravid, Sehwag, Laxman and Ganguly. Isn’t it pretty obvious that his match factor will be lesser than someone like Root who played alongside Denly, Sibley, Crawley, Burns etc.

They will not AVG 40+ in current era, it only shows they played majority of matches on highways

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

interesting list, the only thing id say is that to be fair for changes in condiiton, and to control for minnows bringing down match averages, the average should be against the average of the rest of the players in your team.

If someone really wants to get in the weeds then why not a combination of this and the match factor metric that OP defined but filtered to Top 8 test teams

 

[atreus]

The metric is flawed, If you play for bad batting units you have an inherent advantage there, if your team has great bowling you have an inherent advantage too. Gordon Greenidge was not good enough to tie Sunil Gavaskar's boots but because Greenidge had the greatest bowling lineup of all time playing in his team, and Gavaskar had Kapil Dev and nothing, West Indies bowled teams out quicker than India so the games were lower scoring so Greenidge got the advantage.

 

[atreus]

The question is whether anyone with a proper functioning brain would rate Gavaskar, Miandad, Border and G. Chappell ahead of King Viv because they averaged better?​

Because average isn't everything. Let me give you a better example, Peter May averaged 46 (36 overseas) and Ken Barrington averaged 58 (69 overseas) yet there is no comparison between them, May was regarded unequivocally and universally as not only the greatest, but the only great Batsman to emerge from England before Joe Root took the throne, Barrington is a forgotten name in history

 

[Narayana59]

Here is your post from a certain thread -



The thread is Top 50 Test Batters of All Time by Jarod Kimber.

Thread '[VIDEO] Top 50 Test Batters of All Time'

Aug 24, 2025

Taken from Jarrod Kimber's book titled The Art of Batting published this year.

1. Don Bradman
2. Sachin Tendulkar
3. Jack Hobbs
4. Len Hutton
5. Brian Lara
6. Steve Smith
7. Sunil Gavaskar
8. Viv Richards
9. Garry Sobers
10. Jacques Kallis
11. Wally Hammond
12. Kumar Sangakkara
13. Herbert Sutcliffe
14. Joe Root
15. Rahul Dravid
16. W.G. Grace
17. Ken Barrington
18. George Headley
19. Ricky Ponting
20. Greg Chappell
21. Allan Border
22. Younis Khan
23. Javed Miandad
24. A.B. De Villers
25. Virat Kohli
26. Geoffrey Boycott
27. Graeme Smith
28. Gordon Greenidge
29. Alistair Cook
30. Shiv Chanderpaul...

• Hitman
• Replies: 126
• Forum: Cricket

• 

You brought the book, right? Who is #2 in his list? Or is he looking for an IPL contract?

Kimber is totally biased here towards sachin because most of his viewers are sachin fan's.

Kimber is giving only 1 reason for why sneaked in sachin tendulkar at no 2 position that is longevity
But
You need to consider also the fact that later half (more like 64%) of matches of Sachin were in 2000's in the flattest era of all time and that matters a lot when you age. Smith can play till 40 if he gets back the pitches of 2000's (or get Mccullum as coach and he makes Aus pitches like eng), but on these pitches, those small eyesight issues will exacerbate and you will need to retire.

If you compare the eras:

In matches involving Sachin batting avg is 34, batting avg of top 7 is 40. (Now it is across 24 years, will have era of weak teams and strong teams and etc etc)

In matches involving Smith, batting avg is 30, batting avg of top 7 is 35. Now he still avg 56 to Sachin's 53.

So if nothing else, Smith is far far better than his peers across last 14 years than Sachin was over his 24 years.

Another thing to consider is the oppositon, Sachin got a lot of matches against Ban and Zim, Smith just plays major nations. If you remove ban and zim, Sachin actually avg 51.01.