Shocking revelations: The best batsmen against world champion WI and Australian teams are not Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar respectively

The West Indians of 1976-1995 and the Australians of 1995-2007 dominated the cricket world as no other team has ever done. Arunabha Sengupta crunches data to find out who the best batsmen were against their formidable attacks and in their lairs. Surprisingly, the list against West Indies is not headed by Sunil Gavaskar. Nor is the one against Australia led by Sachin Tendulkar.

The West Indians of 1976-1995 and the Australians of 1995-2007 dominated the cricket world as no other team has ever done. Arunabha Sengupta crunches data to find out who the best batsmen were against their formidable attacks and in their lairs. Surprisingly, the list against West Indies is not headed by Sunil Gavaskar. Nor is the one against Australia led by Sachin Tendulkar.

The cricket world has witnessed two undisputed champion Test teams during the last four decades. Before West Indies started unprecedented domination from 1976 and Australia subsequently took over the sceptre of world leader from 1995, the power axis of cricket world had never been so titled towards one side. It had oscillated between England and Australia, and in the 1960s, there had been a three way equilibrium between the West Indies-Australia-England, with South Africa being a secluded superpower in their own way.

Yes, Australia of the early to mid-1970s could rightly claim to have been the best team in the world, but the duration of their supremacy did not really approach the two later great sides.
 
It all started in 1976, when Clive Lloyd tried out his policy of four pace bowlers in the fourth Test match against India in Jamaica. The supremacy of the West Indians lasted till 1995, when they were displaced from the top by Mark Taylor’s Australians.
 
The reign of the Aussies went on till the 2007 Ashes, after which Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne waved the arms that had sent down so many poison tipped deliveries and walked away together into the sunset.
 
Indian cricket followers generally look at these periods with considerable pride for their own men. They ran Australia close during their stint at the top, far closer than any other side in the world. Besides, two of their batsmen towered over the rest of the world against the all-conquering bowlers of these two sides.
 
Sunil Gavaskar scored 2,749 runs against the mighty West Indies at 65.45 with 13 hundreds. And Sachin Tendulkar piled 3,630 runs against the ruthless Aussies at 55.00 with 11 tons.
 
Among their contemporaries no one had better numbers against the undisputed champion teams of the world.
 
Indeed, Gavaskar and Tendulkar were peerless batsmen. A close scrutiny at the numbers will always displace any pretender to the throne of Indian batsmanship during their respective eras.
 
For certain periods they were indeed the best in the world. During the second half of the 1970s, Gavaskar ran neck and neck with Viv Richards for the crown of the best batsman in Test cricket. Tendulkar had a longer run at the top, with no peer during 1994-2002, and again climbed to the top of the world in the dream phase between 2007-2011.
 
But, did they really have the best records against the best bowling attacks as many like to believe? Let us look at the numbers of the batsmen around the world against the very best attacks they faced.

Identifying the best
 
To do this, we will first of all identify the best attacks.
 
Let us recall once again that the West Indies became the terror they were because of the four-pronged pace attack they boasted, a policy adopted by Lloyd in 1976 after spinners Inshan Ali, Albert Padmore and Raphick Jumadeen bowled 105 overs between them and were unable to defend a target of 404 in the fourth innings against India at Port of Spain. 
 
At Jamaica in April 1976, a frustrated Lloyd decided to launch the fast bowling machinery. It was still in the testing phase — the blinding pace of Michael Holding and Wayne Daniel, aided by the less hostile Vanburn Holder and Bernard Julien. Yet Holding was menacing enough to force Bishan Bedi to declare with just five wickets down, as a protest against intimidation. We can consider this Test match to be the start of the period of lethal fast bowling.
 
When the men from Caribbean travelled to England that summer, heart-chilling thunderbolts were hurled at batsmen in response to Tony Greig’s ‘grovel’ remark. The mean machine of menace had been perfected.
 
Through the next 19 years, Holding, Andy Roberts, Colin Croft, Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall, Courtney Walsh, Curly Ambrose and Ian Bishop were produced as if by a miraculous assembly line of speed. Even the lesser names such as Pat Patterson, Winston Davis, Wayne Daniel, Kenneth Benjamin and Winston Benjamin were bowlers of chilling pace and high quality. All of them terrorised the world in groups of four, three on rare occasions, relentlessly bowling over after over at scorching pace.
 
This strategy was carried on for 19 years, till April 1995. But the period was interrupted for a couple of series when World Series Cricket intervened and Alvin Kallicharran led a second string side at home against Australia and then on the tour to India. Our analysis ignores those two series played with second string sides, simply because that did not see the best West Indian pace attack in action.
 
Similarly, if we look at Australia, they became a superpower only in 1995 after overcoming West Indies in the Caribbean. And the bowling lost its sting after the retirement of their two major pillars —Warne and McGrath. With the two in the side, they were practically unbeatable, a mighty force even with one of them.
 
So, our analysis of the batsmen against the supreme Aussie bowling will need to range from 1995 to 2007. And just as we had to remove Kallicharran’s 1978-79 reign from the West Indies pace era, we will have to ignore the games played by Australia, in which both the tooth and the claw of Australian bowling was absent. Hence we remove from the analysis all the Australian matches played during the era when both McGrath and Warne had been absent.
 
Hence, while looking at the knocks played against the genuinely greatest attack of the world, we have to remove 10 of Gavaskar’s 13 hundreds, which were scored against weaker attacks of 1971 and 1979, and the early Tests of 1976.
 
Similarly, some of the great Tendulkar hundreds have to be ignored. The masterpieces at Perth and Sydney in 1991-92 were scored against excellent attacks, but not against the world champion side. Similarly, the four latter day hundreds — including the two centuries of the 2007-08 tour and the great 214 at Bangalore – would have to be ignored because they were innings essayed after the retirement of the greatest Australian bowlers. Finally, the incredibly patient 241 at Sydney in 2003-04, will need to be ignored as well. The whole 2003-04 series needs to be ignored because McGrath and Warne did not take part in it. Even Brett Lee did not play the first two Tests. An attack of Jason Gillespie, Brett Lee/Andy Bichel, Nathan Bracken and Stuart McGill was good, but not exactly the best in the world.
 
Remember, that our objective here is to determine the best batsmen against the best bowlers of champion teams.

Neither Gavaskar nor Tendulkar emerge as the best against the best
 
The results we get are somewhat surprising, to say the least.
 
The analysis of the best batsmen against the fearsome West Indian pace reveal the shocking name of Wasim Raja at the top. As we can see, there are plenty of forgotten, but brave, stalwarts in the list. Gavaskar actually just about manages to squeeze in at the bottom of the list of commendable performers. In fact, compatriot Dilip Vengsarkar has a better record against the champion West Indian bowlers.

Batsmen with 40+ averages against WI pace dominance (over 500 runs)*
 

Batsman	T	Runs	Avge	100s	50s
Wasim Raja (Pak)	9	763	58.69	1	7
MD Crowe (NZ)	7	544	45.33	3	1
ME Waugh (Aus)	14	947	45.09	3	5
BM Laird (Aus)	6	540	45.00	0	6
GA Gooch (Eng)	26	2197	44.83	5	13
RA Smith (Eng)	15	1,028	44.69	3	6
KC Wessels (Aus/SA)	8	670	44.66	1	6
SR Waugh (Aus)	16	1,020	44.34	2	6
Majid Khan (Pak)	9	684	42.75	1	4
AJ Stewart (Eng)	10	716	42.11	2	2
DB Vengsarkar (India)	18	1,179	42.10	4	6
G Boycott (Eng)	9	663	41.43	1	4
SM Gavaskar (India)	12	813	40.65	3	2

Let us now turn our attention to the mean Australians of 1995-2007. Yet again we see the chart topped by two gutsy Pakistani batsmen.

Batsmen with 40+ averages against best Australian bowlers (over 500 runs)*
 
(Matches in which both McGrath and Warne have not played have been ignored)

Batsman	T	Runs	Avge	100s	50s
Saeed Anwar (Pak)	5	572	63.55	3	2
Ijaz Ahmed (Pak)	7	679	61.72	4	1
KP Pietersen (Eng)	10	963	53.50	2	6
SR Tendulkar (India)	12	1,108	50.36	4	6
BC Lara (ICC/WI)	20	1,733	46.83	6	4
VVS Laxman (India)	12	963	43.77	2	5
AC Parore (NZ)	9	523	43.58	1	1
GP Thorpe (Eng)	8	561	43.15	1	4
MP Vaughan (Eng)	9	776	43.11	3	1
CL Cairns (NZ)	9	687	42.93	1	5
MR Ramprakash (Eng)	10	749	41.61	1	4

We find that it is Saeed Anwar who tops the list, followed by Ijaz Ahmed. Tendulkar comes fourth in the list after Kevin Pietersen’s phenomenal showing in his first two Ashes series.
 
Some of the surprise names that we find here are Adam Parore and Chris Cairns. The resilience shown by the Kiwis against their formidable trans-Tasman neighbours is perhaps captured here. And a surprising omission is Rahul Dravid with 861 runs at 35.87 when either McGrath or Shane Warne have bowled to him. The other Indian batsman to miss out is Sourav Ganguly with 560 runs at 28.00.

Virender Sehwag does average 42.71 against the best Australian attacks, but he played just four Tests against them and managed 299 runs — hence not qualifying for the table.

Unlike Gavaskar, Tendulkar does manage a very good average against the top foe and is also ahead of the other Indian batsmen in this field. What is remarkable is that he does manage an excellent average against Australia even if we ignore the exceptional tours of 1991-92 and 2007-08, and the great home series against them in 2010.

Playing in the backyards of these two supreme teams was always a challenge. Let us see how batsmen fared in those arduous conditions against the top class bowling.

Batsmen averaging 40+ in West Indies during pace dominance (at least 250 runs)*

 

Batsman	T	Runs	Avge	100s	50s
SR Waugh (Aus)	6	461	76.83	1	3
M Amarnath (India)	6	697	63.36	2	5
Wasim Raja (Pak)	5	517	57.44	1	5
MA Atherton (Eng)	5	510	56.66	2	2
AR Border (Aus)	10	796	53.06	1	5
Majid Khan (Pak)	5	530	53.00	1	3
ME Waugh (Aus)	9	607	50.58	2	3
DI Gower (Eng)	9	746	43.88	1	4
GA Gooch (Eng)	11	864	41.14	2	6
AJ Stewart (Eng)	9	647	40.43	2	2

Again, the absence of Gavaskar may surprise many — since the Caribbean islands have gone down in history as the happy hunting grounds of the legend. But, the master scored just 308 runs at 30.80 on those pitches during the heydays of Windies dominance, with one solitary hundred — the century coming on the last day of a largely washed out Georgetown Test. In fact, the Indian name that follows Amarnath in the averages list will come as a real shocker — Ravi Shastri with 406 runs at 33.83 and two hundreds.
 
A similar analysis of tours against Australia is prone to include outliers because of the small samples, but here are the results.

Batsmen averaging 40+ in Australia during their dominance (at least 250 runs)*
 
(Matches in which both McGrath and Warne did not play have been ignored)

Batsman	T	Runs	Avge	100s	50s
MP Vaughan (Eng)	4	450	56.25	2	0
KP Pietersen (Eng)	5	490	54.44	1	3
AC Parore (NZ)	6	379	54.14	1	1
JH Kallis (ICC/SA)	9	728	48.53	2	3
PD Collingwood (Eng)	5	433	48.11	1	1
G Kirsten (SA)	6	524	47.63	2	2
MR Ramprakash (Eng)	5	379	47.37	0	4
Saeed Anwar (Pak)	3	282	47.00	1	2
SR Tendulkar (India)	3	278	46.33	1	2
CL Hooper (WI)	5	362	45.25	1	2
Ijaz Ahmed (Pak)	5	399	44.33	2	1
NJ Astle (NZ)	8	567	43.61	1	2
Younis Khan (Pak)	3	259	43.16	0	1

Once again, the leader-board looks somewhat counterintuitive. Englishmen Michael Vaughan and Pietersen top the chart, with Adam Parore proving a surprise No 3. The much-maligned Mark Ramprakash and the underrated Paul Collingwood make it to the list. Tendulkar does score at a creditable 46.33, but is not really at the top of the group. However, once again, he is the best Indian batsman in these conditions by a long way.
 
Brian Lara scored the highest number of runs against the best bowlers in their lair, but his 1,003 came at 37.14. VVS Laxman (221 at 36.83), Sourav Ganguly (177 at 29.50) and Rahul Dravid (93 at 15.50) provide a sorry tale of how the Indian batsmen other than Tendulkar fared in the hostile land.
 
Paradoxically, however, Australia was not the most lethal place to tour during their heyday. During the modern era, from 1990 onwards, taking every visiting team into consideration, batsmen have found it most difficult to score runs in South Africa. With Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, Fanie de Villiers right up to Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander, the bowling has always been probing and relentless and the conditions tailored to perfection for the home bowlers. Traditionally, the wickets of South Africa have been the most difficult for batsmen to score on.
 
Tendulkar with five tours to the country has been an amazing run machine against some of the most difficult bowling he has ever encountered. He is the only visitor to score over 1,000 runs in the land after their readmission to Test cricket. However, the table is headed by four left handers — at least two of them very under-rated. Interestingly, the batting averages of the three greatest modern batsmen, Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar, look strikingly similar in South Africa.

Batsmen averaging 40+ in South Africa since their readmission

Batsman	T	Runs	Avge	100s	50s
AC Gilchrist (Aus)	6	523	65.37	2	1
CH Gayle (WI)	5	545	54.50	2	2
PJ Hughes (Aus)	5	532	53.20	2	2
AJ Strauss (Eng)	9	826	51.62	3	2
SR Waugh (Aus)	9	603	50.25	1	4
RT Ponting (Aus)	11	937	46.85	3	5
BC Lara (WI)	9	841	46.72	2	5
SR Tendulkar (India)	15	1,161	46.44	5	3
SP Fleming (NZ)	11	927	46.35	1	5
ME Trescothick (Eng)	5	448	44.80	2	0
ME Waugh (Aus)	9	611	43.64	2	1
S Chanderpaul (WI)	11	799	42.05	2	5
MA Atherton (Eng)	10	615	41.00	2	3
VVS Laxman (India)	10	566	40.42	0	4

Here again, we find Tendulkar (1,161 at 46.44) way ahead of any other Indian batsman (Laxman 566 at 40.42, Ganguly 506 at 36.14, Dravid 654 at 29.71 and Sehwag 382 at 25.46).

Some of the conclusions that we can form from the above analysis are:
 
· Contrary to popular belief, neither Gavaskar nor Tendulkar had the best record against the best bowling attack of their generation.
 
· Overall Dilip Vengsarkar, and in West Indies, Mohinder Amarnath and Ravi Shastri, had better numbers than Gavaskar against the four-pronged Caribbean pace attack.
 
· However, Gavaskar played against the fearsome West Indian quartet only once during his glory days of 1970s. If he had faced them more often during 1976-1980, one cannot really say with any certainty whether he would have been more successful.
 
· Tendulkar did not have the best record against the supreme Australian attack. However, he had an excellent one.
 
· In Australia, Tendulkar played just three Tests against the McGrath/Warne combination and did reasonably well.
 
· Also, in the hostile land of South Africa, Tendulkar was one of the more consistent batsmen even though he did not possess the best figures.
 
· Tendulkar scored consistently against every difficult opposition and was close to the top in all such tables. This distinguishes him from his peers by some distance.
 
· Tendulkar was without doubt the best Indian batsman of his day against the most formidable attacks in the most hostile conditions.

Once again, I will take this opportunity to repeat that both Gavaskar and Tendulkar are acknowledged as top drawer batsmen of their era. As mentioned earlier, and as the ICC Ranking will testify, they were indeed the world’s best during specific periods. In their own eras, they were undoubtedly head and shoulders above the rest of the Indian batsmen.
 
However, it would be inaccurate to say that they were the best against the best attacks of their generation.

(Arunabha Sengupta is a cricket historian and Chief Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He writes about the history and the romance of the game, punctuated often by opinions about modern day cricket, while his post-graduate degree in statistics peeps through in occasional analytical pieces. The author of three novels, he can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/senantix)

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