Sach-ayee - a study of India's best Test batsmen

Background: 

I was prompted to write this article as a result of Sachin scoring his long-awaited 100th 100 and the subsequent comments from the illustrious Sachin-bashers that included gems like “Oh why didn’t we play against Bangladesh earlier?”, “This was a hundred befitting his career”, “Another hundred in a losing cause” etc. A few weeks before that I was engaged in an email war with another friend who is convinced that most other batsmen are better than Sachin.

As someone who started following cricket because of SMG and then fell head and shoulders in love with the game, it pains me to see one of our greatest icons being constantly pilloried over the past year. Thanks to all the recent criticism about his obsession with landmarks at the cost of the team, I decided to conduct an objective analysis of him vis-à-vis other leading Indian Test batsmen. Let me state here that I have been an unabashed Sachin admirer for the last 23 years. Meeting him in Ahmedabad in 1994 in his hotel room has been one of the highlights of my life. In the analysis that follows, I have done my best to keep emotions aside.

Parameters

The batsmen I have chosen for this analysis are Sachin, Dravid, Sunny, Sehwag and Laxman. These are the ones most likely to make it to an All-Time Indian Test XI. Laxman is probably the only question mark but I have included him for pulling off some of our most incredible victories in the past decade. Given this list, the Tests included in the analysis are all those played between 1971 and 2011.

I have put together a set of parameters that I think can fairly judge the performances of these batsmen. Some are objective and data-based while I have also made room for some of the imperceptibles. These are:

1. Contributions to famous series/Test wins
2. It-might-have-been moments – these are matches where the batsman in question did everything possible to win but India fell short because of the incompetence of the rest of the team
3. Performance in the 1st Test – it is important as it sets the tone for the rest of the series. We are poor travelers and quite often lose the 1st test of an away series
4. Contributions in matches saved
5. Ability to score runs in difficult conditions against high-quality attacks
6. Entertainment value

Contributions to famous series/test wins: The standard argument leveled against Sachin is that he does not win enough matches for the country. Let’s first look at the bare facts and then delve deeper. Of his 51 Test 100s, 20 have been in a winning cause and 11 in losing causes. That’s a winning percentage of 40. Only Dravid has a higher winning percentage of 42.
Let’s now look at perceptions. Many people believe Sehwag is a great match winner because of the rate at which he scores. However, his winning percentage is 32 while the losing percentage is nearly 30. Even the great SMG has a winning percentage of just 18 (6 wins out of 34 100s, 5 losses).

Just looking at 100s does not give the complete picture so let’s now look at some of the famous Test and series wins for India. The famous wins are typically overseas wins or against formidable opposition at home (like the Aussie teams of the Taylor/Waugh era). For the purpose of this discussion, I have eliminated all Tests against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

Famous Series wins:  

• Away: England in 1971, 1986 and 2007, SL 1993, Pak in 2004, WI in 1971, 2006 and 2011, NZ in 2009. 
• Home: Aus 1998 and 2001

1. England 1971 – this was Chandra’s match and no batsman can take any credit
2. England 1986 was won primarily by the bat of Vengsarkar. 
3. Eng 2007 – we won the Nottingham Test where Sachin was the topscorer. He was at that stage struggling to come back from the tennis elbow and the WC 2007 disaster. It was an ugly innings but got us the big lead of 281. Zak and the jelly beans did the rest
4. SL 1993 – many people will downplay a win against Sri Lanka but they have always been tough opposition at home and in the early years, they were also aided by their home umpires. This win also gains significance because it was our only away series win between 1986 and 2004. Sachin scored a 100 in the 2nd innings that setup the victory
5. Pak 2004 – the foundation of this historic win was laid by Sehwag’s monumental 309 and the series was sealed by Dravid’s 270 at Rawalpindi. 
6. WI 1971 – The heroes were Dilip Sardesai and Sunny. In the Test that we won, the big innings came from Sardesai while Sunny scored a fifty in each innings. Sunny scored heavily in the final Test to take us from a position where we could have lost to a match-winning position. 
7. WI 2006 – this was clearly a Rahul Dravid special. He scored fifties in each innings at Jamaica on a minefield when no one else from either side got close. 
8. WI 2011 – Dravid got a 100 that won us the game. This was a fairly insignificant series coming after the World Cup win and hence we didn’t send many of our top players. 
9. NZ in 2009 – our first series win in NZ after 42 years. We won the 1st test at Hamilton with Sachin scoring 160, by far the highest on either side. 
10. Aus 1998 – Sachin set the tone by demolishing Warne at Chennai and that set us on course for the series win against Taylor’s team.
11. Aus 2001 – Nothing needs to be said about the greatest comeback ever witnessed in the history of the game. Laxman and Dravid take all the kudos for turning the series on its head. Let’s however remember that in the 3rd Test, it was Sachin who scored the century that got us the vital 110-run lead in the 1st innings. 

Thus out of these 11 series wins, I would give Dravid credit for 4, Sachin for 3, Laxman for 1,  Sehwag for 1, Sunny for 1.
Famous Test wins (outside of the series wins discussed above): Port of Spain 1976 and 2002, Auckland 1976, Headingley 2002, Adelaide 2003, Jo’burg 2006, Perth 2008, Chennai 2008, Durban 2010, Mohali 2010. I have looked at the most meaningful contribution by a batsman. In some cases, I have nominated two batsmen when both have contributed significantly

• POS 2002: Our first Test win in WI since 1976 and also our first win outside the subcontinent since 1986. Sachin (117 in the 1st innings), Laxman (fifty in each innings) get full credit. I have included Lax because despite a first innings lead of 94, we were in trouble in the 2nd innings at 56-4. He got us to a safe position with help from Ganguly
• Headingley 2002: Dravid and Sachin in that order. While Dravid scored that immaculate 148 on a green pitch, Sachin made sure the effort became a match-winning one with his 193. Towards the end of Day2, he and Ganguly kept playing in poor light and took the attack to England. 
• Adelaide 2003: Not much needs to be said. Dravid and Laxman in that order
• Jo’burg 2006: This was a win setup by the stupendous bowling of Sreesanth so it is difficult to give credit to any batsman. 
• Perth 2008: It’s difficult to identify standout one batting performance but I would give credit to Dravid who battled poor form to score a scratchy 93 and to Sachin for scoring 71. Laxman also deserves credit for the 79 in the 2nd innings that took our lead beyond 400.
• Chennai 2008: We chased down 387 in the 4th innings to win an amazing Test. For sure, Sehwag set it up with a blistering 83 on Day 4 that left us with no option but to go for the win. Let’s remember however that the highest successful 4th innings chase in India was 276 and India had never chased more than 256. It was a nice coincidence that we scored 256 on the 5th day with Sachin shepherding the innings with a wonderful hundred.
• Durban 2010:  Clearly Laxman was the standout performer topscoring in both innings
• Mohali 2010: It was one of our most exciting Test wins in the last decade and will be forever remembered for the great partnership between Laxman and Ishant Sharma. Laxman played the decisive hand in the 2nd innings but it is worth remembering that Sachin scored 98 and 38 in the two innings.
• Melbourne 1981 – It was setup by Vishy’s brilliant 114 out of a first innings score of 237 and Kapil’s match winning spell on the last day. Sunny did score 70 in the 2nd innings but is remembered more for his infamous walkout. 
• Auckland 1976 – Sunny’s hundred in the first innings setup the win. It was to be our only Test win in NZ between 1967 and 2009.
• Port of Spain 1976: Sunny led the record chase and was ably supported by Vishy

To summarise the votes – Dravid 3, Sachin 3, Laxman 4, Sunny 2, Sehwag 1. It may come as a surprise to folks that Sehwag despite his “match-winning” ways is at the bottom of the pile. Sunny did a fabulous job of bringing respect to Indian cricket through his many monumental innings against fearsome attacks but most of them either resulted in draws or heroic defeats. Does that make him a lesser batsman? I do think he had a few chances of creating history but failed to do so – Oval 1979, Oz tour of 1985-86 come to mind. At the Oval he didn’t do much to push the scoring rate even after crossing 200 while in Australia 1985-86, we were denied a win in the 2nd Test largely due to his poor scoring rate in the 2nd innings. He scored 8 off 54 balls knowing that rain was forecast. India finished on 59/2 at tea after 25 overs of batting chasing a victory target of 126 before rain washed out play.
It-might-have-been matches: In cricket, the outcome quite often depends on the strength of the team. Almost never can one individual swing the game completely. Most Indian batting greats have had the misfortune of playing in weak teams and hence have not always had the desirable results. Poor Lara played for the weakest of teams and tasted defeat most times. On the other hand, a Viv Richards and a Ricky Ponting would find most of their big innings resulting in wins because of the depth of their sides. Their achievements thus need to be evaluated in the context of the ecosystem they were in. Most times, Ponting / Viv would come in after their openers had laid a solid foundation.
Let’s now look at some It-might-have-been moments for the batsmen in question.

Sachin:

• The 241 at Sydney should have resulted in a series win if our bowling had been 10% better and if Parthiv Patel had not been our keeper. What an outcome that would have been! I cannot see us winning in Oz for another 20 years. 
• His fabulous 146 in the 3rd Test at Cape Town in 2011 against a rampaging Steyn ensured that we finished level in the 1st innings. On Day 5, we had SA on the mat at 130/6 and then let them get away with a draw. Some support for Bhajji on the last day from our pacemen would have resulted in a historic first-ever series win. 
• At Chennai 1999, our tail could not score the 17 runs required for a win after Sachin got out. One can always argue that he should have finished the match but the point remains that a tail with a little more spirit would have won us the game. Take the case of Ponting in the Old Trafford test of 2005. He scored 156 but fell with 3 overs left. It was upto McGrath and Lee to see out the last 18 balls and draw the Test. They did it and Ponting became a hero. Can you imagine Srinath and Prasad doing the same? 

Dravid

• Jo’burg 1997: He scored 148* and 81 but India were denied a win by Cullinan and Klusener. SA were 95/7 chasing 356 and our bowlers could not finish the game off. It would have given us our first-ever win in SA

Sehwag: I cannot think of any matches where he made a significant contribution and we were denied a win by the incompetence of his team-mates. The double hundred at Bangalore against Pak in 2005 may be a case in point but that was a home Test against not very tough opposition.

Laxman: He has been fortunate in the sense that most of his great innings were backed up by the bowlers. E.g. Australia’s last day’s collapse at Eden triggered by the spin of Bhajji and Sachin, Agarkar’s spell at Adelaide. The only innings that should have resulted in a win but did not was the 178 at Sydney in 2004.

Sunny

• The most memorable one is his last Test innings of 96 on the minefield at Bangalore when we fell short by a few runs. Alas the rest of the team could not survive the track
• Oval 1979 – After Sunny’s magnificent 221, the rest of the team had to get 49 runs for a win but were denied by some inept batting and pathetic umpiring from Dickie Bird. 
• I would also include the last Test of the 1971 series. Sunny’s 124 and 220 should have won us the game. WI were 165/8 chasing 262 in the last innings. It didn’t matter in the end because we still won the series 1-0.
• In the tied Test, we needed 347 on the last day and Sunny setup the chase beautifully with his 90. Thanks to the tie the match is memorable but we should have won it. 

Match-saving innings

Sachin – Everyone remembers his 1st Test century at Old Trafford but there are a few other significant ones. These are the 111 at Jo’burg in 1992 (out of a team total of 227 where the next highest score was 25) and the 92 at Nottingham in 2002. The 92 at Nottingham was scored with India trailing by 260 in the 1st innings and he walked in at 11-2 in the second. He scored 92 off 115 balls to ensure that we also chipped away quickly at the lead while consuming time.
A couple of other ones are the 126 at Mohali against NZ when we had been bowled out for 83 in the 1st innings and 176 at Eden against WI when we were 87-4 after trailing by 140 runs in the 1st innings.
On the whole, he does not have a great record when it comes to batting out Day 5 of a Test. Notable failures have been against Pak at Bangalore in 2005 and against SA in 2006.

Sunny – his game was ideally suited to playing for a draw but surprisingly there are hardly any instances where it has happened. Tests in the early-80s were played at a soporific pace and most matches were naturally draws. The one instance where he did his best and we still lost was at Karachi in 1978. Sunny scored a 100 in each innings and Pak were left 164 to win in very little time. Shockingly we allowed them to score the runs in 24.5 overs – an unheard of runrate of 6.60 for those days.

Dravid

• A century in each innings at Hamilton 1999 which allowed us to draw the match easily
• 87 at Port Elizabeth in 2001 when he and Deep Dasgupta played out almost the entire 5th day
• 144* at Georgetown that ensured a draw in the 1st Test of the series. WI scored 501 and we were 144-4 at one stage before ending up at 395. 
• 115 at Nottingham when we were trailing by 260 on the first innings. He was the sheet anchor around whom Sachin and then Ganguly scored quickly to ensure that we wiped out the deficit
• 144 at Mohali against NZ when he and Sachin rescued us after we were bowled out for 83 in the 1st innings

Laxman – the two that I could dig out are both against NZ.

• At Napier in 2009, he scored 76 and 124* when we were asked to follow-on. While Gambhir was the rock in the second innings, Laxman’s contribution was equally valuable and ensured that we kept our 1-0 lead in the series. 
• The second instance was at Mohali in 2010 when he and Bhajji rescued us from 15-5 and 65-6. Lax scored 91 while Bhajji got his maiden hundred. 

Sehwag – there are no noteworthy instances apart from the 151 at Adelaide in 2008. It is also borne out by his very poor average in the second innings.

Performance in the 1st Test

This is quite often the Test that sets the tone for the rest of the series. India are notorious for being poor starters overseas hence I have compiled the average and the centuries scored in the 1st Test both overall and in the away Tests.
The table below shows the comparison. (Tests against Bangladesh have been excluded)
                             Sachin                  Sehwag           Dravid         Laxman       Sunny
1st Test avg  51 avg, 15 100s   60 avg, 10 100s   54 avg, 12 100s  35 avg, 1 100     54 avg , 9 100s
Overseas Tests 44 avg,  6 100s 57 , 4 100s 47 avg,  5 100s   36 avg  1 100    49 avg  4 100s

The only point worth noting is that although Sehwag has a poor record in Eng, SA and NZ his performance is boosted by his 309 and 254 against Pakistan.

Runs scored in difficult conditions

A measure of greatness is the ability to score consistently in difficult conditions. Over a long period, statistics don’t lie. For Indian batsmen, the most difficult tours are Aus, SA, Eng and NZ. The WI used to be a difficult tour till the mid-90s but after that the bowling became ordinary and the pitches benign.
Sachin has scored heavily in all these countries (5 in SA, 6 in Aus, 4 in Eng and 2 in NZ). Arguably some of his finest hundreds (Perth, Bloemfontein, Melbourne and Cape Town) came in these conditions albeit in losing causes. He cannot be blamed for those defeats if the rest of the batting was just unable to conquer the conditions.

The one aspect about Dravid’s career that's disappointing is his record against Australia and South Africa, arguably the two best bowling sides during his playing period. His poor final series in Australia meant his overall average against them dipped below 40, while against South Africa he averaged only 34. Thus, in 54 Tests against those two teams, he averaged 37 with only four hundreds; in 27 Tests in those two countries, he averaged 36, with only two centuries. He never scored another Test hundred in South Africa after that 148 in Johannesburg in 1996-97, while the 233 in Adelaide remains his only Test hundred in Australia. He has a fantastic record in England boosted by his final series which makes his record similar to Vengsarkar’s – majority of the 100s in India and England.

As expected, Sunny has a wonderful record everywhere. He averages 70+ in the WI when the tracks and the bowling were quite fearsome. The only point worth noting is that of his 5 centuries in Australia, 3 were scored in the 1977-78 series when the big stars were away at Packer.

Sehwag’s eyesight allowed him to score in Aus, SA and Eng in the early part of his career but his flawed technique has been cruelly exposed in the past 4-5 years where he has no 100s in any of these countries.  He has a sub-30 average in England, SA and NZ. The bottomline is that he is a match-winner in the subcontinent but struggles everywhere else because of his poor technique and poorer attitude.

Laxman – the one country where he has struggled big-time is England where he has a highest score of 74 after 3 tours. Even in SA, he has no Test 100 although the 96 he scored at Durban last year was worth more than a 100. He has an average of 40 or less in Eng, SA and NZ. It’s only on the bouncy pitches of Australia that he has flourished scoring 4 brilliant hundreds.

Entertainment value

Let’s not forget that cricket is also about entertainment. While scoring runs and taking wickets is important, the truly great ones also make it a pleasurable viewing experience. If I were to evaluate the batsmen in question on this count, I would rate Sachin and Laxman at the top, Sehwag next and Sunny/ Dravid at the bottom of the pile. The last two often made cricket a dreary affair. Even many of Dravid’s great 100s are difficult to sit through because they took so long. The 270 at Rawalpindi is one that comes to mind. There is no notable acceleration at any stage of his innings. Of course, in his case it is brushed aside as his natural game while Sachin cannot play slowly without attracting criticism for being selfish. Many of Sunny’s innings have also been torturous (the ODI 36 n.o. takes the cake but is out of scope of this discussion). One that comes to mind is the 172 at Bangalore in 1982 made in 708 mins!
The strokemakers often perish while playing a stroke and hence are accused of throwing their wicket away. Steve Waugh once said about Mark Waugh – “He is a natural strokeplayer and is likely to get out playing a shot. That does not mean that he cares less about his wicket than I do”.

Summary

Having evaluated the batsmen on all the parameters above, here is my take. Given the sheer weight of contributions to series/Test wins, saves and the overall great record, Dravid would be my #1 Test batsman. I only wish he had been more entertaining but I guess you cannot have everything. The entertainment aspect is much more important in the ODI game which is why I would not rate him highly in that format despite his 10,000+ runs.  In Tests he is the master. I was very pleased that he could sign off with three hundreds in England although all were in a losing cause. It reminded me of the team of the mid-to-late 1990s when only Sachin would score.

Sachin would be #2 on the list. The overall record, contribution to wins and fabulous record in tough conditions make him the master of the game. As for entertainment value, he is the ultimate because he could combine run-scoring with a high strike rate and supreme artistry. Bloemfontein, Melbourne, Cape Town, Perth, Chennai (Pak) and Sydney would count among the finest Test hundreds scored by an Indian. Other than the Perth hundred, the others were scored in “live rubbers”. It’s his misfortune that Dravid/Laxman had not matured enough to give him support in those years.
I always wish he had played that one death-defying innings to take us to a win like the VVS 281 or the Dravid 233. He is also not the best bet when it comes to playing out Day 5 of a Test. The one series he could have won for us was the WI tour of 1997 when we had to chase 120 at Barbados on a minefield. Only he had the skill to do it. He did do it against Aus in Mumbai 2004 when he scored a whirlwind 55 on a brute of a track.

Sunny would be a very close #3. I rate him slightly below Sachin because he was far too defensive and never attempted to take charge, the glorious exception being the 29th hundred at Delhi. His battles against the Windies are legendary. He was my first cricketing hero and will forever have a special place in my heart.

Laxman would be fourth in my list. At his best, he is the most pleasing to watch and has crafted some absolutely death-defying innings. Given that he has batted at six most of his career, it is unfair to expect him to score many hundreds. The one aspect that brings him down is his poor record in England and SA. When the ball is swinging, VVS is not your man.

Sehwag – no batsman has given us as much joy and frustration in equal measure. My view of him plummeted in the last one year after seeing him perform in Eng and Aus. His poor record in seamer-friendly conditions and lackadaisical attitude clearly make him the bottom of this list. He will still make it to the all-time India XI as an opener just because we have hardly had any quality batsmen in that slot.

Watch out for Part 2 of this series which compares India’s best to Lara, Ponting and the often overrated Viv Richards!!

I don’t think a similar study is required for ODIs as the gulf between Sachin, Viv on one side and the rest is too wide. Now that Sachin has a 200, won the World Cup and a tri-series in Australia, I would rate him as the best ODI batsman of all time.