Tests of Great Gut: Dravid VS Kallis VS Sangakkara VS Ponting (By Priyam Bhattacharjee)

In test match cricket,no 3 and 4 is the most important and impactful position from any team's point of view to build and solidify the innings. Here, I have picked the last 25 years of years- span of test cricket. 

In between 1993-2018 there were many batsmen had played on  this position.among them, I have picked four of the finest of cricketers who had played this game on this position. 

• JACQUES KALLIS (JK), 
• KUMAR SANGAKKARA (KS), 
• RICKY PONTING (RP), and
• RAHUL DRAVID (RD). 

Lets check some no of them :- 



(1) Career Average 

     JK - 55.37 

     KS - 57.14 

     RP-  51.85 

     RD - 52.31 

(2) Lets check their Home and Away Performances (Round Figures ):- 

        H     A   Difference

JK:  57    54      2.82

KS: 60    54      6.36

RP: 57    46     10.58

RD: 51    53      1.67


(3) Match-Innings Avg Comparison (Round Figures):- 

      1st    2nd   3rd    4th

JK:  57     53     65     42

KS:  55    68     57     42

RP:  61    53     39     50

RD: 57    61     43     40

(4) Except Kallis, rest of them were mostly played in no 3. So here I have selected position on which they played the most no of innings :- 

           Inn      Runs    Avg   RPI

JK(4): 170      9033     62     53

KS(3): 207     11679    61    56

RP(3): 196      9904     56    51

RD(3): 219     10524    53   48



(5) For Asian batsmen, Test of Batsmanship is been checked on SENA countries performance and for Non - Asian Batsmen, its IBPS countries performance :- 

   SENA

            Inn     Avg 

KS:        59       46

RD:        89       49



IBPS 

             inn    avg 

JK:         37    56

RP:         44    37

(6) Now lets find their performance in all over the world of test playing nations, how much versatile they were on different condition (Avg only):- 

          Aus    Eng    SA   NZ   Ind

 JK:    48       35     56   59    58

KS:    60       44     36   61    37

RP:    57       39     47   60    26

RD:    42      69      30   64    51\


      Pak   SL  UAE  WI   Ban  Zim

JK:  83    35   55    55    31   503

KS: 87    60   62    34    78    141

RP: 119  48    97    61    95    31

RD: 79   33     -     66     70    79



(7) The bowlers who got minimum 50 wickets & have d avg of under 26 are named as class bowlers,against them,a batsman's quality can be checked,these are called as U-26 comparison, against them, these are these batsmen's record:- 

        Home    Away    Overall

JK:    42          48         45

KS:   47           57        52

RP:   55           46        51

RD:   44           37        40



(8) A quality of a batsman can also be checked by type of dismissal. If someone getting bowled more,that will question his defense technique, if someone getting edged/caught behind more,he had some problem of playing swinging deliveries. So let's check the type of dismissals for these four (B- Bowled, C - Caught, CB-Caught Behind, S - Stumped, L- Lbw, R- Run Out):- 

      B      C      CB      L      S     R 

JK: 46    91     56      40    1      6 

KS: 24   118    44     19     3     7   **

RP: 36   111    42      47    7     15

RD: 55   87     64      34     1    13


** Sangakkara once dismissed by hitting the  wicket.

(9) Look at the year wise comparison of all in below . 

Performance through out the year can be a very important factor to judge any batsman’s consistency level. So here r these four’s performance chart through out their career year by year (ROUND FIGURES):-


year        JK        KS      RD RP
Innings  Avg Innings  Avg Innings Avg Innings Avg
1995 1 1      -      -             -      -               2      84
1996 1 7   -      -     12      40     8    20
1997 8 28   -      -           18      62    11     50
1998 26 34   -      -            9      46    14     29
1999 15 69   -      -           19      48    17     63
2000 18 49   7     25   11      78      7     64
2001 23 70 19     55   23      47    24     39
2002 14 64 16     51   26      59    16     70
2003 14 50 11     41   10     100    18    100
2004 21 81 20     56   18      63    19      41
2005 18 72 14     32   12      53    28      67
2006 15 44 20     69   22      61   18     89
2007 17 86 9    138   19      36     6     38
2008 23 32 11     39   28      31    25      47
2009 11 48 20     57   10      83    23      38
2010 19 80 9     99   20      43    23      37
2011 9 51 21     49   23      57    13      32
2012 15 67 19     51    6      19    15      43
2013 12 26 6     85    -       -     -     -
2014 - - 21     72    -       -     -       -
2015 - - 10     41    -       -     -       -


After checking all the stats what do you think ? Who was the better batsman among them ? Comment here. 

Source: espnstatsguru & howstat 
Photo Courtesy: Google/ Internet

Writer: Priyam Bhattacharjee


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