Measuring Average Differently: Highest Runs Per Innings Discounting Not Out

Happy new year 2011! Last year 2010 was a very important year for me primarily due to the birth of our second daughter Suhaila. The last few days of the year I spent mostly with Ammu and Ahyan shopping for Rasel's engagement and marriage. It's lot of fun. Also I thoroughly enjoyed the India vs South Africa test series during this time. Sreeshant excellent bouncer to make Jack Kallis helpless in the second test turning him into a C shape will remain in my memory as long as I cherish test cricket.

Here is an important number in cricket for batsmen with some modifications from me as a new year gift for the readers - highest batting average. The traditional way of measuring batting average is to divide the total career runs scored by the number of innings he played excluding the not out innings. This way we know before getting out, the batsmen scores how many runs on an average. Forget about the Bradman's magical 99.94, then the good batsmen averages around 50 to 60 runs before getting out once. Amongst our current players, Sangakkara, Tendulkar and Kallis are top in this list. You can get a pick of that list from CricInfo in the following URL - http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/282910.html

A few writers tries to say that the high average of Tendulkar is due to his many not out innings and Lara for his reason is in the lower 50s because of only 6 not out innings in his career (and o boy, 3 of them I call recall are 400*, 375* and famous 153*)! Instead they were saying that if you measure runs per test (no matter if the batsmen could play in both innings or one innings) and discount not outs, then Lara is quite ahead. That is a very unfair comparison because Lara played almost in all Tests in both the innings while Tendulkar didn't get a chance to play in the second innings in many Tests. Instead I believe the measurement below I gave (Runs Per Innings) will give the view they wanted to have, how many runs a batsmen score on an average in each innings played without giving any special tribute for remaining not out in any innings. I have taken a minimum of 5000 test runs scored to filter out bolwers and batsmen I am not interested about. Bradman again obviously comes first with 87.45. Apart from him there are only 10 batsmen who are above 50 with the second placed Jack Hobbs at 53.03.

Player	Span	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	Runs Per Innings	100	50	0
DG Bradman (Aus)	1928-1948	52	80	10	6996	334	99.94	87.45	29	13	7
JB Hobbs (Eng)	1908-1930	61	102	7	5410	211	56.94	53.03921569	15	28	4
KC Sangakkara (SL)	2000-2010	94	156	12	8244	287	57.25	52.84615385	24	34	4
KF Barrington (Eng)	1955-1968	82	131	15	6806	256	58.67	51.95419847	20	35	5
V Sehwag (ICC/India)	2001-2010	86	148	6	7670	319	54.01	51.82432432	22	27	12
WR Hammond (Eng)	1927-1947	85	140	16	7249	336*	58.45	51.77857143	22	24	4
BC Lara (ICC/WI)	1990-2006	131	232	6	11953	400*	52.88	51.52155172	34	48	17
L Hutton (Eng)	1937-1955	79	138	15	6971	364	56.67	50.51449275	19	33	5
SR Tendulkar (India)	1989-2010	176	288	31	14532	248*	56.54	50.45833333	50	59	14
GS Sobers (WI)	1954-1974	93	160	21	8032	365*	57.78	50.2	26	30	12
DPMD Jayawardene (SL)	1997-2010	116	190	13	9527	374	53.82	50.14210526	28	38	11
Mohammad Yousuf (Pak)	1998-2010	90	156	12	7530	223	52.29	48.26923077	24	33	11
JH Kallis (ICC/SA)	1995-2010	144	244	37	11677	201*	56.41	47.85655738	38	54	10
RT Ponting (Aus)	1995-2010	152	259	28	12363	257	53.51	47.73359073	39	56	14
SM Gavaskar (India)	1971-1987	125	214	16	10122	236*	51.12	47.29906542	34	45	12
GC Smith (ICC/SA)	2002-2010	90	157	9	7422	277	50.14	47.27388535	22	29	10
GS Chappell (Aus)	1970-1984	87	151	19	7110	247*	53.86	47.08609272	24	31	12
IVA Richards (WI)	1974-1991	121	182	12	8540	291	50.23	46.92307692	24	45	10
Younis Khan (Pak)	2000-2010	65	116	8	5440	313	50.37	46.89655172	17	21	13
ML Hayden (Aus)	1994-2009	103	184	14	8625	380	50.73	46.875	30	29	14
R Dravid (ICC/India)	1996-2010	149	257	29	12027	270	52.75	46.79766537	31	59	8
Javed Miandad (Pak)	1976-1993	124	189	21	8832	280*	52.57	46.73015873	23	43	6
KP Pietersen (Eng)	2005-2010	70	122	6	5630	227	48.53	46.14754098	17	21	7
RB Kanhai (WI)	1957-1974	79	137	6	6227	256	47.53	45.45255474	15	28	7
RN Harvey (Aus)	1948-1963	79	137	10	6149	205	48.41	44.88321168	21	24	7
DCS Compton (Eng)	1937-1957	78	131	15	5807	278	50.06	44.32824427	17	28	10
Inzamam-ul-Haq (ICC/Pak)	1992-2007	120	200	22	8830	329	49.6	44.15	25	46	15
CH Lloyd (WI)	1966-1985	110	175	14	7515	242*	46.67	42.94285714	19	39	4
KD Walters (Aus)	1965-1981	74	125	14	5357	250	48.26	42.856	15	33	4
WM Lawry (Aus)	1961-1971	67	123	12	5234	210	47.15	42.55284553	13	27	6
JL Langer (Aus)	1993-2007	105	182	12	7696	250	45.27	42.28571429	23	30	11
M Azharuddin (India)	1984-2000	99	147	9	6215	199	45.03	42.27891156	22	21	5
AR Border (Aus)	1978-1994	156	265	44	11174	205	50.56	42.16603774	27	63	11
G Boycott (Eng)	1964-1982	108	193	23	8114	246*	47.72	42.04145078	22	42	10
SR Waugh (Aus)	1985-2004	168	260	46	10927	200	51.06	42.02692308	32	50	22
MD Crowe (NZ)	1982-1995	77	131	11	5444	299	45.36	41.55725191	17	18	9
G Kirsten (SA)	1993-2004	101	176	15	7289	275	45.27	41.41477273	21	34	13
GA Gooch (Eng)	1975-1995	118	215	6	8900	333	42.58	41.39534884	20	46	13
S Chanderpaul (WI)	1994-2010	129	219	34	9063	203*	48.98	41.38356164	22	55	13
AJ Strauss (Eng)	2004-2010	81	146	6	6024	177	43.02	41.26027397	19	23	12
CG Greenidge (WI)	1974-1991	108	185	16	7558	226	44.72	40.85405405	19	34	11
Zaheer Abbas (Pak)	1969-1985	78	124	11	5062	274	44.79	40.82258065	12	20	10
RB Richardson (WI)	1983-1995	86	146	12	5949	194	44.39	40.74657534	16	27	8
ME Trescothick (Eng)	2000-2006	76	143	10	5825	219	43.79	40.73426573	14	29	12
AC Gilchrist (Aus)	1999-2008	96	137	20	5570	204*	47.6	40.65693431	17	26	14
MC Cowdrey (Eng)	1954-1975	114	188	15	7624	182	44.06	40.55319149	22	38	9
MJ Slater (Aus)	1993-2001	74	131	7	5312	219	42.83	40.54961832	14	21	9
MA Taylor (Aus)	1989-1999	104	186	13	7525	334*	43.49	40.45698925	19	40	5
JH Edrich (Eng)	1963-1976	77	127	9	5138	310*	43.54	40.45669291	12	24	6
DI Gower (Eng)	1978-1992	117	204	18	8231	215	44.25	40.34803922	18	39	7
CH Gayle (WI)	2000-2010	91	159	6	6373	333	41.65	40.08176101	13	33	15
VVS Laxman (India)	1996-2010	119	196	30	7856	281	47.32	40.08163265	16	49	12
HH Gibbs (SA)	1996-2008	90	154	7	6167	228	41.95	40.04545455	14	26	11
PA de Silva (SL)	1984-2002	93	159	11	6361	267	42.97	40.00628931	20	22	7
RR Sarwan (WI)	2000-2009	83	146	8	5759	291	41.73	39.44520548	15	31	10
IM Chappell (Aus)	1964-1980	75	136	10	5345	196	42.42	39.30147059	14	26	11
GR Viswanath (India)	1969-1983	91	155	10	6080	222	41.93	39.22580645	14	35	10
DC Boon (Aus)	1984-1996	107	190	20	7422	200	43.65	39.06315789	21	32	16
MP Vaughan (Eng)	1999-2008	82	147	9	5719	197	41.44	38.9047619	18	18	9
ME Waugh (Aus)	1991-2002	128	209	17	8029	153*	41.81	38.41626794	20	47	19
SC Ganguly (India)	1996-2008	113	188	17	7212	239	42.17	38.36170213	16	35	13
SP Fleming (NZ)	1994-2008	111	189	10	7172	274*	40.06	37.94708995	9	46	16
GP Thorpe (Eng)	1993-2005	100	179	28	6744	200*	44.66	37.67597765	16	39	12
Saleem Malik (Pak)	1982-1999	103	154	22	5768	237	43.69	37.45454545	15	29	12
DB Vengsarkar (India)	1976-1992	116	185	22	6868	166	42.13	37.12432432	17	35	15
ST Jayasuriya (SL)	1991-2007	110	188	14	6973	340	40.07	37.09042553	14	31	15
DL Haynes (WI)	1978-1994	116	202	25	7487	184	42.29	37.06435644	18	39	10
MA Atherton (Eng)	1989-2001	115	212	7	7728	185*	37.69	36.45283019	16	46	20
JG Wright (NZ)	1978-1993	82	148	7	5334	185	37.82	36.04054054	12	23	7
AJ Stewart (Eng)	1990-2003	133	235	21	8463	190	39.54	36.01276596	15	45	14
MS Atapattu (SL)	1990-2007	90	156	15	5502	249	39.02	35.26923077	16	17	22
N Hussain (Eng)	1990-2004	96	171	16	5764	207	37.18	33.70760234	14	33	14
CL Hooper (WI)	1987-2002	102	173	15	5762	233	36.46	33.30635838	13	27	13
A Ranatunga (SL)	1982-2000	93	155	12	5105	135*	35.69	32.93548387	4	38	12
IT Botham (Eng)	1977-1992	102	161	6	5200	208	33.54	32.29813665	14	22	14
N Kapil Dev (India)	1978-1994	131	184	15	5248	163	31.05	28.52173913	8	27	16
MV Boucher (ICC/SA)	1997-2010	138	194	23	5257	125	30.74	27.09793814	5	33	16