Law of averages: is 50-plus beyond most current Test batters?
Recent statistics in Test cricket show a decline in the number of batters maintaining a career average of 50 or higher. This shift suggests that the traditional benchmark for batting greatness is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve in the modern era.
Why it matters
The article highlights changing performance standards in professional sports, reflecting broader shifts in the competitiveness and conditions of international cricket.
In the glorious annals of Test cricket, which will ring in its 150th anniversary next year, some numbers have acquired permanence over time.
Sir Don Bradman’s otherworldly Test average of 99.94 will forever be iconic. Sunil Gavaskar’s 10,122 runs, on account of the Indian being the first in the world to cross 10K, is epochal. The mild-mannered Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan’s 800 scalps, snared with a ferocious snap of his right arm, is another monumental figure.
More broadly, in sync with the sport’s tendency to set benchmarks through statistics, a career average of 50 has long been the magic figure for batters in white flannels. Operating in another stratosphere without doubt was Bradman, whose average over 52 Tests from 1928 to 1948 is an insurmountable peak of the kind unlikely to be witnessed again in all of sport.
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