As Bangladesh get ready to play their 100th Test, here are some key numbers from their Test journey, including a comparison with other teams after they had played 99 matches
S Rajesh14-Mar-20178 Wins for Bangladesh, the second-lowest among the ten teams who have played 99 or more Tests. Only New Zealand, with seven, had fewer wins. India had 10 victories while had Zimbabwe eleven. England had the most wins – 45 – followed by Australia (41) and West Indies (34). All other teams had less than 20 wins.76 Defeats for Bangladesh, the most for any team after 99 Tests. The next highest is Zimbabwe with 62. South Africa are the only other team with 50-plus defeats. Bangladesh’s 15 draws are the lowest as well after 99 Tests, while their win-loss ratio of 0.11 is also the poorest among all teams – New Zealand had a ratio of 0.15 (seven wins, 46 defeats), while Zimbabwe’s ratio was 0.17.16 Years, 4 months and 6 days is the time taken for Bangladesh to play their 100th Test. (The time is calculated from the start of their first Test to the start of their 100th.) This is the least time taken by any team to play 100 Tests; the previous lowest was Sri Lanka’s 18 years, three months and 29 days. Bangladesh made their Test debut on November 10, 2000, against India.
Team W/L Draw W/L ratio Time periodAustralia 41/40 18 1.02 35y 2m 13dEngland 45/37 17 1.21 32y 3m 17dSouth Africa 15/51 33 0.29 59y 11m 22dWest Indies 34/33 31 1.03 36y 08m 09dNew Zealand 7/46 46 0.15 42y 2m 14dIndia 10/39 50 0.25 35y 0m 19dPakistan 18/26 55 0.69 26y 04m 23dSri Lanka 18/39 42 0.46 18y 03m 29dZimbabwe 11/62 26 0.17 24y 0m 12dBangladesh 8/76 15 0.11 16y 04m 06d85 Players who have played Test cricket for Bangladesh. Only two teams – Pakistan (80) and Sri Lanka (81) – have had fewer players in their first 99 Tests. The highest is 170, for South Africa, who also had to wait the longest to play 100 Tests: the time period between their first and 100th Test was more than 59 years, and it spanned both the World Wars. For Bangladesh, Mohammad Ashraful has played the most Tests (63), followed by Mushfiqur Rahim (53) and Habibul Bashar (50).0.50 The ratio of Bangladesh’s batting average (24.53) to their bowling average (48.64). The ratio is the poorest among all teams after 99 Tests. The next lowest is New Zealand’s 0.65, and Zimbabwe’s 0.67. Bangladesh’s batsmen have scored 46 hundreds, which is ninth out of ten teams, and their bowlers have taken 45 five-fors, which ranks eighth.
Team Bat ave Bowl ave Ave ratio 100s 5-fors PlayersEngland 24.60 22.01 1.12 51 108 160West Indies 33.20 31.33 1.06 108 68 121Australia 24.60 25.59 0.96 51 97 100Pakistan 30.74 34.31 0.90 80 52 80Sri Lanka 29.12 36.17 0.81 70 54 81India 28.70 37.44 0.77 74 56 115South Africa 25.07 33.79 0.74 55 64 170Zimbabwe 26.22 38.99 0.67 53 35 99New Zealand 23.64 36.12 0.65 39 27 122Bangladesh 24.53 48.64 0.50 46 45 857 Test wins for Bangladesh in their last 41 matches, since the start of 2009. In 58 Tests before 2009, Bangladesh had won only one. Bangladesh’s win-loss ratio has improved from 0.019 before 2009, to 0.28 since then.30.63 Bangladesh’s batting average in Tests since the start of 2009, up from 20.54 before 2009, an improvement of 49%. Their bowling average has improved from 51.35 to 45.88, while the ratio of their batting to bowling average has gone up from 0.40 to 0.67, an improvement of 67.5%. In their first 58 Tests, Bangladesh had scored only 14 hundreds; in their last 41, they have scored 32.Bangladesh’s Test numbers have improved significantly in their last 41 matches, compared to their first 58•ESPNcricinfo Ltd3546 Tamim Iqbal’s Test aggregate, the highest for Bangladesh. Aravinda de Silva’s 5619 is the highest aggregate by any batsman at the end of 99 Tests for his team; de Silva played 81 of Sri Lanka’s first 99 Tests, and averaged 43.89 in those games, with 18 hundreds. Among the top run-getters for each country at that stage, West Indies’ Everton Weekes had the best average (58.61), followed by Andy Flower’s 51.54.170 Test wickets for Shakib Al Hasan, the most for Bangladesh. The highest for any team after 99 is Muttiah Muralitharan’s 253, which he took from 51 matches, at an average of 26.30. Heath Streak was the only other bowler with 200-plus wickets, taking 216 in 65 Tests.
BattingBowlingTeamBatsmanRunsAverageBowlerWicketsAverageAustraliaClem Hill341239.21Hugh Trumble14121.78EnglandTom Hayward199934.46Johnny Briggs11817.75South AfricaBruce Mitchell331648.05Cyril Vincent8431.32West IndiesEverton Weekes445558.61Sonny Ramadhin15828.98New ZealandJohn Reid342833.28Dick Motz10031.48IndiaPolly Umrigar363142.22Vinoo Mankad16232.32PakistanHanif Mohammad391543.98Fazal Mahmood13924.70Sri LankaAravinda de Silva561943.89Muttiah Muralitharan25326.30ZimbabweAndy Flower479451.54Heath Streak21628.14BangladeshTamim Iqbal354638.96Shakib Al Hasan17033.30621 Wickets for Bangladesh’s spinners in these 99 Tests compared to 422 by their seamers, which means spinners have accounted for nearly 60% of Bangladesh’s wickets (excluding run-outs). Spinners also have a better average, and have taken 82% of the five-fors.
Bowler type Wickets Average Strike rate 5WI 10WMSpinners 621 44.05 82.4 37 3Seamers 422 57.38 93.4 8 025 Man-of-the-Match awards for Bangladesh players in Tests. Shakib leads the list with five awards, followed by Mushfiqur and Ashraful with three each, while Tamim and Mominul Haque are the only others to win more than one such award. In all, 15 Bangladesh players have won Man-of-the-Match awards in Tests.
