Lara's greatness in numbers compared to other left-handed greats in Test history

Brian Lara will be inducted into the International Cricket Council (ICC) Hall of Fame later today, Abhishek Mukherjee does an exhaustive statistical study comparing the West Indies legend with other left-handed batsmen in the history of the game.

 

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You can worship Brian Lara. You can hate him. You can call him superior to Sachin Tendulkar, or inferior to Chris Gayle. Whatever you do – one thing is for sure: you cannot have followed cricket in the 1990s and the 2000s and have ignored the Trinidadian completely. It is difficult, after all, to ignore someone who can score a four hundred. Or even a five hundred, for that matter.

 

There have been far more right-handed batsmen than left-handed ones in the history of the game. Indeed, 1,417,536 out of 1,900,187 Test runs have been scored by right-handers – a whopping 75%.

 

So where does Lara stand in the annals of legendary left-handers? Let us dig into the numbers and find out.

 

Career aggregates

 

Before he had announced his retirement, Lara had gone past Allan Border’s long-standing world record of 11,174 runs, which was also the highest career tally by a left-hander. Since then, players like Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Ricky Ponting have gone past Lara – but the left-handed batsman closest him is his own countryman – the dour Shivnarine Chanderpaul:

 

Table 1: Most runs in career by left-handed batsmen

 

 

Player	Runs	HS	Ave	100
BC Lara	11,953	400*	52.88	34
AR Border	11,174	205	50.56	27
S Chanderpaul	10,342	203*	50.2	25
KC Sangakkara	9,872	287	56.73	30
ML Hayden	8,625	380	50.73	30

 

 

Not only has Lara scored a lot of Test runs, he has scored them at a terrific average as well. In fact, if one puts a 2,000-run barrier, Lara has a batting average as high as the best in business, and is surpassed only by three legends of three different eras – Graeme Pollock, Sir Gary Sobers and Kumar Sangakkara.

 

Table 2: Highest batting average (qualification: 2,000 runs) by left-handed batsmen

 

 

Player	Runs	HS	Ave	100
RG Pollock	2,256	274	60.97	7
GS Sobers	8,032	365*	57.78	26
KC Sangakkara	9,872	287	56.73	30
BC Lara	11,953	400*	52.88	34
A Flower	4,974	232*	51.54	12

 

Lara has also scored his runs at a tremendous strike rate. He ranks second here, only after Adam Gilchrist (whose numbers are on entirely another planet). Not surprisingly, the list is dominated by modern batsmen, thanks to the shorter versions of the game: 

 

Table 3: Highest batting strike rate (qualification: 2,000 runs) by left-handed batsmen

 

Player	Runs	HS	Ave	100	SR
AC Gilchrist	5,570	204*	47.6	17	81.95
BC Lara	11,953	400*	52.88	34	60.51
ML Hayden	8,625	380	50.73	30	60.1
GC Smith	8,314	277	49.78	25	59.85
CH Gayle	6,603	333	42.32	14	59.47

 

Note: The complete strike rates for Clem Hill, Sanath Jayasuriya and Frank Woolley are not available. However, if we consider only those innings where number of balls faced is available for the three, Hill has scored runs at a strike rate of 74.91, Jayasuriya at 65.10 and Woolley at 60.61 – all having higher numbers than Lara’s. However, Lara would still make it to the top five.

 

Matches won

 

Of course, Lara had to witness the decline of the once powerful West Indies side. This meant that Lara was not able to be the part of a lot of victories – and even if he had, a lot of wins had to be done single-handedly. He barely makes it to the top ten in terms of batting averages with a qualification of 1,000 runs, with names like Hashan Tillakaratne and teammate Jimmy Adams perched well above him. It is to be noted that the three men above Lara in this table are exactly the same names from the batting averages table! Also to be noted is the fact that less than 25% of Lara’s career hundreds have converted to wins:

 

Table 4: Highest batting average in wins (qualification: 1,000 runs) by left-handed batsmen

 

Player	Runs	HS	Ave	100
RG Pollock	1,178	274	84.14	4
GS Sobers	3,097	365*	77.42	12
KC Sangakkara	4,604	287	75.47	17
JC Adams	1,534	174*	69.72	4
HP Tillakaratne	1,534	204*	69.72	5
Saeed Anwar	2,254	188*	66.29	8
GC Smith	4,599	259	63.87	17
GP Thorpe	3,006	200*	62.62	9
BC Lara	2,929	213	61.02	8
MEK Hussey	3,746	182	59.46	11

 

Fourth innings performances

 

Does the above statistic mean that Lara could not perform the way the other left-handed greats did? How good was he in the fourth innings of Tests – typically considered the time when conditions for batting are the toughest? Only seven left-handers have scored a thousand runs in the fourth innings – and Lara has made it only above the recently retired Andrew Strauss. As many as three West Indians make the cut, with the usual suspects – Graeme Smith, Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer all making it to the top five:

 

Table 5: Highest batting average in fourth innings of a Test (qualification: 1,000 runs) by left-handed batsmen

 

Player	Runs	HS	Ave	100
GC Smith	1,504	154*	57.84	4
ML Hayden	1,287	101*	49.5	1
S Chanderpaul	1,518	116*	44.64	2
CH Gayle	1,256	82	40.51	0
JL Langer	1,053	127	40.5	2
BC Lara	1,440	153*	35.12	2
AJ Strauss	1,005	106	32.41	1

 

A batting average of 35.12 in the fourth innings does not speak very highly of Lara, especially when compared with the maestros of the chase, like Smith. If we consider fourth innings performances only in wins with a 400-run restriction, however, Lara shoots up three positions with an almost Bradmanesque average:

 

Table 6: Highest batting average in successful chases in the fourth innings of a Test (qualification: 400 runs) by left-handed batsmen

 

Player	Runs	HS	Ave	100
GP Thorpe	433	104*	108.25	1
GC Smith	1,085	154*	90.41	4
BC Lara	406	153*	81.2	1
AN Cook	457	109*	76.16	1
G Kirsten	605	76	67.22	0

 

Overseas performances

 

Of course, a batsman’s true mettle and character are tested only overseas. Lara did not get a chance to tour West Indies, and hence did not have to stand up to Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh – two of the greatest fast bowlers of all time. Even then, Lara does make it to the top ten, and all names above him on the list belong to champions of various magnitudes: 

 

Table 7: Highest batting average overseas (qualification: 2,000 runs) by left-handed batsmen

 

Player	Runs	HS	Ave	100
AR Border	5,431	200*	56.57	14
GC Smith	4,599	277	54.75	14
AN Cook	2,988	235*	54.32	10
RN Harvey	3,343	204	51.43	13
A Flower	2,307	232*	51.26	6
GS Sobers	3,957	198	50.73	12
AC Gilchrist	2,512	204*	50.24	10
G Kirsten	3,905	220	48.2	13
BC Lara	5,736	277	47.8	17
KC Sangakkara	3,680	270	47.17	10

 

If we go countrywise, Lara makes it to the top five (or top ten, as in case of England, South Africa and Pakistan) among southpaws. This is true for all major counties; the only exception to this is India, where Lara’s performance has been way below par:

 

Table 8: Highest batting average in each major country by left-handed batsmen

 

in Australia (qualification: 1,000 runs)

 

Player	Runs	HS	Ave	100
AN Cook	1,042	235*	65.12	4
JH Edrich	1,283	130	55.78	4
CH Lloyd	1,616	149	48.96	5
DI Gower	1,824	136	44.48	5
BC Lara	1,469	277	41.97	4

 

in England (qualification: 1,000 runs)

 

Player	Runs	HS	Ave	100
GC Smith	1,355	277	67.75	5
S Chanderpaul	1,399	136*	66.61	3
AR Border	2,082	200*	65.06	5
AR Morris	1,033	196	57.38	3
GS Sobers	1,820	174	53.52	5
MA Taylor	1,584	219	52.8	5
BC Lara	1,268	179	48.76	4

 

in South Africa (qualification: 500 runs)

 

Player	Runs	HS	Ave	100
E Paynter	653	243	81.62	3
RN Harvey	791	178	71.9	4
AC Gilchrist	523	204*	65.37	2
CH Gayle	545	116	54.5	2
PJ Hughes	532	160	53.2	2
AJ Strauss	826	147	51.62	3
CP Mead	770	181	48.12	3
BC Lara	841	202	46.72	2

 

 in India (qualification: 500 runs)

 

Player	Runs	HS	Ave	100
JC Adams	520	174*	173.33	2
A Flower	820	232*	117.14	3
GS Sobers	899	198	99.88	3
CH Lloyd	1,359	242*	75.5	4
B Sutcliffe	885	230*	68.07	3
BC Lara	198	91	33	0

 

in Pakistan (qualification: 500 runs)

 

Player	Runs	HS	Ave	100
G Kirsten	529	118	88.16	2
KC Sangakkara	695	230	86.87	3
MA Taylor	619	334*	77.37	1
AR Border	743	153	61.91	3
ST Jayasuriya	894	253	59.6	2
BC Lara	626	216	48.15	2

 

in Sri Lanka (qualification: 400 runs)

 

Player	Runs	HS	Ave	100
SP Fleming	733	274*	104.71	2
BC Lara	706	221	100.85	3
MEK Hussey	463	142	92.6	2
Saeed Anwar	446	136	74.33	2
AN Cook	435	118	48.33	1

 

Big hundreds

 

Lara also features twice in the top five (even the top three) of the all-time top scores. 

 

Table 9: Highest individual scores by left-handed batsmen

 

Player

Runs