Happy hookers, and Bangladesh's struggle

The hook and pull are among the most exciting strokes to watch, but also the ones fraught with most risk. Who are the batsmen who get the most out of it, in terms of runs scored per dismissal while playing the shot? You'd expect the Australians to dominate this list, but heading the table is an Englishman, Nasser Hussain. Among batsmen for whom these strokes have fetched at least 200 runs in Tests since September 2001, Hussain is the clear leader, averaging almost 65 more than his nearest competitor. His numbers are helped, of course, by the fact that he has only been dismissed twice playing the hook or the pull. In fact, there are four England players in the top 10, three of whom will be squaring up to play Glenn McGrath and co. - an appetising thought for an English fan. As always, Kallis is a fixture in the top five, but Dravid isn't in the list simply because he doesn't play these two shots often enough - they have brought him just 192 runs, which means that he narrowly misses the cut.

So what happened to the fiery Australian pullers? Ponting comes in at No. 8, but Hayden, Justin Langer and Gilchrist all suffer due to the dismissals factor which has pulled down their averages considerably. If you only consider the aggregates, Ponting (597), Hayden (557) and Gilchrist (519) are the top three, while Langer (418) is eighth, but Hayden has been dismissed 11 times, Gilchrist 12 and Langer nine. Ponting's eight dismissals is a pretty high number as well, but the sheer number of his runs ensures him a place in the top 10.

Not only do the England batsmen dominate the averages, they're also the top performers in terms of strike-rate (runs per pull/hook shot). Big and burly Andrew Flintoff has a scoring rate of 271.33, while Trescothick (250.89) and Vaughan (228.07) also make it into the top five. Inzamam-ul-Haq (254.55) and Chris Gayle (234.38) are the two others completing the list. Australia's first entry is Gilchrist at No. 6, with a rate of 220.85, followed by Ponting (215.52). Flintoff also scores one-fifth of all his runs from the stroke, an extremely high percentage.

Not surprisingly, the subcontinent is entirely unrepresented in the top 10. The highest-ranked player from the region is Tendulkar at No. 12 (258 runs at 64.50, strike rate 209.76). VVS Laxman follows with an average of 54, while Jayawardene (average 51.60) and Inzamam (46.67) are the only ones to make the cut from Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Bangladesh have a representative too - the hook-happy Habibul Bashar. His tally of 331 runs from those strokes is pretty impressive, but his injudicious execution of the stroke also means he's been dismissed 10 times, making it a low-percentage shot for him.

	Runs/ outs	Average	Strike rate	% of total runs
Nasser Hussain	293/ 2	146.50	196.64	13.14
Shivnarine Chanderpaul	409/ 5	81.80	206.56	14.56
Herschelle Gibbs	485/ 6	80.83	211.79	13.24
Jacques Kallis	484/ 6	80.66	180.59	11.04
Brian Lara	321/ 4	80.25	191.07	8.12
Graham Thorpe	311/ 4	77.75	193.16	14.55
Michael Vaughan	463/ 6	77.16	228.07	13.42
Ricky Ponting	597/ 8	74.62	215.52	14.49
Nathan Astle	214/ 3	71.33	194.54	12.90
Andrew Flintoff	407/ 6	67.83	271.33	20.29

(Stats from September 2001, and excludes the ongoing series in England and West Indies. This piece first appeared in the June 2005 issue of Wisden Asia Cricket.)

Bangladesh's struggle
On November 10, 2000, Test cricket's latest team took their first strides on the international stage. A nation rejoiced as the first-timers made the Indians sweat and struggle before finally succumbing. The start was much more than any debut side could have bargained for, the future was promising, and a cricket-crazy country could not have been blamed for expecting more success very soon.

Four-and-a-half years and 36 Tests later, fans in Bangladesh and critics the world over are still waiting for the team to realise the potential that was on display at Dhaka in 2000. Their only Test win was a pyrrhic one, against a Zimbabwe side shattered by the exodus of several top stars. Innings defeats have been par for course, and the latest one, at Lord's against England, has set forth a new stream of questions regarding their status as a Test team. Have Bangladesh improved at all over the last four years?

A general idea of their progress - or the lack of it - can be gleaned by comparing the results in their last few matches against those in their early days. Do their batsmen score more runs and bat longer than they used to? Are their bowlers more effective in terms of taking more wickets and keeping the runs in check? At first impression, it might not seem like they've made any progress, but the stats reveal an improvement, albeit a marginal one.

Even excluding Bangladesh's two-Test home series against Zimbabwe earlier this year, the numbers reveal a slight change for the better. Since the away series against Australia in 2003, Bangladesh have reduced the deficit between runs scored per wicket and runs conceded per wicket by ten - that's a 25% improvement. They have also managed to take the first-innings lead three times in those 16 Tests - twice against Pakistan and once against West Indies, and the average deficit conceded has reduced considerably to 165. They've shown better staying power as well, lasting 19 overs more per innings than they did in their first two-and-a-half years.

While this might seem encouraging to the Bangladesh supporters, the problem is that the chasm is still a huge one. Bangladesh still, on an average, score fewer runs losing 20 wickets that the opposition does losing ten (428 compared to 513). No wonder the innings defeats are still coming thick and fast. And as for Bangladesh's loss percentage, it's easily the worst of all teams: their 32 defeats after 37 Tests is by far the poorest - South Africa, with the second-worst record, had only lost 23 at the same stage in their Test career.