It's a numbers game: Test cricket's analytics darlings

Test cricket's most famous tactical revolution of late has been Brendon McCullum's 'Bazball' – a style that has drawn both ire and delight depending on how you view the game.

In any tactical revolution in sport, player roles get redefined. The job description of an opener is not the same as it was 20 years ago, nor that of a middle-order player.

With data thanks to Opta, take a look at which players stand out as Test cricket's 'analytics darlings' over the past five years and how these stats impact the way in which we look at certain types of players. 

Go big, go often

It should be no surprise to see a lower-order player in Shamar Joseph at the top of this list. Power-hitting late in the innings is generally less of a risk. But the clear theme here is the four English players in Ben Duckett, Mark Wood, Jacob Bethell and Harry Brook. They're constantly looking to find the boundary, regardless of the situation they find themselves in.

They won't be leaving that

Duckett appears again here, a fair way ahead of the rest. The English opener's way of soaking up pressure is by putting bat on ball as much as possible, leaving less than two percent of the deliveries he's faced. Keeper-batter Jamie Smith isn't far behind and nor is the third Englishman on the list in Brook.

The pressure soakers

'Game is gone'.

No, not quite yet. The classic defence-first mindset of Test batters has not completely disappeared.

Spending time out in the middle and facing more than 100 balls is still something some of the world's best do. Kane Williamson, Temba Bavuma, Joe Root and Steve Smith are all hallmarks of that style.

The Ashes may offer up one of the great stylistic differences between openers with Duckett refusing to leave a ball in one innings and Usman Khawaja being far more selective in the other. 

The case for Mitch Marsh

There have been a few wondering whether Mitch Marsh could build a case for Ashes selection based on his white-ball form.

This is the stat that may best correlate with that when it comes to his red-ball history over the past five years.

For every scoring shot he plays, he yields 2.31 runs.

Now the difference between that and Zak Crawley and Tamim Iqbal's 2.19 runs per shot may not seem like much – until you consider the gap between second and 10th is just 0.07. 

The biggest surprise of them all

Who had Beau Webster on their bingo card?

When it comes to pace bowlers hitting a good length, Webster stands first. Some 88.5 percent of his deliveries are in that zone, although with 11 innings, he and South Africa's second-placed Dane Paterson (10 innings) just meet Opta's minimum here. 

It is no surprise to see Scott Boland at seventh on this list at 75.9 percent, but he was just edged out by India's Akash Deep in sixth (77.2 percent). It will not be the only time Deep appears as an analytics darling.

The deceiver

A fast bowler's ability to make a batter play and miss has long been something that has tantalised selectors.

Shamar Joseph (second), Kagiso Rabada (fifth), Jasprit Bumrah (seventh), Mitchell Starc (eighth) and Scott Boland (ninth) are no doubt great indicators that 'play and miss percentage' is a bowling stat worth caring about.

Which will have Indian fans excited to see two of its up-and-comers in Prasidh Krishna (sixth) and Deep (first) on this list.

Deep gets batters to play and miss 16.7 percent of the time, while Krishna is at 15.7 percent. 

The inswing kings

Having said all that about Deep and Krishna getting batters to play and miss, it makes sense that they are first and third respectively on how frequently they use their inswing variation.

Deep goes to it 14.8 percent of the time - a decent margin more than England's Jofra Archer in second place (13.5 percent).

Inswing will no doubt play a major part in this summer's Ashes, with English quicks Josh Tongue and Brydon Carse finishing at eleventh and twelfth on the inswing frequency list.

Starc is the lone Aussie coming in at eighth.

One, two, three, four or six?

Are you rotating the strike? Turning those singles into twos and the twos into threes? Or are you trying to save your legs a touch? Let's take a look at who has the highest frequency of run type. 

Angelo Matthews and Ben Foakes are frequently adding to their tallies with singles, but Joe Root is the one to stand out on this list. He's racked up 5,720 Test runs since 2021, with more than 38 percent of those coming from rotating the strike. 

Justin Greaves just squeezes past the minimum runs threshold for this one, with 305 runs. His teammate Kraigg Braithwaite is the highest in terms of volume for twos on this list with 416 of his 4,283 runs (2021-2015) being comprises of two's.

With nearly 10 percent of his runs from threes and 19 percent from twos, Keegan Petersen has shown he's clearly willing to run hard between the wickets. Marnus Labuschagne is approaching the century (or triple century to be exact), having run 91 threes.

Alzarri Joseph is certainly not afraid to swing big, nor is Marsh. The power-hitting duo of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant have thrilled Indian fans for a little while now too. 

Interesting to note that Zac Crawley is the only member of the Bazballers to reach the top 10 in this category, perhaps indicating there is some finesse to go with the fireworks. 

The strength of the tail

There's no real nuance to this stat, but Australia would be pleased to have the reliable options in Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc regularly adding to the score, though it only adds to the loss of Cummins in the first Ashes Test for the hosts. Nathan Lyon might not get the same plaudits as the other two, but he's shown he can hold his own. Mehidy Hasan Miraz has one Test century and four half-centuries to his name in this timeframe. 

Light up the left-armers

Imam ul-Haq and Sean Williams are the masters of taking on left-arm bowlers, averaging a tick under 100 against them. Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson aren't too far back from this group either. 

Take it right up to the right-armers

Pakistan having the leader in both the left and right-arm categories is impressive, albeit at a lower volume than someone like Harry Brook. New Zealand star Williamson is the only player to feature in the top 10 for both lists. He averages 71 against left-armers and nearly 59 to right-armers.

The safest hands

Root and Smith taking plenty in the slips is not a surprise, but they've both missed a few as well. Root has 13 drops and 65 takes at first slip, while Smith has eight drops and 32 catches at second.

BJ Watling and Afsar Zazai have both taken 14 catches without a drop to tie for first. Jamie Smith's impressive record with the gloves comes from 52 catches with just four drops. Australia's Alex Carey is not far from the top 10, taking 158 and dropping just 22 for a rate of 87.8 percent.

The difficult shot masters

A tickle to fine leg? A gentle steer to third? Who gets the highest percentage of runs through those areas?

Jaiswal has been incredibly impressive finding ways to score with flicks through fine leg. He's the only player to have more than 10 percent of his runs to come from that zone. 

Niroshan Dickwella has 97 of his 777 runs in the 2021-25 range through third. Aussie duo Alex Carey and Pat Cummins are both fluid through that region too. Interestingly, Root is rated 13th for fine leg run percentage and eighth for run percentage through third, while Cummins is 15th and third respectively.