The January edition of ESPN Cricinfo’s digital magazine Cricket Monthly carried a special coverage on the top 50 individual performances in test cricket from 1966 onwards to the present day. Predictably, Viv Richards, Gary Sobers and Brian Lara figure on that list and so do Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralidaran. The names are deserving enough to make this, or any, list of individual brilliance compiled by any cricket lover or expert around the world.
But i was left a little bemused at the exclusion of Dean Jones’ 210 vs India played in the tied test in Madras (1986). Batting under the scorching Chennai sun, Jones vomited multiple times besides the pitch, urinated in his flannels, and ended up in a hospital on a saline drip by the time his 8 hour marathon ended.
And i was a little more bemused to find out that this innings, which the then coach of Australia Bob Simpson described as ‘one of the gutsiest innings ever played’, is expended for the inclusion of Sanath Jayasuriya’s 340 vs India, Brian Lara record breaking 375 & 400 vs England, and Viv Richards’ 291 vs England. All of these innings were played in dead tests or dead rubbers whereas the tied test match heralded a new era in Australian cricket, it began their quest to become the leading test playing nation in the world.
Just one of the many instances where romance for visceral thrills was preferred over the real substance of the performance.
Navjot Singh Sidhu’s biggest contribution to Indian Cricket, as is often said, was when his illness allowed Sachin Tendulkar to open the batting for India in an ODI vs New Zealand in 1994. Tendulkar smacked 82 from 49 balls, and claimed that spot till the day he retired 18 years later. A batsman who was arguably one of the biggest match winners of his day (as the analysis would bring out), for his legacy to be reduced to being a pedestal for his more storied batting partner’s climb to immortality is indeed a shame.
My father once bowled to him during the Ranji Trophy trials in Patiala in 1981, he remembers Sidhu as a batsman who was solid in defence, but lacked strokes. Dubbed as a stroke-less wonder after his international debut in 1983, Sidhu returned in the 1987 world cup as an attacking opening bat with a special relish for Spinners. From then on, he never looked back.
TEST MATCHES
Sidhu was at his peak as a batsman between 11 Feb 1993 and 25 Mar 1998, during which he averaged an astonishing 59.56, and only Tendulkar (64.13) and Steve Waugh (61.10) averaged more than him. Curiously, out of the 8 batsmen who averaged more than 50 in this period, 4 are Indians. Sidhu was also, by a distance, the best opening batsmen in this period, averaging almost 10 points more than the next placed Sanath Jayasuriya.
His most notable innings during this period include his six studded 124 vs Sri Lanka at Lucknow (1994) where he took Muralidaran to the cleaners, the 11 hour marathon 201 vs West Indies at POS (1997), and four consecutive fifties in the 1998 Border Gavaskar series, where he and Tendulkar took Warne and Australia apart with their attacking stroke play.
| Player Name | Mat | Inn | Runs | Avg | 100 | 50 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 39 | 58 | 3335 | 64.13 | 12 | 13 |
| Steve Waugh | 54 | 86 | 4155 | 61.1 | 10 | 25 |
| Navjot Sidhu | 27 | 37 | 2204 | 59.56 | 7 | 11 |
| Vinod Kambli | 16 | 19 | 1050 | 55.26 | 4 | 3 |
| Brian Lara | 47 | 79 | 3954 | 52.02 | 9 | 19 |
| Rahul Dravid | 22 | 35 | 1643 | 51.34 | 1 | 15 |
| Saurav Ganguly | 20 | 31 | 1483 | 51.13 | 5 | 5 |
| Jimmy Adams | 29 | 46 | 1866 | 50.43 | 5 | 8 |
Table 1: Top Batsmen (Feb’93-Oct’98)
| Player Name | Mat | Inn | Runs | Avg | 100 | 50 |
| Navjot Sidhu | 25 | 35 | 2130 | 60.85 | 7 | 11 |
| Sanath Jayasuriya | 18 | 31 | 1534 | 51.13 | 4 | 7 |
| Saeed Anwar | 30 | 49 | 2242 | 46.7 | 5 | 16 |
| Michael Slater | 37 | 65 | 2817 | 45.43 | 7 | 11 |
| Alec Stewart | 31 | 52 | 2175 | 42.64 | 4 | 12 |
| Michael Atherton | 57 | 104 | 4083 | 40.83 | 8 | 25 |
| Mark Taylor | 59 | 101 | 3772 | 40.12 | 10 | 19 |
Table 2: Top Opening Batsmen (Feb’93-Mar’98)
A remarkable aspect of Sidhu’s form during this period is his sheer consistency. In the 10 test series he played, he averaged more than 50 in 7 of them and, quite amazingly, never averaged below 37 in any of them. Also, 7 of his 9 career centuries came during this period
Some of Sidhu’s bravest innings came in the period that preceded his peak as a batsman. In the 1989 Sialkot test vs Pakistan (Yes, the one where Waqar hit Sachin on the jaw), India had nearly given away their 74 run first innings lead tottering at 4-38. Sidhu’s 97 was not only the top score of the match but was also instrumental in India averting a defeat and hence for the first time ever, a series was drawn in Pakistan.
Also worth a mention is his 116 vs West Indies at Kingston, 1989 against the pace battery of Marshall, Ambrose, Walsh and Patterson in a match where no Indian batsman scored more than 47. A lost cause eventually, but a gutsy performance.
Sidhu, throughout his career, was a match winner second to none. For batsmen who scored more than 1000 runs in team wins during his career span, Sidhu’s average is next only to Steve Waugh, Graham Gooch, Shoaib Mohammad and Jimmy Adams. He is also the only Indian batsman apart from Sachin Tendulkar to average more than 60 in wins.
| Player Name | Mat | Inn | Runs | Avg | 100 | 50 |
| Steve Waugh | 45 | 64 | 3914 | 83.27 | 14 | 18 |
| Graham Gooch | 17 | 30 | 2273 | 78.37 | 9 | 4 |
| Shoaib Mohammad | 12 | 18 | 1055 | 75.35 | 3 | 5 |
| Jimmy Adams | 15 | 21 | 1051 | 70.06 | 3 | 5 |
| Navjot Sidhu | 13 | 18 | 1179 | 69.35 | 4 | 7 |
| Saeed Anwar | 16 | 25 | 1651 | 68.79 | 5 | 10 |
| Inzamam-Ul-Haq | 21 | 33 | 1745 | 67.11 | 5 | 10 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 16 | 24 | 1268 | 63.4 | 4 | 7 |
| Martin Crowe | 14 | 23 | 1179 | 62.05 | 2 | 7 |
| Michael Slater | 23 | 38 | 2138 | 61.08 | 8 | 6 |
Table 3: Average in test wins (1983-1999).
Sidhu toured England and Australia only once in his career and fared badly in each of them. But what must be noted is that he made those tours in 1990 and 1992 respectively, which was a period when he had not yet found the batsman in him. He declined to tour England in 1996 owing to differences with Mohammad Azharuddin, who knows what numbers he would have gathered had he opted to go.
ONE DAY INTERNATIONALS
Sidhu’s personality and his performances played out with a little more flair in ODIs than in test matches. Making his one day debut vs Australia in the 1987 world cup, he started off with a bang with 4 consecutive fifties and continued this rich vein of form for the next 2 years to complete 1000 ODI runs in just 25 innings. To this day, Sidhu remains the third fastest Indian to score 1000 ODI runs (25 innings) after Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan (24 each).
Sidhu was in his peak form between 9 Oct 1987 and 14 Apr 1995. Amongst batsmen who scored more than 2000 runs in ODIs, Sidhu was the highest averaging Indian, and had the third best overall average after Dean Jones and Geoff Marsh.
| Player Name | Mat | Inn | Runs | Avg | 100 | 50 | S/R |
| Dean Jones | 119 | 117 | 4644 | 45.98 | 4 | 39 | 70.19 |
| Geoff Marsh | 80 | 78 | 3178 | 44.13 | 7 | 18 | 55.53 |
| Navjot Sidhu | 91 | 87 | 3446 | 43.62 | 5 | 28 | 71.22 |
| Brian Lara | 84 | 83 | 3313 | 43.59 | 5 | 25 | 73.58 |
| Desmond Haynes | 116 | 116 | 4319 | 41.52 | 9 | 29 | 65.02 |
| Inzamam-ul-Haq | 87 | 85 | 2981 | 41.4 | 4 | 21 | 73.82 |
| Martin Crowe | 80 | 79 | 2811 | 41.33 | 2 | 21 | 71.83 |
| Robin Smith | 64 | 63 | 2218 | 40.32 | 4 | 13 | 70.34 |
Table 4: Top ODI batsmen from Oct’87-Apr’95.
Sidhu was also striking the ball at a decent rate, scoring 71 runs per 100 balls which not only compares well with the batsmen listed in the table but is also well placed amongst all major batsmen of that time. Also, 5 of his 6 ODI centuries came during this period.
Pressing his stature as a genuine match winner, throughout his career, no one averaged more than Sidhu in matches that India won, apart from Sachin Tendulkar. Keeping the same cut-off as above, Sidhu emerges as one of 8 batsmen who averaged more than 50 in wins. He and Tendulkar, in fact, are the only Indian Batsmen who average more than 50 in this case. The scenario is a little different when the cut-off runs are reduced to 1000, but it doesn’t diminish his contribution one bit.
If the same statistic is seen for peak years, Sidhu’s numbers are remarkable. Only Martin Crowe averages more than Sidhu in wins followed by Brian Lara and Dean Jones.
| Player Name | Mat | Inn | Runs | Avg | 100 | 50 |
| Martin Crowe | 36 | 36 | 1702 | 65.46 | 2 | 14 |
| Navjot Sidhu | 52 | 50 | 2448 | 58.28 | 4 | 21 |
| Brian Lara | 46 | 45 | 2207 | 58.07 | 5 | 16 |
| Dean Jones | 79 | 78 | 3540 | 55.31 | 4 | 30 |
| Inzamam-ul-Haq | 48 | 46 | 1908 | 54.51 | 3 | 13 |
| Mohammad Azharuddin | 72 | 64 | 2213 | 50.29 | 1 | 14 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 51 | 49 | 1963 | 49.07 | 4 | 14 |
| Desmond Haynes | 67 | 67 | 2796 | 49.05 | 8 | 16 |
| Andrew Jones | 40 | 40 | 1614 | 48.9 | 0 | 17 |
Table 5: Average in Team Wins (Oct’87-Apr’95)
Sidhu was also remarkably consistent when it came to contributing in team wins at overseas and neutral venues. Amongst Indian batsmen, his average (49.28) is bettered only by Saurav Ganguly (68.71) and Sachin Tendulkar (60.23). His average is 11th highest on an overall basis though, not bad at all when you see the names that follow him.
Sidhu was also amongst the top batsmen in Sharjah, which had become the center of the ODI action in the late 80s and all of the 90s. Although Sachin made the venue his own in 1998, Sidhu was amongst the top performing batsmen in Sharjah during his career span. A significant finding given that India won only 16 out of the 38 matches it played there.
| Player Name | Mat | Inn | Runs | Avg | 100 | 50 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 28 | 28 | 1260 | 50.40 | 4 | 6 |
| Saeed Anwar | 36 | 36 | 1553 | 45.67 | 7 | 4 |
| Inzamam Ul Haq | 28 | 28 | 1096 | 45.66 | 1 | 8 |
| Saleem Malik | 45 | 39 | 1462 | 43.00 | 3 | 9 |
| Navjot Sidhu | 32 | 32 | 1225 | 40.83 | 2 | 8 |
| Aamer Sohail | 25 | 25 | 960 | 40.00 | 2 | 6 |
| Rameez Raja | 24 | 24 | 787 | 35.77 | 2 | 3 |
| Roshan Mahanama | 30 | 29 | 888 | 34.15 | 1 | 5 |
| Aravinda De Silva | 35 | 35 | 1123 | 34.03 | 1 | 7 |
Table 6: Top Batsmen at Sharjah (Oct’87-Sep’98).
Sidhu’s antics in the media seem to have overshadowed his performances on the cricket field. His ebullient and extrovert demeanor belie his keen observation of the game that allowed him to come back into the Indian team in 1987 and cement his place as one of India’s most consistent performers for a better part of the next decade. One has to look deeper into the numbers to truly understand the sheer match winning capabilities of this glorious cricketer.
P.S. The numbers analysis was inspired by a statistical analysis of Sidhu here.
cricket689 