More results, more Kohli runs, and more T20Is than ODIs
In 2016, there were fewer draws than ever before, and India notched up some eye-popping stats
Out of the 47 Tests played in 2016, 40 produced results. Even the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, which seemed to be heading towards a certain draw going into the last day, produced a dramatic Pakistan collapse. The overall percentage of result Tests in 2016 was 85.11%, which was impressive even in this age of result-oriented Test matches. Among all the years that have hosted ten or more Tests (there are 74 such years in Test history), only once has the result percentage been higher, and even that was marginal. In 2002, 46 out of 54 were decisive Tests, a percentage of 85.18.
With a 31-11 win-loss record across all formats in 2016, there was no doubt about which was the team of the year. In Tests, India finished the year with a 9-0 record; only twice have teams won more Tests in a year without losing any: England in 2004 (11-0), and Australia in 2006 (10-0).
Team | Year | Mat | Won | Lost | Bat ave | Bowl ave | Diff |
England | 2004 | 13 | 11 | 0 | 43.62 | 29.98 | 13.64 |
Australia | 2006 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 48.58 | 27.95 | 20.63 |
India | 2016 | 12 | 9 | 0 | 48.68 | 27.54 | 21.14 |
Team | Tests | Won | Lost | Bat ave | Bowl ave | Diff |
India | 12 | 9 | 0 | 48.68 | 27.54 | 21.14 |
South Africa | 9 | 5 | 2 | 37.93 | 27.85 | 10.08 |
Sri Lanka | 9 | 5 | 3 | 29.90 | 29.23 | 0.67 |
Australia | 11 | 5 | 5 | 32.62 | 31.34 | 1.28 |
Bangladesh | 2 | 1 | 1 | 25.67 | 23.52 | 2.15 |
England | 17 | 6 | 8 | 34.52 | 34.79 | -0.27 |
New Zealand | 11 | 4 | 6 | 32.33 | 34.46 | -2.13 |
Pakistan | 11 | 4 | 7 | 30.87 | 37.61 | -6.74 |
West Indies | 8 | 1 | 4 | 28.17 | 45.45 | -17.28 |
Zimbabwe | 4 | 0 | 4 | 25.21 | 61.06 | -35.85 |
Jonny Bairstow scored a whopping 1470 Test runs last year, 425 more than any wicketkeeper has ever scored in a calendar year. Some of that was because of England's busy Test schedule in 2016, which allowed Bairstow to bat 29 times, but his numbers, along with those of Quinton de Kock, BJ Watling and a few others ensured that wicketkeepers generally had a year to remember with the bat. Their overall average for the year was 39.93, the second-highest in any year in which more than one Test has been played. The only year when they averaged more was in 2013, when they scored 40.03 per dismissal.
Year | Mat | Runs | Average | 100s/ 50s |
2013 | 44 | 5204 | 40.03 | 13/ 29 |
2016 | 47 | 5351 | 39.93 | 9/ 30 |
2009 | 41 | 4532 | 39.40 | 8/ 25 |
2001 | 55 | 5501 | 38.20 | 12/ 26 |
2014 | 41 | 4426 | 34.57 | 8/ 22 |
2007 | 31 | 2965 | 34.47 | 3/ 23 |
Player | Tests | Runs | Ave | 100s/ 50s |
Jonny Bairstow | 17 | 1470 | 58.80 | 3/ 8 |
Quinton de Kock | 8 | 695 | 63.18 | 2/ 5 |
Sarfraz Ahmed | 11 | 562 | 33.05 | 0/ 3 |
BJ Watling | 11 | 554 | 42.61 | 1/ 2 |
Wriddhiman Saha | 9 | 366 | 40.66 | 1/ 2 |
Shane Dowrich | 6 | 307 | 38.37 | 0/ 3 |
Virat Kohli started his international year with scores of 91, 59, 117 and 106, and finished it with scores of 167, 81, 62, 6*, 235 and 15. In between, he scored runs in the West Indies, in the World T20, in the home series against New Zealand, and in the IPL. In international games, Kohli totalled 2595 runs at a stunning average of 86.50, with 20 fifty-plus scores in 41 innings. Only six batsmen have ever scored more international runs in a calendar, and none of them have done so at an average close to Kohli's. In fact, there have been 72 instances of batsmen scoring 2000-plus runs in a calendar year, and Kohli's average of 86.50 is the best among them all.
Player | Mat | Inns | Runs | Average | 100s/ 50s | Year |
Kumar Sangakkara | 48 | 57 | 2868 | 53.11 | 8/ 18 | 2014 |
Ricky Ponting | 46 | 58 | 2833 | 56.66 | 9/ 15 | 2005 |
Kane Williamson | 39 | 46 | 2692 | 65.65 | 8/ 14 | 2015 |
Ricky Ponting | 45 | 49 | 2657 | 66.42 | 11/ 8 | 2003 |
Rahul Dravid | 53 | 62 | 2626 | 46.89 | 10/ 9 | 1999 |
Kumar Sangakkara | 50 | 55 | 2609 | 52.18 | 5/ 16 | 2006 |
Virat Kohli | 37 | 41 | 2595 | 86.5 | 7/ 13 | 2016 |
Batsman | Year | Tests - runs | Average | ODIs - runs | Average |
Virat Kohli | 2016 | 1215 | 75.93 | 739 | 92.37 |
Hashim Amla | 2010 | 1249 | 78.06 | 1058 | 75.57 |
AB de Villiers | 2010 | 996 | 76.61 | 964 | 80.33 |
Coming into 2016, there had been only four instances of teams losing a Test after scoring 400-plus runs in their first innings - in 1930, 2001, 2004 and 2011. In three weeks in December, three more such defeats occurred, two for England and one for Pakistan. The Boxing Day result was the most remarkable of those, as Australia pulled off a last-day heist despite large amounts of time being lost due to rain.
Team | Bat | Total | Defeat margin | Opposition | Ground | Year |
England | 1st | 405 | inns & 39 runs | Australia | The Oval | 1930 |
England | 2nd | 432 | inns & 25 runs | Australia | The Oval | 2001 |
Pakistan | 2nd | 407 | inns & 52 runs | India | Multan | 2004 |
Sri Lanka | 1st | 400 | inns & 14 runs | England | Cardiff | 2011 |
England | 1st | 400 | inns & 36 runs | India | Mumbai | 2016 |
England | 1st | 477 | inns & 75 runs | India | Chennai | 2016 |
Pakistan | 1st | 443/9d | inns & 18 runs | Australia | Melbourne | 2016 |
In 2016, spinners took 1474 international wickets, which is more than they had taken in any previous year - their highest before last year was 1432, in 2010. In both Tests and T20Is, spinners took more wickets than they had taken in any previous year. The two leading wicket-takers in Tests were spinners - R Ashwin finished with 72 and Rangana Herath with 57 - while the ODI list also had a spinner - Adam Zampa - on top.
Player | Tests | Overs | Wickets | Average |
R Ashwin | 12 | 584.4 | 72 | 23.90 |
Rangana Herath | 9 | 412.2 | 57 | 18.92 |
Yasir Shah | 10 | 538.2 | 46 | 38.69 |
Ravindra Jadeja | 9 | 463.4 | 43 | 24.55 |
Nathan Lyon | 11 | 438.0 | 41 | 36.34 |
Moeen Ali | 17 | 532.0 | 37 | 53.02 |
Adil Rashid | 7 | 287.1 | 30 | 35.66 |
Type | Wickets | Average | Strike rate | 5WI |
Pace | 851 | 32.02 | 61.8 | 34 |
Spin | 584 | 35.11 | 66.0 | 27 |
For the first time in a calendar year, the number of T20 internationals exceeded the number of ODIs, which is a clear indication of the direction in which the game is moving. The total number of ODIs in 2016 was 99, only the second time in the last 21 years that fewer than 100 ODIs were played in a year. Meanwhile, the T20I aggregate touched 100 for the first time; the previous highest in any year was 82, in 2012, which was also the year when the difference between the number of ODIs and T20Is was the least, before 2016.
Year | ODIs | Average | Run rate | 150+ scores |
2015 | 146 | 32.91 | 5.50 | 10 |
2016 | 98 | 31.60 | 5.43 | 10 |
2014 | 121 | 31.53 | 5.29 | 3 |
2009 | 150 | 30.92 | 5.12 | 9 |
2013 | 136 | 30.65 | 5.11 | 7 |
60.60 Ross Taylor's batting average in Tests in 2016: he scored 606 runs including three centuries, and was dismissed ten times. However, 364 of those runs came in three innings in Zimbabwe, when he wasn't dismissed once. In his 12 remaining innings he scored only 242 runs at 24.20, as problems with his left eye severely hampered his batting. However, he finished the year with an unbeaten 102 against Pakistan in Hamilton, and after an eye surgery later in the year, he will hopefully be back to his best.
70 Test dismissals for Bairstow in 2016, the most by any wicketkeeper in a year. The previous record was 67, by Ian Healy in 1993 and by Mark Boucher in 1998.
S Rajesh is stats editor of ESPNcricinfo. @rajeshstats