Best Batsmen by Career ICC Ratings

In this post, we use the ICC Player Ratings to attempt to rate the best batsmen in Test cricket. This post attempts to decide the best batsman of all time by calculating the average (arithmetic mean) rating of a player over his entire career.

The ICC ratings glean all their information from a standard scorecard and hence are entirely objective. The ICC ratings take into account the match conditions and quality of opponents and hence are a better measure than raw career statistics. Because the ratings takes the quality of the opposition into account, individuals who make merry against weaker opposition do not get their ratings unduly inflated. Conversely, players who perform well against stronger opposition are rewarded.

Result Summary:

• Don Bradman, as expected tops the list as the best batsman.
• Jack Hobbs, the leading run-scorer and century-maker in first-class cricket, comes in second.
• Brian Lara is the first modern era player to make an appearance at third.
• Len Hutton and Gary Sobers round off the top 5.
• Gary Sobers has the most 900 point matches, testifying that he kept his performance up for quite a few matches.
• Bradman has 28 900+ rating scores in only 52 matches!
• Sangakkara is the second modern era player to make an appearance at twelfth. This scheme is not unduly benefiting modern era players who play a lot of matches and hence have high career aggregates.

Data table:

Player	Matches	Rating Average	900s	800s	700s
D.G. Bradman	52	855.37	28	12	6
J.B. Hobbs	61	799.00	14	28	6
B.C. Lara	131	783.55	5	65	45
L. Hutton	79	781.28	25	17	23
G.S. Sobers	93	780.85	30	36	11
R.N. Harvey	79	777.70	5	35	29
H. Sutcliffe	54	775.48	0	30	15
I.V.A. Richards	121	762.74	14	47	36
E.D. Weekes	48	760.52	6	19	11
P.B.H. May	66	760.29	22	14	10
K.F. Barrington	82	747.20	5	36	21
K.C. Sangakkara	117	747.03	6	50	25
W.R. Hammond	85	745.40	0	32	37
Javed Miandad	124	743.12	0	41	53
R. Dravid	164	741.79	0	52	65
M.E.K. Hussey	79	738.47	5	17	32
R.T. Ponting	168	736.86	17	48	38
S.M. Gavaskar	125	736.53	8	31	29
A.R. Border	156	736.00	0	44	64
J.H. Kallis	164	735.01	6	64	49
K.P. Pietersen	99	733.05	1	23	40
S.R. Tendulkar	199	732.33	0	70	71
M.L. Hayden	103	723.27	4	50	20
A.C. Gilchrist	96	722.00	0	18	40
M.J. Clarke	97	719.02	1	28	29
W.M. Lawry	67	715.45	0	14	27
M.C. Cowdrey	114	713.39	0	21	59
G.S. Chappell	87	712.87	0	18	44
D.C.S. Compton	78	712.59	3	20	17
G.A. Headley	22	711.77	2	4	7
D.P.M.D. Jayawardene	138	707.06	0	25	64
V. Sehwag	104	703.94	0	29	29
C.C. McDonald	47	700.96	0	9	18
K.D. Walters	74	698.88	3	13	15
Inzamam-ul-Haq	120	697.55	0	26	57
A.I. Kallicharran	66	697.03	0	8	31
A.D. Nourse	34	695.71	1	13	10
S. Chanderpaul	149	695.18	1	28	41
G.C. Smith	112	693.83	0	4	63
A.N. Cook	97	688.99	0	12	27
D.I. Gower	117	688.80	0	7	52
R.B. Kanhai	79	688.58	0	22	31
I.J.L. Trott	48	686.71	0	6	24
R.B. Richardson	86	686.22	0	12	41
G.R. Viswanath	91	686.11	0	14	29
C.G. Greenidge	108	681.91	0	7	44
N.C. O'Neill	42	681.62	0	0	19
Mohammad Yousuf	90	681.21	6	12	26
A.R. Morris	46	680.61	0	8	19
A. Shrewsbury	5	677.80	0	0	2
Younus Khan	86	676.90	0	19	33
M.E. Trescothick	76	673.53	0	1	33
A.W. Greig	58	667.84	0	0	29
C.H. Lloyd	110	667.29	0	5	49
F.M.M. Worrell	51	665.39	0	5	16
S.R. Waugh	168	664.57	0	63	20
C. Hill	49	664.47	0	10	15
H.W. Taylor	42	659.60	0	6	21
A.J. Strauss	100	658.12	0	0	30
G.P. Thorpe	100	656.79	0	0	39
D.L. Haynes	116	655.39	0	0	35
M.H. Richardson	38	653.92	0	0	19
A.B. de Villiers	87	653.67	1	15	19
J.J. Lyons	12	653.00	0	0	4
D.R. Martyn	67	652.45	0	8	25
Saeed Anwar	55	649.11	0	4	19
P.E. Richardson	34	648.29	0	2	15
W.M. Woodfull	35	647.54	0	1	18
M.E. Waugh	128	646.71	0	0	38
K.J. Hughes	70	644.41	0	3	29
G.M. Turner	41	644.02	0	5	20
V.S. Hazare	30	642.80	0	6	11
G. Boycott	108	640.95	0	0	31
G. Kirsten	101	639.85	0	0	18
A. Flower	63	637.92	0	13	11
W.G. Grace	11	636.27	0	0	0
B. Mitchell	42	635.48	0	0	21
Hanif Mohammad	55	635.42	0	2	19
R.A. Smith	62	634.37	0	3	12
E.R. Dexter	62	633.58	0	6	25
R.L. Taylor	50	633.16	0	0	26
H.M. Amla	71	632.56	2	11	17
V.V.S. Laxman	134	632.47	0	0	40
Saeed Ahmed	41	632.46	0	0	11
I.R. Bell	93	632.08	0	1	22
A.J. Stewart	133	631.77	0	0	47
M.A. Atherton	115	630.94	0	0	30
C.L. Walcott	44	630.23	4	13	5
M.J. Slater	74	629.92	0	0	23
G.A. Gooch	118	629.70	0	20	20
A.L. Hassett	43	628.42	0	7	13
M.A. Taylor	104	625.71	0	0	19
J.L. Langer	105	622.15	0	0	41
Zaheer Abbas	78	618.05	0	1	25
M.P. Vaughan	82	616.44	0	8	11
C.C. Hunte	44	614.05	0	1	12
W. Bardsley	41	613.12	0	0	12
T.T. Samaraweera	81	612.78	0	0	25
B.F. Butcher	44	612.64	0	0	5
B.C. Booth	29	611.28	0	0	4
B. Sutcliffe	42	610.74	0	0	10
C.D. McMillan	55	610.18	0	0	3
M. Azharuddin	99	608.31	0	0	4
D.C. Boon	107	606.48	0	0	28
J.C. Adams	54	605.46	0	3	13
D.J. Cullinan	70	605.20	0	0	16
S.P. Fleming	111	605.06	0	0	5
J.H. Edrich	77	602.42	0	0	15
Mohsin Khan	48	601.48	0	0	7
D.J. McGlew	34	599.71	0	0	9
P.D. Collingwood	68	598.31	0	0	3
K.S. Ranjitsinhji	15	594.53	0	0	0
E.J. Barlow	30	592.50	0	0	6
H.A. Gomes	60	591.72	0	0	16
Azhar Ali	31	591.45	0	0	8
H.H. Gibbs	90	591.12	0	5	27
S.C. Ganguly	113	590.59	0	0	2
R.B. Simpson	62	590.00	0	10	5
R.C. Fredericks	59	589.22	0	0	10
H.L. Collins	19	589.16	0	0	2
R.G. Pollock	23	589.13	2	2	4
R.R. Sarwan	87	589.10	0	0	5
B.L. D'Oliveira	44	588.89	0	0	0
I.M. Chappell	75	588.75	0	2	23
N. Hussain	96	588.55	0	0	8
D.B. Vengsarkar	116	588.46	0	6	11
I.R. Redpath	66	588.06	0	0	12
W.J. Cronje	68	587.54	0	0	5
I.T. Botham	102	585.75	0	1	17
W.H. Ponsford	29	585.14	0	0	3
P.A. de Silva	93	585.00	0	0	21
W.R. Endean	28	583.82	0	0	1
M.D. Crowe	77	583.52	0	0	28
G. Gambhir	54	583.35	0	9	4
V.T. Trumper	48	582.83	0	1	15
M.J. Prior	72	581.21	0	0	4
C.H. Gayle	98	580.63	0	0	5
R.M. Cowper	27	577.26	0	1	9
B.M. Laird	21	576.81	0	0	0
G.N. Yallop	39	576.51	0	0	2
F.A. Iredale	14	576.50	0	0	0
S.T. Jayasuriya	110	576.27	0	0	8
J.B. Stollmeyer	32	576.13	0	1	7
Salim Malik	103	576.11	0	0	10
T.W. Graveney	79	574.81	0	0	0
G. Pullar	28	574.57	0	0	3
D.L. Amiss	50	573.94	0	3	22
R.H. Catterall	24	573.75	0	0	2
R. Abel	8	572.63	0	0	0
F.E. Woolley	64	572.34	0	0	1
Sadiq Mohammad	41	571.07	0	0	3
J.H.W. Fingleton	18	570.39	0	0	3
A.G. Prince	66	570.38	0	0	14
D.M. Jones	52	567.40	0	0	0
M.A. Butcher	71	566.07	0	0	3
J.T. Tyldesley	31	564.39	0	0	1
Misbah-ul-Haq	43	563.53	0	0	16
G.P. Howarth	47	562.53	0	1	10
M. Leyland	41	562.44	0	0	9
A.E. Stoddart	15	560.87	0	0	0
M.W. Goodwin	19	559.79	0	0	0
C.A. Pujara	14	559.43	0	0	4
J.G. Wright	82	559.01	0	0	1
B.A. Edgar	39	558.90	0	0	1
D.S. Steele	8	558.88	0	0	0
S.M. Katich	56	558.66	0	1	11
K.R. Miller	55	558.49	0	0	0
N.J. Astle	81	558.32	0	0	0
G.S. Blewett	46	557.04	0	0	0
P.R. Umrigar	59	556.44	0	0	9
K.C. Wessels	40	556.10	0	0	6
Asif Iqbal	58	555.26	0	0	2
S.M. Nurse	29	554.38	0	0	1
T.L. Goddard	41	553.63	0	0	0
J.V. Coney	52	553.19	0	0	1
Hon. F.S. Jackson	20	552.90	0	0	2
A.J. Lamb	79	552.59	0	0	0
K.R. Stackpole	43	552.56	0	0	9
J. Darling	34	551.76	0	0	3
S.L. Campbell	52	551.54	0	0	0
W.A. Brown	22	551.27	0	0	0
Wasim Raja	57	550.74	0	0	3
P.J.L. Dujon	81	550.35	0	0	2

Notes:

• A player takes 20 innings to start receiving full points, so players with very few innings (i.e. fewer career test matches) are at a slight disadvantage via this averaging scheme. 
• These ratings include Test matches until 9th November 2013. 
• Read more about ICC Ratings on their FAQ page.