What the numbers say about Graham Thorpe
Rob Smyth and S Rajesh02-Jun-2005Mr Consistent
The one aspect of Thorpe’s career which has stood out has been his consistency. Success came early for him – in his debut Test, in fact, when he scored an unbeaten 114 in his second innings. A brief lull followed, during which period his average dipped to the early 30s, but it crept past the 40-mark in his 10th Test, and since then it’s never fallen below 38. Since 2000, Thorpe’s average for a calendar year has been at least 42 (except in 2005 so far, when he’s only played four matches) – even when his personal life was in turmoil, Thorpe still churned out the runs whenever he played for England. (Click here for Thorpe’s career summary.)Australia’s nemesis
During this 12-year period, Thorpe’s numbers look especially impressive against Australia. He missed 14 of the 30 matches played between the two teams, but when he did make it to the starting XI, he made a difference. In all Tests against Australia, Thorpe averaged 45.74, but when he played them in their own backyard, the average rose to 48.18. Since 1993, Vaughan is the only English batsman to do better against Australia, and he’s only played five games against them. England might feel confident about the strength of their current batting line-up, but they’ll still want Thorpe around when the first Ashes Test starts on July 21.
Michael Vaughan 563363.30 Graham Thorpe
161235 45.74 Mark Ramprakash 1293342.41Nasser Hussain
231581 38.56 Graham Gooch967937.72Winning factor
Only Ken Barrington has a higher average in England¹s post-war Test winsthan Thorpe. This could mean Thorpe makes runs when victory isalready certain but for most of his career England victories never seemedcertain. Instead the statistic suggests two things: that Thorpe has playedan unusual number of match-changing innings and that he often played in aweak side. When he failed, England failed too.
Ken Barrington42231964.42Graham Thorpe
62294061.25Graham Gooch56295056.73Len Hutton
42195755.91 John Edrich35177155.34(Since World War II. Qualification: 1,000 runs)Highest of the high fives
Ostensibly Thorpe has been the ultimate No. 4: fearless counter-attacker andrugged scrapper rolled into one small bundle of defiance. But the numberstell a different story: he is the most productive No. 5 in England¹s Testhistory by some distance and his average there is much higher thananywhere else. Perhaps he should not be moved up the order to accommodateKevin Pietersen after all.
(by runs scored)RunsAverage100s/ 50s
Graham Thorpe326554.4110/ 17Colin Cowdrey
237749.526/ 16David Gower213149.557/ 8Allan Lamb
180340.065/ 8 Keith Fletcher177446.685/ 9Dashing debutant
At the end of the 20th century English batsmen took to Test cricket likeSuperman to Kryptonite with one exception. Whereas no other specialistbatsman scored more than 33 on debut during the 1990s, Thorpe bashed thatfabulous century against the Aussies at Trent Bridge. Sometimes it is safeto judge a book by its cover.
2000s51.0041.871990s
46.0418.211980s36.0418.75(Averages cover both the first and second innings of a player’s debut Test.They refer only to batsmen from Nos. 1-7.)Spin master
Thorpe is pretty adept against fast bowling, but his stats against spin are quite awesome. And he’s done well in the subcontinent against the slow bowlers as well – the only bowler who has clearly got the better of him is Muttiah Muralitharan.
v Pace1464/ 3048.80v Spin
716/ 1165.09v Spin in subcontinent281/ 740.14v Muralitharan
110/ 522.00v Kumble68/ 234.00