Josh Hazlewood's comments on how averaging 35 is the new 45 has sparked alot of debate. A sizeable chunk of test matches are finishing within 2-3 days in the past few years. This trend has dragged on in Australia since around the 2022 summer. In India the preparation of turners led to some nightmarish pitches for the batters over the past few years, which has led to lot of controversy. In England, due to the advent of bazball, England backed themselves to hit big totals on flatter surfaces, which is the only reason why we didn't see as many green seamers over the last 4-5 years. Though, this summer we see the return of more bowling friendly pitches, with a few test matches wrapping up within 2-3 days. But overall, I think due to the advent of the WTC, pitches have been more bowling friendly, and teams don't want to drag out a test for 5 days even if it's a dead rubber as they want to get crucial WTC points.

But, of course alot of people who have been watching cricket way longer than I have would point out how possibly the techniques and temperaments of the batters would have declined. I am not professionally trained, but seeing how many big scores there are in the IPL, and how flat pitches are everywhere in the domestic circuit for India (IPL, Vijay Hazare and Syed Mushtaq Ali), I can only presume that kids nowadays are taught how to hit a ball out of the park before being taught about the right temperament with which to bat, leading to a more flashy and fast paced batting style. Though, the fall off in technique against spin for the Indian batters can be attributed to a bad selection policy (i.e fast tracking IPL superstars into test cricket). So, one can argue against the point of tougher pitches especially with regards to the Indian team, as most players move towards the white ball game and have way less exposure to proper test match pitches, resulting in declining performance in home series (whitewash against NZ & SA). This is just one factor for the declining performance, I am not moving towards much discussion of the lack of incentive for bowlers in India*

If you look over the recent past, the run rate per every 100 balls in a test match has also gone up, while the runs per wicket has gone down. If you take into account the bowlers with the best strike rate (with a minimum of 65 wickets), 7 out of the top 11 bowlers are currently playing. Teams have become much more aggressive since the advent of the WTC, looking for a result, and in turn have probably started leaving less balls from a batting standpoint, and been more aggressive from a bowling standpoint (hence possibly leaking more runs, but also taking more wickets). But, I'm no expert and this is just a possible theory/inference.

In the images posted, I have taken the top run scorers across 4 different periods - Jan 1 1990- Dec 31 1999, Jan 1 2000 - Dec 31 2010, Jan 1 2011 - Dec 31 2017, Jan 1 2018 - Now

The pure averages of the top run scorers suggest the current period from 2018 has been the worst for batters since the 90s. You can see a multitude of averages ranging from 45 to high as 60 in the 2000s, with it gradually declining into the 2010s and then getting scattered between 35-45 in the current period. There are certain outliers like Kane Williamson who has a remarkable average of 58 in this period. Not taking away from his class, but he dealt with many injuries, and it was a rare sight for him to play a full away series.

Take a few one off examples: From 2018 onwards, Virat Kohli has an average of 40 and Cheteshwer Pujara averaged in the mid to low 30s. For 2 Indian giants who averaged well above 50 in the period between 2011-2017, they are cursed to be compared to their own greatness. Lets be honest, a 40 average isn't what Virat is supposed to average. And Pujara in the low 30s? get outta here. Lets not forget, they were players who had a very solid technique and were used to playing on raging turners, as India prepared surfaces suited for Ashwin and Jadeja. Though Virat's fall off can always just be attributed to his failing technique, it is food for thought.

Some of the images as you can see above have been taken from a YouTube video on the sky sports cricket channel, where a panel consisting of DK, Atherton and Nasser Hussain talked also about how possibly DRS and hawkeye have also possibly contributed to the worse off averages. One thing that I don't think they discussed is that the ICC increased the area of the stumps on hawkeye that is considered to be "hitting wickets" in 2021. Umpire's call used to be adjudged if the ball used to trim the bails, but now that too is considered out according to hawkeye technology, decreasing the margin of error for the bowlers.

Another really intuitive point that has to be taken into consideration which they had discussed in the video was about how the schedule is against players as well. In most of the world, the red ball cricket has 2 phases. If you look at the shield, you have the first few rounds, then a break for the BBL, and then come back in Feb/March. Same for the County Championship and for the Ranji Trophy as well. This ruins the momentum of the players who are genuinely looking to improve their game in the longest form, and switching between the 3 formats is one of the hardest tasks as all cricket lovers know.

Keeping all of this information about the modern game in mind, it was cool to see how Australia are calculating the impactfulness of their batters by using a % total runs, rather than just pure averages.

I think Greg Chappell's recent article on Cricinfo was incredibly insightful as well. Do check out the links below.

Youtube Video --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sxi0P9q-8Y8&t
Cricinfo Article on DRS --> ICC cricket committee makes key change to lbw reviews in DRS - ESPN
Greg Chappell article --> Greg Chappell - Why Australia's batting problems are linked to their calendar | Cricinfo
Australia Batting Metrics article -->How Australia are measuring Test runs in challenging era | Cricinfo

So, in your opinion, what do you think? are batters worse off? are pitches tougher? or are bowlers just becoming way more skillful by coming up with new creative variations like the wobble seam, trapping batters by bringing the keeper up, etc.

Do tell me if I missed out on any important talking points as this was a very long type up. I have focused more on the batting side of things, but there is a whole another discussion to be had on the bowling side of things as well.

Got to be one of the worst collapses in recent memory?

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Sam Bondano has run between Lord's Cricket Ground and Valley End Cricket Club in Woking, setting a Guinness World Record attempt for the longest run-up prior to bowling a cricket ball!

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