Best English Batsmen In Tests Featured

Top 10 English Batsmen In Tests Since 1950

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All Test Ratings on the website are from 01/01/1950 onwards (Know Why). They are updated till 2026-02-05. Brief explanation of the ratings is given before each section (Detailed Explanation) and in the last section. Here are the Top 10 English batsmen in Test Cricket since 1950.

CONTENTS
1. THE CRITERIA
2. QUALIFICATION
3. PRIMARY CRITERIA
3.1. PROLIFIC
3.2. CONSISTENT
3.2.1. Against All Teams
3.2.2. Against Top Teams
3.3. ATTACKING
3.3.1. Against All Teams
3.3.2. Against Top Teams
3.4. BIG INNINGS POTENTIAL
3.4.1. Against All Teams
3.4.2. Against Top Teams
3.5. PRIMARY RATING
4. CONDITIONS CRITERIA
4.1. HOME/AWAY
4.1.1. At Home
4.1.2. Away From Home
4.2. FAMILIAR/UNFAMILIAR CONDITIONS
4.2.1. Familiar Conditions Rating
4.2.1.1. Non Asians Outside Asia
4.2.2. Unfamiliar Conditions Rating
4.2.2.1. Non Asians In Asia
4.3. CONDITIONS RATING
5. SECONDARY CRITERIA
5.1. LOW SCORING INNS
5.2. TOP FORM
5.3. IMPACT INNS
5.4. SECONDARY RATING
6. OVERALL RATING
6.1. BRIEF EXPLANATION
6.1.1. Dynamic Nature
6.1.2. Trend Setter (TS)
6.1.3. Top Teams (TT)
6.1.4. Abbreviations
Nations Filter

This rating filters the OVERALL Rating to show players only from England.

  • The Rating of the players from England remains the same as in the original OVERALL Rating.
  • Thus the Trend Setter can be from any nation and is not necessarily from England.

THE CRITERIA

CRITERIA CONSTITUENTS
Primary Runs, Average, Strike Rate, Top Inns
Conditions Home, Away, In Asia, Outside Asia
Secondary Top Form, Low Scoring Inns, Impact Inns

QUALIFICATION

Min Innings (TT) 30
Min Career Runs 1000

PRIMARY CRITERIA

The Primary Rating is divided into 4 main sections:-

CRITERIA STAT POINTS
Prolific Runs Scored 250.00
Consistent Average 400.00
Attacking Strike Rate 100.00
Big Innings Potential Top Inns (Runs) 250.00

PROLIFIC

The Eras

The time period from 1950 to present is divided into eras for this section. This is because less cricket was played earlier. To make it fair for earlier players they are compared with players of the same period with a slight reduction in points. Know More About Eras.

Era 1 MP before 1976
Era 2 MP between 1975 And 1996
Era 3 MP between 1995 And 2016
Era 4 MP greater than 2015

Criteria: Points For Runs Scored

RANK ERA 1 NAT FP LP MP INNS RUNS RAT
TS G Boycott ENG 1964 1982 1973 193 8114 230.00
1 G Boycott ENG 1964 1982 1973 193 8114 230.00
2 MC Cowdrey ENG 1954 1975 1964.5 188 7624 216.11
3 KF Barrington ENG 1955 1968 1961.5 131 6806 192.92
4 PBH May ENG 1951 1961 1956 106 4537 128.61
RANK ERA 2 NAT FP LP MP INNS RUNS RAT
TS AR Border AUS 1978 1994 1986 265 11174 240.00
1 GA Gooch ENG 1975 1995 1985 215 8900 191.16
2 DI Gower ENG 1978 1992 1985 204 8231 176.79
RANK ERA 3 NAT FP LP MP INNS RUNS RAT
TS SR Tendulkar IND 1989 2013 2001 329 15921 250.00
1 AN Cook ENG 2006 2018 2012 291 12472 195.84
2 KP Pietersen ENG 2005 2014 2009.5 181 8181 128.46
RANK ERA 4 NAT FP LP MP INNS RUNS RAT
TS JE Root ENG 2012 2026 2019 298 13943 240.00
1 JE Root ENG 2012 2026 2019 298 13943 240.00
2 HC Brook ENG 2022 2026 2024 60 3178 54.70

CONSISTENT

R Ave

Relative Average (R Ave) is a more accurate type of average. Know How It Is Calculated. Briefly, it takes into account:-

  • Strength of Opposition.
  • Positions at which a batsman has played.
  • Venues at which he has played.
  • Time Period in which he has been active

Criteria: Points For Relative Average

Min Qualification For TS
Min Runs 2000
Min Runs (TT) 1600

Against All Teams

RANK BATSMAN INNS NO RUNS AVE R AVE RAT
TS GS Sobers 160 21 8032 57.78 62.64 160.00
1 KF Barrington 131 15 6806 58.67 60.42 154.33
2 HC Brook 60 2 3178 54.79 59.48 151.94
3 JE Root 298 25 13943 51.07 54.22 138.48
4 PBH May 106 9 4537 46.77 52.23 133.40
5 G Boycott 193 23 8114 47.73 49.72 127.00
6 MC Cowdrey 188 15 7624 44.07 47.04 120.15
7 DI Gower 204 18 8231 44.25 46.57 118.96
8 KP Pietersen 181 8 8181 47.29 45.84 117.08
9 GA Gooch 215 6 8900 42.58 45.47 116.14
10 AN Cook 291 16 12472 45.35 44.97 114.88

Against Top Teams

RANK BATSMAN INNS NO RUNS AVE R AVE RAT
TS GS Sobers 124 16 6474 59.94 66.47 240.00
1 HC Brook 43 1 2361 56.21 63.84 230.51
2 PBH May 61 5 2682 47.89 57.19 206.51
3 JE Root 213 19 9590 49.43 54.51 196.82
4 KF Barrington 69 6 2987 47.41 52.41 189.23
5 G Boycott 137 17 5499 45.83 48.89 176.51
6 KP Pietersen 119 5 5178 45.42 46.06 166.32
7 AN Cook 183 6 7551 42.66 44.36 160.17
8 DI Gower 156 12 5638 39.15 42.63 153.91
9 GA Gooch 172 4 6416 38.19 42.25 152.56
10 MC Cowdrey 107 6 3769 37.32 42.04 151.78

ATTACKING

R SR

Relative Strike Rate (R SR) is calculated using the same method as R Ave with average being replaced with SR. Batsman who were active in earlier times benefit from this as SR was generally low earlier.

R4BF

Balls played by batsmen for many inns is not available for earlier times. When such is the case, we have used Runs For Balls Faced (R4BF) to determine the Strike Rate. This is the runs scored by the batsman for the available data of balls.

Criteria: Points For R SR

Min Qualification For TS
Min Runs 2000
Min Runs (TT) 1600
Min Average 25

Against All Teams

RANK BATSMAN R4BF BF SR R SR RAT
TS N Kapil Dev 4481 5580 80.30 90.81 40.00
1 HC Brook 3178 3660 86.83 79.08 34.83
2 KP Pietersen 8181 13254 61.72 59.75 26.32
3 DI Gower 8231 16266 50.60 56.61 24.94
4 GA Gooch 8900 18061 49.28 56.16 24.74
5 JE Root 13943 24242 57.52 55.24 24.33
6 KF Barrington 2359 5485 43.01 53.43 23.53
7 PBH May 1709 4555 37.52 51.35 22.62
8 MC Cowdrey 2861 7942 36.02 46.56 20.51
9 AN Cook 12472 26562 46.95 45.00 19.82
10 G Boycott 7521 21193 35.49 43.13 19.00

Against Top Teams

RANK BATSMAN R4BF BF SR R SR RAT
TS N Kapil Dev 3559 4345 81.91 93.76 60.00
1 HC Brook 2361 2689 87.80 81.53 52.18
2 KP Pietersen 5178 8485 61.03 60.00 38.40
3 DI Gower 5638 11532 48.89 55.03 35.22
4 JE Root 9590 17072 56.17 54.53 34.90
5 GA Gooch 6416 13544 47.37 54.52 34.89
6 KF Barrington 1594 3709 42.98 54.17 34.67
7 PBH May 1294 3406 37.99 52.30 33.47
8 MC Cowdrey 2567 7155 35.88 46.70 29.88
9 AN Cook 7551 16806 44.93 43.65 27.93
10 G Boycott 5107 14405 35.45 43.04 27.54

BIG INNINGS POTENTIAL

Ave HS

In this criteria, we have taken the top 7 scores of the batsman. Average High Score (Ave HS) is simply the total runs in the 7 innings divided by 7.

Criteria: Points For Runs Scored In The Top 7 Inns

Against All Teams

RANK BATSMAN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 AVE HS RAT
TS BC Lara 400* 375 277 226 221 216 213 275.43 80.00
1 AN Cook 294 263 244* 243 235* 190 189 236.86 68.80
2 JE Root 262 254 228 226 218 200* 190 225.43 65.48
3 GA Gooch 333 210 196 183 174 154* 154 200.57 58.26
4 KP Pietersen 227 226 202* 186 175 158 158 190.29 55.27
5 DI Gower 215 200* 173* 166 157* 157 154* 174.57 50.71
6 HC Brook 317 186 171 158 153 123 111 174.14 50.58
7 KF Barrington 256 172 163 151* 148* 148 143 168.71 49.00
8 G Boycott 246* 191 155 142* 137 131 128* 161.43 46.89
9 MC Cowdrey 182 160 159 155 154 152 151 159.00 46.18
10 PBH May 285* 138 135 124* 117 113* 113 146.43 42.53

Against Top Teams

RANK BATSMAN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 AVE HS RAT
TS DPMD Jayawardena 374 275 242 240 237 213* 195 253.71 170.00
1 AN Cook 294 263 244* 235* 190 189 176 227.29 152.29
2 JE Root 226 218 190 180* 180 176 160 190.00 127.31
3 KP Pietersen 227 202* 186 175 158 158 152 179.71 120.42
4 GA Gooch 183 154* 154 153 146 135 133 151.14 101.27
5 HC Brook 186 171 158 153 123 111 111 144.71 96.97
6 DI Gower 173* 154* 152 136 131 123 114 140.43 94.09
7 G Boycott 191 142* 137 128* 128 119* 116 137.29 91.99
8 KF Barrington 256 143 132* 115 102 101 94 134.71 90.26
9 PBH May 135 117 113 112 104 101 97 111.29 74.57
10 MC Cowdrey 148 113 105 104 104 102 101 111.00 74.38

PRIMARY RATING

The total of the above four criteria comes out to be 1,000.00 points. The Primary Rating is the addition of the points a batsman scored in the four criteria. The Weightage of the Rating is 40 percent.

RANK BATSMAN PRO CON BIP ATT RAT PRI PTS
1 JE Root 240.00 335.30 192.79 59.23 827.31 330.93
2 AN Cook 195.84 275.04 221.09 47.75 739.73 295.89
3 KF Barrington 192.92 343.55 139.27 58.20 733.94 293.58
4 G Boycott 230.00 303.52 138.88 46.54 718.93 287.57
5 GA Gooch 191.16 268.70 159.53 59.63 679.02 271.61
6 HC Brook 54.70 382.45 147.55 87.01 671.70 268.68
7 MC Cowdrey 216.11 271.93 120.56 50.39 658.99 263.60
8 DI Gower 176.79 272.87 144.80 60.15 654.61 261.84
9 KP Pietersen 128.46 283.40 175.69 64.72 652.27 260.91
10 PBH May 128.61 339.91 117.10 56.09 641.70 256.68

CONDITIONS CRITERIA

The Conditions

The Conditions Ratings are calculated by applying the four criteria of the Primary Rating to diffirent conditions. If Innings are less than the Qualification than the Player gets 50% of the Points. Click on the Rating Titles to see how they were calculated.

The four conditions criteria and thier weightage is as follows:-

CRITERIA POINTS
Home 30.00
Away 120.00
Familiar Conditions 30.00
Unfamiliar Conditions 120.00

HOME/AWAY

HM/AW RATING

Points to note:-

  • U.A.E. is considered as a second Home for Pakistan and Afghanistan.
  • All Home and Away stats of Pakistani and Afghani batsmen are calculated accordingly.

At Home

Min Innings Vs Top Teams: 15

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 JE Root 147 7329 55.52 59.58 809.64 24.29
2 GA Gooch 131 5917 46.23 51.56 722.22 21.67
3 G Boycott 100 4356 48.40 37.99 693.38 20.80
4 KP Pietersen 89 4537 52.76 66.19 680.19 20.41
5 PBH May 57 2865 57.30 35.97 669.56 20.09
6 AN Cook 155 6568 44.38 48.03 657.09 19.71
7 KF Barrington 73 3347 50.71 42.36 638.55 19.16
8 MC Cowdrey 88 3537 43.13 36.51 587.92 17.64
9 DI Gower 113 4454 42.83 51.94 573.27 17.20
10 HC Brook 31 1300 43.33 79.41 499.20 14.98

Away From Home

Min Innings Vs Top Teams: 15

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 JE Root 151 6614 46.91 55.39 780.96 93.71
2 HC Brook 29 1878 67.07 92.83 735.30 88.24
3 KF Barrington 58 3459 69.18 45.15 722.34 86.68
4 AN Cook 136 5904 46.49 45.81 717.15 86.06
5 DI Gower 91 3777 46.06 49.11 643.94 77.27
6 G Boycott 93 3758 46.98 32.86 627.30 75.28
7 MC Cowdrey 100 4087 44.91 35.76 623.87 74.86
8 KP Pietersen 92 3644 41.89 56.95 568.96 68.27
9 GA Gooch 84 2983 36.83 45.29 538.55 64.63
10 PBH May 49 1672 35.57 39.32 512.16 61.46

FAMILIAR/UNFAMILIAR CONDITIONS

FC/UC RATING

Points to note:-

  • Unfamiliar Conditions (UC) is Outside Asia for Asians and In Asia for Non Asians.
  • Familiar Conditions (FC) are the opposite.

Familiar Conditions Rating

Non Asians Outside Asia

Min Innings Vs Top Teams: 20

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 JE Root 238 11154 51.64 57.53 840.98 25.23
2 AN Cook 236 9762 43.58 47.60 726.66 21.80
3 KF Barrington 118 5903 55.69 43.01 725.16 21.75
4 G Boycott 178 7408 46.89 35.73 722.57 21.68
5 GA Gooch 191 8031 42.95 49.36 694.99 20.85
6 KP Pietersen 139 6608 49.31 61.49 693.49 20.80
7 MC Cowdrey 180 7182 43.27 36.02 672.96 20.19
8 PBH May 106 4537 46.77 37.52 662.60 19.88
9 DI Gower 180 7093 42.73 51.66 639.39 19.18
10 HC Brook 50 2337 48.69 84.89 628.61 18.86

Unfamiliar Conditions Rating

Non Asians In Asia

Min Innings Vs All Teams: 10

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 JE Root 60 2789 48.93 57.46 851.06 102.13
2 AN Cook 55 2710 53.14 44.77 808.75 97.05
3 KF Barrington 13 903 90.30 NK 709.94 85.19
4 HC Brook 10 841 84.10 92.72 709.94 85.19
5 DI Gower 24 1138 56.90 44.86 612.50 73.50
6 KP Pietersen 42 1573 40.33 62.72 585.18 70.22
7 PBH May 0 0 NA NA 500.00 60.00
7 MC Cowdrey 8 442 63.14 NK 500.00 60.00
9 G Boycott 15 706 58.83 33.30 491.24 58.95
10 GA Gooch 24 869 39.50 48.55 476.71 57.21

CONDITIONS RATING

The Conditions Rating is the addition of the points a batsman scored in the four criteria. The Weightage of the Rating is 30%.

RANK BATSMAN AWAY HOME UC FC CON PTS
1 JE Root 93.71 24.29 102.13 25.23 245.36
2 AN Cook 86.06 19.71 97.05 21.80 224.62
3 KF Barrington 86.68 19.16 85.19 21.75 212.79
4 HC Brook 88.24 14.98 85.19 18.86 207.26
5 DI Gower 77.27 17.20 73.50 19.18 187.15
6 KP Pietersen 68.27 20.41 70.22 20.80 179.71
7 G Boycott 75.28 20.80 58.95 21.68 176.70
8 MC Cowdrey 74.86 17.64 60.00 20.19 172.69
9 GA Gooch 64.63 21.67 57.21 20.85 164.35
10 PBH May 61.46 20.09 60.00 19.88 161.42

SECONDARY CRITERIA

Secondary Rating

It consists of three parts. If Innings are less than the Qualification than the Player gets 50% of the Points. Click on the Rating Titles to see how they were calculated.

The three secondary criteria and thier weightage is as follows:-

CRITERIA POINTS
Low Scoring Inns 50.00
Top Form 100.00
Impact Innings 150.00

LOW SCORING INNS

LSI RATING

Low Scoring Inns (LSI) are those inns in which batting average is less than 30.

Min Innings Vs All Teams: 15

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 GA Gooch 116 3426 30.05 45.40 896.98 44.85
2 MC Cowdrey 96 2830 30.76 34.25 825.42 41.27
3 DI Gower 116 3320 30.46 48.47 814.93 40.75
4 JE Root 145 3800 27.34 50.30 778.67 38.93
5 PBH May 58 1906 34.04 38.72 772.94 38.65
6 G Boycott 89 2379 29.01 33.80 734.90 36.75
7 KF Barrington 57 1731 32.66 43.05 690.21 34.51
8 KP Pietersen 73 1920 26.67 54.27 639.70 31.99
9 AN Cook 120 2893 24.52 42.95 622.10 31.11
10 HC Brook 25 753 31.38 82.03 598.46 29.92

TOP FORM

TF RATING

Points to note about Top Form Rating:-

  • TF is calculated by taking the best 50 consecutive innings of a batsman.
  • The inns are taken such that his points are maximum.
  • Only innings against Top Teams are considered.

Min Innings Vs Top Teams: 20

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 AN Cook 50 2681 57.04 46.67 737.66 73.77
2 JE Root 50 2562 55.70 56.39 714.02 71.40
3 HC Brook 43 2361 56.21 87.80 705.88 70.59
4 KP Pietersen 50 2510 52.29 65.03 701.00 70.10
5 G Boycott 50 2530 61.71 36.28 667.09 66.71
6 KF Barrington 50 2455 53.37 44.35 655.27 65.53
7 GA Gooch 50 2477 50.55 48.61 643.28 64.33
8 PBH May 50 2386 51.87 38.02 626.66 62.67
9 MC Cowdrey 50 2151 47.80 39.86 575.28 57.53
10 DI Gower 50 2010 43.70 49.78 563.59 56.36

IMPACT INNS

II RATING

Impact Inns are those innings which have an impact in terms of runs or strike rate. Know All About II. Points to note about II:-

  • A Batsman should score at least 30 runs to qualify.
  • An Inn is included in II if it is 15 percent of the total runs or
  • The SR is high or in a successful chase while being Not Out.

Min Innings Vs Top Teams: 30

RANK BATSMAN DIS II II/Dis% RAT WTG
1 KF Barrington 116 61 52.59 882.74 132.41
2 JE Root 273 115 42.12 806.64 121.00
3 G Boycott 170 66 38.82 757.09 113.56
4 DI Gower 186 73 39.25 720.58 108.09
5 PBH May 97 41 42.27 713.26 106.99
6 MC Cowdrey 173 65 37.57 702.57 105.38
7 GA Gooch 209 75 35.89 666.58 99.99
8 HC Brook 58 25 43.10 659.67 98.95
9 AN Cook 275 95 34.55 639.71 95.96
10 KP Pietersen 173 62 35.84 585.98 87.90

SECONDARY RATING

Secondary Rating is the addition of the points a batsman scored in the three criteria. The Weightage of the Rating is 30%.

RANK BATSMAN LSI TF II SEC RAT
1 KF Barrington 34.51 65.53 132.41 232.45
2 JE Root 38.93 71.40 121.00 231.33
3 G Boycott 36.75 66.71 113.56 217.02
4 GA Gooch 44.85 64.33 99.99 209.16
5 PBH May 38.65 62.67 106.99 208.30
6 DI Gower 40.75 56.36 108.09 205.19
7 MC Cowdrey 41.27 57.53 105.38 204.18
8 AN Cook 31.11 73.77 95.96 200.83
9 HC Brook 29.92 70.59 98.95 199.46
10 KP Pietersen 31.99 70.10 87.90 189.98

OVERALL RATING

The OVERALL Rating is the addition of the points of all the above criteria. The rating is out of 1,000 Pts.

RANK OV RANK BATSMAN NAT PRI RAT CON RAT SEC RAT FIN RAT
1 6 JE Root ENG 330.93 245.36 231.33 807.62
2 13 KF Barrington ENG 293.58 212.79 232.45 738.81
3 18 AN Cook ENG 295.89 224.62 200.83 721.34
4 25 G Boycott ENG 287.57 176.70 217.02 681.29
5 28 HC Brook ENG 268.68 207.26 199.46 675.41
6 33 DI Gower ENG 261.84 187.15 205.19 654.19
7 37 GA Gooch ENG 271.61 164.35 209.16 645.12
8 38 MC Cowdrey ENG 263.60 172.69 204.18 640.47
9 44 KP Pietersen ENG 260.91 179.71 189.98 630.60
10 46 PBH May ENG 256.68 161.42 208.30 626.41

BRIEF EXPLANATION

Dynamic Nature

Most of our ratings are dynamic, and as new matches are played, the rating of earlier batsmen may change if current batsmen set new benchmarks.

Trend Setter (TS)

  1. TS is the player who does the best in a criteria.
  2. The rating of all other players are calculated taking the TS as the benchmark. Example:-
  3. TS Runs: 2,000; Player X Runs: 1,000; Section Points: 250.00
  4. TS Points: 250.00 (Max)
  5. Player X Points: Runs/TS Runs X 250 = 1,000/2,000 X 250 = 125.00.
  6. Ratings of all sections are calculated similarly with Runs being replaced by the Criteria Stat.
  7. Know All About the Trend Setter
    8. .

Top Teams (TT)

  1. An opposition is counted as a TT considering its Win/Loss (WL) Ratios in last 7 years.
  2. Home, Away, In Asia, Outside Asia and Overall WL Ratio is considered.
  3. The WL Ratio should be more than a certain value overall or in specific condition.

Abbreviations

  1. AVE - Average or Runs/(Inns - Not Out)
  2. BF - Balls Faced
  3. FP - First Played by Year
  4. INF - Infinite
  5. LP - Last Played by Year
  6. MP - Middle Played or (FP+LP)/2
  7. NA - Not Applicable
  8. NI - Not In Top
  9. NK - Not Known
  10. NO, * - Not Out
  11. NQ - Not Qualified
  12. OPP - Opposition
  13. R4BF - Runs for available data of balls
  14. SR - Strike Rate or Runs/Balls
  15. TS - Trend Setter
  16. TT - Top Teams

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