In numbers: Trend shows that on average Test scores are coming down | Cricket News – Times of India

In the history of Test cricket we have seen various kinds of scores posted in the first innings of a match by both teams. The size of the scores depends largely on the conditions, the pitch, the quality of teams, how strong or fragile the batting order and bowling attack of the teams are etc.
One trend that has emerged is that Test scores overall seem to be going down in the first innings.
Of late, one characteristic that seems to be a common one across most major teams is the fragility of the batting and the strengthening of the bowling and especially the fast bowling attacks.
Most major teams like India, Australia, England, New Zealand and Pakistan have very good fast bowlers in their ranks, while the batting, at least on paper, is not really the strongest, as a collective unit.
Are the days of constant 400, 500 plus scores now history then?
Let’s take a look at some numbers, taking 400 plus totals as the benchmark.
From 1990 to 2000, there were a total of 190 instances of both teams scoring 400 plus totals in the first innings of a Test match. That figure went up to 337 in the next decade, from 2001 to 2010.
However, from 2011 to 2021 that figure, of both teams posting 400 plus totals in the first innings of a Test match went down to 258.

(Stats Courtesy: Rajesh Kumar)
This makes for interesting reading, especially because the popular belief is that pitches across the world have become flatter than what they used to be. Bat quality has improved, boundaries are shorter etc.
Of course where the Test match is being played is also of supreme importance. In South Africa for instance a target of 200-250 is also sometimes not an easy one to achieve in the fourth innings of a match.
At the Wanderers for example, the four highest successful run chases have been:
2011: 310/8 by Australia vs SA
2006: 294/8 by Australia vs SA
2006: 220/6 by SA v NZ
1999: 164/6 by SA v West Indies
A tussle between a good batting side in their own home conditions against a bowling attack that is not managing to be too incisive often means that the home team can pile up the runs and the opposition will not manage to replicate that.
Let’s take the ongoing Ashes series as an example.
In the three completed Tests so far, Australia scored 400 plus in two of their first innings (425 in Brisbane and 473-9 declared in Adelaide). England though in response did not manage to put up a single 400 plus score in any of their first innings. Their highest score in fact was 236 (Adelaide Test, first innings).
Overall, there seem to be more instances of teams struggling to put up big scores in their first innings on an average.
These numbers will further reflect that.
From 1990 to 2000, the number of below 200 first innings scores by both teams stood at 138 instances.
In the next decade, from 2001 to 2010, that number went up to 154.
And from 2011 to 2021, the instances of both teams scoring less than 200 in the first innings of a Test match went up further to 161.

(Stats Courtesy: Rajesh Kumar)
Traditionally, the subcontinent and the Caribbean have been where mammoth first innings scores have been posted. Out of the top 10 highest innings totals in the history of Test cricket, as many as 9 were scored either in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan or the Caribbean. The highest Test innings of all time, so far, has been a mammoth 952-6 declared by Sri Lanka in their first innings (second innings of the match) of the Colombo Test vs India in 1997.
The 61st highest innings total in Test cricket history is 650-6 declared by Australia against the West Indies in Bridgetown in 1965.
From 2010 to now, on this list of 61 of the highest Test innings totals of all time, there have been only 12 instances of scores that have been in excess of Australia’s 650-6 declared in 1965.