No sensational claims today – just quantifying what you already know. Bowling pace across two Tests in quick succession makes a player tired and less effective.
I took all match performances this century, comparing data against the next game that player bowled in. Then cut the data by the number of days between games. For instance, in this England vs West Indies series, the first game started on 8th July, the second on the 16th July – eight days apart. Any gap of nine days or under between start dates, to me, is “back-to-back” (BTB).
What did I find? Pace bowlers in the second of a pair of back to back Tests average 7% more than in the first game.
With more number crunching we can get closer to understanding why this happens:
• Are there more long hops, driving up averages as bowlers leak runs? No – Economy rates don’t significantly rise.
• More fielding errors? No – there’s no effect on spinners – so it’s probably not fielding causing it.
• Pace bowlers must just be less potent when tired. Interestingly, at higher workloads the effect is bigger – pace bowlers bowling over 40 overs in each match of BTB Tests add 8% to their average in the 2nd Test.
Conclusion: this is significant – I’m adding it as an input to my Test match model. Front line pace bowlers add 3.5% to their average if a quick turnaround from the last Test. This rises to 4% if they bowled over 40 overs in the prior Test. Reduce expected average by 3.5% if this match isn’t BTB.
In case you’re wondering why it’s only 3.5%, and not the 7% I quoted earlier, during the first BTB Test, the bowler will be well rested, so 3.5% better than usual. The second Test they’ll expect to be 3.5% worse than usual, giving a 7% gap between performances.
PS. We finally have a mechanism for why home advantage gets bigger as a series goes on – hosts have a huge player pool to draw from, tourists are drained by practice matches.
PPS. This nugget of trivia will make you feel tired just reading it: 38 year old Courtney Walsh delivered a mammoth 128 overs across two BTB Tests in March 2001. It was six months after Ambrose retired, so Walsh was asked the impossible. West Indies lost the series 2-1. To his credit, he took 9-216 across the two games. Understandably, he almost immediately retired from Tests.
Implications for the July 2020 England vs West Indies series
While for most participants the sample size is too small, England’s veterans have kindly left a trail of data over the years: Anderson averages 25 in non BTB, 27 in the second Test of BTB. Broad averages 27 in non BTB, 29 in second Test of BTB (bear this in mind if Broad is picked for the third Test).
Notes:
• Third Test is back-to-back-to-back – WI will be out on their feet unless some of Raymon Reifer, Rahkeem Cornwall, Chemar Holder get rotated in. Expect Cornwall & one other.
• What the heck were West Indies thinking fielding first at Old Trafford? The betting markets thought it was a mistake at the time. If they’d planned to field first, why didn’t they bring a fresh bowler into the team?
Red Ball Data 