Batters are players in a cricket team who are tasked with scoring the bulk of the runs for their team to ensure a comfortable win. A team usually has six to seven players with a higher batting skill.
A batter’s average in cricket is a statistic that is calculated by dividing the total number of runs that a batter has scored divided by the number of innings he got out in. For example, if a batter has scored 500 runs in 40 innings, and was dismissed in all the matches, then the batter averages 12.5. But if the batter remained not out in 10 of those matches, then the denominator becomes 30, and the eventual batting average rises to 16.7.
Tail-enders are players whose batting order begins from number six or seven. These are not specialist batters and in majority of the cases their turn arrives when the innings nears its end. As a result, they do not score as many runs. Additionally, these batters often remain not out despite having not contributed to many runs in the total. This leads to an inflated number for the tail-enders. For example, if a player has scored only 100 runs in 15 matches, but was not dismissed in 10 of these matches, then he will get an average of 20.
Australia’s legendary batter Don Bradman had a career average of 99.94 in test cricket. In One Day Internationals, this record belongs to Netherland’s Ryan ten Doeschate who averages 67 in the format for a player who has batted in at least 20 innings. Denise Annetts has recorded the highest batting average in test cricket (81.90) in women’s cricket based on the 13 innings she batted in. In One Day International, Rachael Heyhoe-Flint’s tally of 58.45 is the highest among women.
