A cricket team that features in a match has eleven players. The names of the players are arranged in the batting order. This is the order in which the players come out to bat. Broadly, a batting order has four parts – the openers, the middle order, the all-rounders, and the tail-enders.
The first two batters who begin the innings are the openers. When a wicket falls, the middle order begins. These batters usually range from position three to position five. The fall of the fifth wicket pages the way for the all-rounders who are most often positioned at No.6 and No.7. Finally, the remaining batters comprise the tail of the batting order and are thus called the tail-enders.
Tail-enders are predominantly bowlers. They are sent low in the batting order particularly because of the less skill-set they possess in terms of batting. The fall of the sixth wicket is often regarded as the tail of the batting side being exposed. There isn’t much expectations from the tail-enders to score runs. They are tasked with surviving on the field to preserve wickets, or run between the wickets and rotate strike to put the player with a better batting ability to face majority of the deliveries.
Some tail-enders are known for batting recklessly, scoring at high strike rates. They don’t have the pressure of being out and rather focus on getting as many runs as possible in the time they are on the crease. These players are called pinch hitters.
In modern cricket, the advent of the T20 format has led to even bowlers hone their batting skills. This leads to an increased depth in batting, thus leading to a better scoring total.
The batting records of tail-enders are usually considered for the ones who batted at positions eight, nine, ten, and eleven. At the number eight position in test cricket, three players have recorded double centuries – Wasim Akram, Imtiaz Ahmed, and Jason Holder. At number nine, Ian Smith’s 173 is a record. England’s Walter Read struck 117 against Australia in 1884; a record that still holds for a number ten batter. In 2013, Ashton Agar missed out by two runs on what could have been the first ever century by a number eleven batter.
Ireland’s Simi Singh and Bangladesh’s Mehidy Miraz are the only players to record a century in the 50-over format while batting at the number eight position. The highest scores in one day international cricket by batters at number nine, ten, and eleven position are recorded by Andre Russell (92*), Ravi Rampaul (86*), and Mohammad Amir (58) respectively.
As of May 2025, in T20 International cricket, the tail-ender records for most runs at number eight, nine, ten, and eleven are held by players from the associate members of the International Cricket Council. Number eight highlights Belgium’s Saber Zakhil (100*) lead the chart, Austria’s Hamid Safi (58*) at number nine, Sierra Leone’s Lansana Lamin (52*) at number ten, and Malta’s Khalid Ahmadi (31*) at number eleven.
