New Zealand’s spearhead fast bowler Trent Boult is known for his exquisite swing and seam bowling in all formats of the game. Boult has many a time given his team an upper hand with wickets upfront, having the batters hoopin at his prodigious movement of the ball in the air and off the surface.
In regards to his batting, Trent Boult is a proper number 11: he has batted at number 11 in 75 of his 88 Test innings, and at number 10 in the rest 13. With the bat in his hand, batting in a comical way, he averages 15.64 in his Test career, though that average is also higher because he’s gone not out on 43 occasions. In short, Boult is not a batsman you’d want to rely on.
However, one stat that has emerged has left everyone astounded. A Twitter user, Michael Wagener, pointed out that Boult’s Test batting average in this decade so far (2020-now) is higher than many big-name batters such as Virat Kohli, Ross Taylor, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Aidan Markram, etc. This is staggering.
Trent Boult has batted in 8 innings since that start of 2020, scoring 89 runs and has been dismissed thrice, making his average a decent 29.66. His best in the last three years came against India when he scored 38 runs at Basin Reserve in 2020.
Now, legendary Kiwi batter Ross Taylor, who played his career’s last Test in January this year, averaged 29.10 since the start of 2020. Although, Taylor has scored more runs than Boult in this period, his average of 29.10 is slightly less than the fast bowler. He hasn’t struck any Test century too in this period, a sign of decline.
The Indian trio of Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, and Cheteshwar Pujara who also have been struggling for a Test ton – just one between them since 2020 – and consistency in the past three years, all three of them average less than Boult.
Here’s the tweet that has got netizens astonished:
This decade in test cricket, Trent Boult has averaged 29.66 with the bat.
Here are the averages of some other players this decade:
Ross Taylor – 29.10
Aidan Markram – 28.89
Virat Kohli – 28.03
Dawid Malan – 26.92
Mayank Agarwal – 26.78
Che Pujara – 26.29
Ajinka Rahane – 24.08— Michael Wagener (@Mykuhl) March 14, 2022
