Which current Test batsmen have the best defences?

The defensive shot is clearly redundant in T20 cricket, and not that useful in the 50-over format either, but it remains arguably the most important stroke in Test cricket. Over the last six years in this format, batsmen have attempted a defensive response - which is either a defensive shot or leaving the ball alone - to 55.2% of the total deliveries bowled. While the shot is unglamorous and usually doesn't fetch runs, it ensures that the batsman survives long enough to utilise the attacking options in his arsenal. Without a reasonably sound defence, getting huge scores consistently in Test cricket is virtually impossible.

So who are the best exponents of defence in Test cricket today? We'll attempt to answer that question through numbers. First, the ground rules:

The term defence tends to bring to mind a certain genre of batsmen: the Test specialist who bats long periods and is more intent on survival than run-scoring. However, at this stage we need to make a distinction between a defensive batsman and a batsman with a sound defence. The first is one whose game is based around defence, like Kraigg Brathwaite, Cheteshwar Pujara, or Azhar Ali. They are a relatively rare breed today, with strike rates of less than 50. Since their games are based around defence, it is to be expected that their defensive skills are pretty good.

However, it is easy to fall for the notion that the defensive abilities of these batsmen are necessarily better than those of more attacking batsmen. Sachin Tendulkar, for example, had textbook defensive technique, but he wasn't a defensive batsman; neither is Virat Kohli or Steven Smith - they have an aggressive mindset but can still defend extremely well when required. Looking at the defensive abilities of batsmen purely through numbers removes this subjective bias of assuming that defensive batsmen necessarily have the better defensive technique.

The overall defence data
Given that the purpose of a defensive shot is to preserve your wicket, the balls per dismissal when attempting to defend is a good indicator of a batsman's quality of defence. Applying that parameter to all batsmen who played at least 1500 defensive shots - 52 batsmen make this cut - in all Tests from April 1, 2014, a familiar name emerges on top: Steven Smith. He has been dismissed only 28 times from the 5407 deliveries he has attempted to defend. That gives him a rate of 193.1 deliveries per dismissal when attempting a defensive shot.

Not only is Smith on top, he is also a considerable distance - 15.3% - ahead of the next best, Tom Latham, who has a balls-per-dismissal number of 167.4. In fact, there are two New Zealand batsmen in the top five, but neither answers to the name Kane Williamson; the second one is BJ Watling, easily one of the most underrated players going around today. Watling has a Test average of 40.09 in this period and has one of the most secure defensive techniques, with a balls-per-dismissal rate of 150.7 when defending.

The top five also have an interesting mix of batting styles. Kohli, who is at No. 5, has a strike rate of 60.4, which is third among the 20 batsmen with 3000-plus Test runs during this period. Watling's strike rate, on the other hand, is 42, the second-lowest among the 59 batsmen who have faced 2500-plus balls in these six years. Smith and Younis Khan too have strike rates of over 50, while Azhar Ali's is 43.4. If we take 50 to be the strike-rate point that separates the defensive batsmen from the others, the top six has three of each.

The percentage of deliveries defended by these batsmen hovers in a narrower range: from 48.9% for Kohli to 59.3 for Latham. Given that the overall percentage of balls played defensively is 55.2, these batsmen are about five percentage points from that mean.

Let us also look at some of the other batsmen and see how they fare in terms of balls per dismissal. The numbers here range from 127.9 balls per dismissal for the seventh-ranked Misbah-ul-Haq, to 69.2 for the 48th-ranked KL Rahul. (Remember, this is out 52 batsmen who have defended at least 1500 balls.) The South African trio of AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla and Dean Elgar follows Misbah, with Babar Azam in 14th place. Among the big four, Joe Root is in 18th place and Williamson in 21st. The last two places in this list of 52 are taken by Shai Hope (balls per dismissal 53.5), and Quinton de Kock (59.6).

The strike rates for this group ranges from 72.6 for the 38th-ranked David Warner to 42.1 for Brathwaite, who is ranked just three places above Warner. The percentage of deliveries defended by Warner is just 47.9, which is extremely low, especially for an opener, but his batting average of 50.28 during this period clearly shows that his approach is the right one, given his strengths and his technique.

Pujara's defensive lapses
Pujara, another Test-match specialist, only ranks 27th in this list, with a balls-per-dismissal figure of 97.9, which is marginally ahead of Rohit Sharma's 97.8. Pujara's preferred method of batting is to wear bowlers down, but he also gets out while in defence mode: he has been out defending 58 times, the most among these 52 batsmen. Given that he has been dismissed by bowlers 86 times in all during this period, this means two-thirds of his dismissals have come when he is trying to defend.

In contrast, only 32% of Kohli's dismissals have come when defending, while the corresponding figure for Smith is 35%. That means most of their dismissals happen when they are looking to play aggressive strokes and searching for run-scoring opportunities.

Among the more defensive batsmen, only a third of Latham's dismissals have come when defending, while it's 37% for Watling and 49% for Cook. Shai Hope is the only batsman who gets out more often defending than Pujara: 38 of his 55 dismissals have come about in this manner, while Brathwaite comes close with 60%. It is true that Pujara often comes out to bat early in the innings when the ball is new and the bowlers fresh, but even so, it is unusual for a top-order batsman to get out defending in such a high percentage of his innings.

Control factor
While balls per dismissal when defending is a good indicator of a batsman's defence, another number that indicates the quality of defence is his control factor. The graphic below lists the batsmen with the highest control percentage when playing a defensive shot. The top four from the first list appear in this table too, though not in the same order. Watling tops this one with an exceptional control percentage of 91.5, followed by Williamson with 91%. Latham's presence in the top five in both tables is particularly impressive given that he opens the batting and faces the new ball every time. It speaks volumes for his defensive technique.

Williamson moves from 21st position in the first list to second in terms of control, and that is because of his relatively high dismissal rate when he plays a false shot, a factor explored in more detail here. He gets out once every 9.6 false shots while defending compared to 12.7 for Watling, 15.5 for Latham, 16.2 for Kohli and 17.6 for Smith. Kohli, who was fifth in the previous table, moves down to No. 17 here with a control percentage of 88.7, while Darren Bravo is a surprise entrant in the top six at 90.7. However, it needs to be emphasised that the difference in control numbers for these top players is minimal - there are ten batsmen whose percentages are between 90 and 91.

Best defenders v pace
Those were the overall numbers, but let's now break that down and look at the best defenders against pace and spin, in conditions where these bowlers have traditionally been at their best. For fast bowlers, that is in the SENA countries - South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia. For spin, it is in Asia.

Against fast bowlers in SENA, the top name in terms of balls per dismissal is, yet again, Smith (with a cut-off of 1000 balls played defensively). He has faced, on average, nearly 240 balls before getting out when defending. That is a whopping 63 balls more than the next-best, his Aussie mate Marnus Labuschagne. England's fast bowlers will agree wholeheartedly with these numbers, given that they were at the receiving end of the defensive (and attacking) abilities of these two batsmen all of last summer. Further down the list are Root (114.4), Pujara (98.9) and Williamson (91.4).

In terms of control percentage too, Smith is on top, though the gap between him and the next-best, Watling, is insignificant. Joe Burns is a surprise entry in the top five, while Kohli (86.1) and Pujara (85.5) are relatively low in terms of control. In fact, Asians don't fare well on this parameter: Azhar Ali is the only one in the top ten, with a control factor of 89.4%.

Best defenders v spin
When it comes to defending against spin in Asia, Kohli distances himself from the pack: his balls per dismissal is an incredible 318.6, which is way better than anyone else. Though it is true that he has the luxury of not having to face R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in spin-friendly conditions, that is still a stunning record. Also, the other Indian batsmen have good but not outstanding numbers in the same conditions: the balls per dismissal for Ajinkya Rahane is 124.4, and for Pujara 105.1.

The trusted New Zealand duo of Latham and Watling are among the top here as well, though a slight concession had to be made to ensure Watling gets through: he has defended 496 balls against spin in Asia in this period, which is marginally below the logical cut-off mark of 500 balls. However, given his outstanding record - in Asia and overall - it seemed cruel to omit him from this list, so the cut-off is hence reduced 490 balls, which allows 36 batsmen in the list.

Smith falls from his lofty heights on this parameter: his balls per dismissal is only 81.3 and his rank 22nd, while Root's 67.4 puts him at No. 26. Williamson doesn't make the cut-off, having defended only 442 deliveries from spinners during this period, with a dismissal rate of 88.4.

The list of top batsmen by control percentage against spin when defending is completely dominated by Asian batsmen. They probably benefit from not having to face their own spinners in these conditions. Just as Asians have a relatively poor control percentage against pace in SENA, similarly non-Asians fare poorly against spin in Asia. There is only one batsman from a non-Asian team in the top 16: Amla, who is eighth with a control factor of 88.9%. And the next-highest among non-Asians is that man Watling again, at 87.5.