India far ahead of the rest

Have you ever felt out of your depth on a cricket field because the opposition was overwhelmingly superior in terms of runs under their belts, wickets in the kitty and sheer number of matches played? Several of the teams currently in the Caribbean will feel like that too. This week's List compares the cumulative runs, wickets and averages of each of the World Cup squads.

India's World Cup squad may have some deficiencies but lack of experience is certainly not one of them. There are five countries in the World Cup for which, if you add up all the ODIs played by their squad members, the cumulative figure is still less than the number of games under Sachin Tendulkar's belt. Tendulkar, Dravid and Sourav Ganguly add up to 35297 runs and the trio would rank just above Australia in our table.

England will be high on confidence after their tri-series win at the end of a long Australian summer but their World Cup squad is full of fledglings. All their batsmen put together have 13737 runs between them, well short of Tendulkar's one-day tally. Their players have played fewer matches and their bowlers have taken fewer wickets than the Bangladesh squad.

Aggregate Runs for each World Cup Squad

Team	Mat	Inns	Runs	HS	100	50	Ct	St
India	2225	1768	51279	186*	91	291	815	27
Sri Lanka	2217	1750	42581	189	57	234	785	49
Pakistan	1654	1439	37625	144	37	225	536	9
Australia	1511	1138	34655	181*	52	199	827	50
West Indies	1190	1022	30485	169	45	177	409	2
South Africa	1591	1138	29650	175	38	161	810	18
New Zealand	1348	1071	23537	172	19	119	536	10
England	622	531	13737	152	13	82	221	1
Bangladesh	717	617	11782	134*	7	64	151	5
Kenya	554	482	9308	113	3	47	192	5
Zimbabwe	490	418	7006	116	1	37	161	11
Canada	282	239	4308	137*	3	18	90	7
Scotland	178	161	3146	123*	2	17	55	6
Bermuda	185	161	3056	101	1	10	74	4
Netherlands	196	165	2982	109*	2	11	76	3
Ireland	87	72	2010	142	5	9	31	2

While Pakistan's batsmen have the third highest aggregate of runs after India and Sri Lanka, their bowlers are far less experienced in comparison. Injuries to Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif and Abdul Razzaq have severely depleted their arsenal. Mohammad Sami, who's been in and out of the team, is their most experienced frontline bowler with 111 wickets from 79 matches.

Aggregate Wickets for each World Cup Squad

Team	Mat	Overs	Runs	Wkts	BBI	4	5
India	2225	10012.0	47603	1479	6/12	36	13
Sri Lanka	2217	9598.0	42510	1439	8/19	34	17
South Africa	1591	7097.3	30954	1144	6/22	27	12
Australia	1511	5227.1	23328	843	7/15	20	12
New Zealand	1348	5113.1	23753	758	6/19	19	9
Pakistan	1654	5332.1	25220	733	6/18	13	8
West Indies	1190	3724.5	17517	526	5/45	10	3
Bangladesh	717	2976.3	13578	416	6/26	10	4
England	622	2406.4	11647	375	6/31	15	1
Kenya	554	2247.2	10736	316	5/24	7	2
Zimbabwe	490	2139.3	10401	269	4/22	5	0
Canada	282	1419.0	6418	220	5/27	6	2
Netherlands	196	725.3	3906	124	4/31	4	0
Scotland	178	784.0	4012	116	4/29	2	0
Bermuda	185	655.3	3195	90	5/53	2	1
Ireland	87	355.1	1946	51	4/36	2	0

Who has the heaviest top order? Which team has the most spirited tail? We've looked at stats of batsmen who've played a majority of their innings in the top seven since 2006. Australia - with a little help from Michael Hussey's improbable average - outstrip heavyweights India comfortably. India and Australia both possess four top-order batsmen who've averaged over 40 over their career - the most for any team. Ireland also have four batsman averaging over 40 in ODIs, but having played only eight ODIs, they fall short of our qualifications.

Pakistan and New Zealand have serious top-order concerns. New Zealand have allayed some of those fears through strong batting performances in the Chappell-Hadlee series against Australia but Pakistan were battered and bruised during their recent tour of South Africa. They've tried nine opening combinations in their last 20 games, Inzamam-ul-Haq has batted very low in the order to stem the rot but so far their plans have come unstuck.

Best top orders for each World Cup Squad by career averages (qualification: 10 career innings, 50% of inns in top 7 since 2006)

Team	No. of batsmen	Sum of averages	Sum/No.	Highest avg	No. of 40+ avgs
Australia	9	357.68	39.74	66.88	4
India	7	263.61	37.65	46.61	4
South Africa	7	250.19	35.74	44.37	1
West Indies	7	230.94	32.99	44.33	2
Sri Lanka	9	285.41	31.71	37.57	0
England	9	282.25	31.36	56.50	1
Bangladesh	7	215.56	30.79	55.25	2
Pakistan	8	237.36	29.67	41.77	1
New Zealand	8	237.12	29.64	39.93	0
Scotland	7	195.13	27.87	39.60	0
Netherlands	5	131.43	26.28	55.12	1
Canada	8	207.64	25.95	34.79	0
Bermuda	8	201.76	25.22	40.50	1
Zimbabwe	7	171.76	24.53	28.03	0
Kenya	8	183.76	22.97	33.04	0

Pakistan, however, statistically have the best lower order in the tournament. That's largely due to Rao Iftikhar Anjum's quirky average of 44.50 after remaining unbeaten 13 times out of 15 at number 10 or 11. South Africa have two of the most effective lower-order batsmen of the tournament in Shaun Pollock and Andrew Hall. Pollock averages nearly 30 since 2006, batting predominantly in positions seven, eight and nine. Hall has scored a fifty at No 9 and averages over 23.

Best tails for each World Cup Squad by career averages (qualification: 10 career innings, less than 50% of inns in top 7 since 2006)

Team	No. of tailenders	Sum of averages	Sum/No.	Highest avg	No. of 20+ avgs
Pakistan	4	87.64	21.91	44.50	1
Scotland	2	32.09	16.04	18.00	0
West Indies	3	44.45	14.81	27.46	1
Bangladesh	4	57.83	14.45	16.35	0
South Africa	6	84.46	14.07	24.94	2
Netherlands	2	27.90	13.95	18.60	0
Kenya	3	40.74	13.58	15.77	0
England	3	40.09	13.36	23.45	1
Australia	3	39.83	13.27	20.00	1
New Zealand	4	52.26	13.06	15.23	0
India	4	52.18	13.04	15.30	0
Canada	4	51.82	12.95	19.00	0
Sri Lanka	6	58.34	9.72	14.00	0
Zimbabwe	6	46.16	7.69	13.54	0