The Most Improved Test Player - Volume 3
Existing greats like Bumrah and Lyon who became GOATs? Average multipliers like Gill or Mulder? Or match factor demons like Santner and Matt Henry?
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Welcome to the third edition of Good Areas’ Most Improved Test Player Award. Something so important that we missed an entire year of it. We stole the idea from the NBA. But because Test cricket schedules work differently, we can’t do one-year cycles. Usually, it would be two. But the last time we did this was three years ago, so the timelines we have taken are: 02 June 2022 till the Zimbabwe-New Zealand Test, against 01 June 2020 to 01 June 2022 (which was the previous nomination period).
Last time we gave the trophy to Litton Das, while Temba Bavuma and Lahiru Thirimanne finished on the podium. The inaugural edition went to Babar Azam over Ishant Sharma and Jason Holder. So perhaps this award is cursed. Sorry, all.
We have rules, or guidelines (but definitely not laws) for this prestigious, made up subjective “award”. (There is no trophy.)
To win it, you must have improved to your best-ever Test cricket self. We are looking at players in career-best form, who in an earlier period weren’t as good.
Obviously, you need to have played enough games. So Mark Wood or Taskin Ahmed are terribly out of luck. Also, Sri Lanka’s Lahiru Kumara and Vishwa Fernando miss out. Vishwa finally took wickets both in Asia and away, but he missed far too many home games against stronger batting units. Lahiru was great in Bangladesh and good in England, but that wasn’t enough.
Generally, we are looking at the last three years, versus the two previous. That rules out players like Jayden Seales, Washington Sundar and Rachin Ravindra, who didn’t actually play a lot in the last cycle. But for some players we need to go back earlier, which is fine, because we are just looking for improvement. Matt Henry and Mitchell Santner hadn’t played much in the previous window, so we have gone back further and looked at their career numbers.
Jonny Bairstow had the ride of his life in the Bazball regime. But he was eventually dropped after the series in India. Maybe crucially for us, you can argue his 2016 was so good that this run wasn’t better. Kusal Mendis had a terrible period in the window before this, but his current performances have come mainly from batting at No.7 and at home. So he didn’t make it. Aiden Markram just hasn’t made runs when travelling. Even after the WTC final heroics, his overseas numbers are horrible.
The point being, you can be really good and have improved, and still not even get nominated.
Even players we’re obsessed with - like Najmul Hossain Shanto and Ollie Pope - missed out. Their numbers definitely go up, but it’s clear that big runs against Zimbabwe and Ireland help Pope massively, while Shanto’s record is inflated by two huge, beautiful, magnificent, wondrous Tests. Alas, in 60% of his games, he hasn’t even made 50 runs combined.
We also ended up with a weird category of fantastic players who did awesome things but didn’t quite get in. Mohammed Siraj, Travis Head, Alex Carey and KL Rahul. These players have undoubtedly had a bunch of memorable performances in recent times, but their overall career numbers haven’t quite had a tectonic shift the way they have for the players on our final list. Some of them were just unlucky with the timeline.
We turned to social media for nominations and got some really interesting candidates. Random Cricket Stats did some solid work, digging deeper than just the raw numbers.
Let’s make the rules as clear as we can:
This has to be clearly the best you have ever played. Which is why Bairstow misses out.
You had to have played a substantial amount of cricket before our three-year period. Sorry, Seales.
There needs to be a sizable shift in how they played - because this is about improvement, not just being good, Travis.
So with the ground rules set, let’s look at our eleven nominated names, before chopping down to three finalists, and just one sweet winner.
Welcome to the least prestigious award in Test cricket, the Good Areas’ Most Improved player.
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Dinesh Chandimal
Dinesh Chandimal isn’t your Gen-Z unhinged number five batter. Once upon a time, he helped draw a Test in India against R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. He wasn’t too bad from June 2020 to June 2022 either, averaging just above 40. But his match factor was barely over one, and that was after he had a good series in Bangladesh towards the end of that time. He averaged only 24 in four home Tests against England and West Indies. So it wasn’t great, but okay.
Since then, only Harry Brook and Rishabh Pant average more than him among batters at third-drop.
Part of the reason for his match factor of 1.34 is because he made runs when others didn’t. In the eight matches where the rest of the Sri Lankan top seven batters averaged 30 or less, he went at 45.
Chandimal has turbocharged his home record massively. He has only had one bad series: against Pakistan in 2023. He has crossed 50 every second knock, though his conversion rate is only 33.3%. His double ton against Australia in 2022 set up an innings victory. On the road, he averages under 35. But that’s because he didn’t make runs in Bangladesh. Outside Asia, he went at 45 in New Zealand, 35.4 in England and 39 in South Africa. His combined average in these countries - which is almost 40 in this period - is seven points more than his record before the nomination period.
In fact, he actually batted at three in South Africa. We don’t always see older batters move up, but Chandimal has done so successfully, averaging 50. He had batted there in eight innings in 2018-19 as well, but it hadn’t worked. This has also allowed them to slot in Kamindu Mendis at number five, who was mainly batting at seven till the England tour. So he’s changing the order, for the better.
It’s not that Dinesh Chandimal hasn’t had good years before in Test cricket. But a Bradmanesque 2022, followed by three back to back calendar years of going at over 40, makes it a remarkable run. He may not be as thrilling as a Pant, Brook or Head, but he’s getting the job done like a really thorough accountant who still likes to get home early to see his kids.
Shubman Gill
When Shubman Gill made his ODI debut in January 2019, Virat Kohli said that he wasn’t even 10% as good at the same age. A couple of years later, he was one of the heroes of India’s famous victory Down Under. But after an incredible high, there was a prolonged struggle in Tests.
Till June 2022, he only averaged 33 in 19 innings. That was still 8% better than the other top six batters in his matches; suggesting he started on pretty challenging wickets. Unfortunately for him, he started playing at home exactly when the wickets started spinning sideways, while still having to counter the wobbleball away. In the next 50 innings, Gill averaged above 44 at a match factor of 1.23.
He started as an opener, then shifted to three, and is now the number four in the post-Kohli era. But he was struggling; his career average had dipped below 30 in his 21st Test in January 2024.
The fans turned on him, and it was only a few of us brave souls (and Kevin Pietersen) who fought for him. His hundred against England at Vizag in the third innings kicks off a good run for him in Tests. Since then, he averages nearly 57 in 30 knocks. But don’t let that fool you into thinking it was a smooth ride.
He was actually dropped for the Boxing Day Test last December.
Two matches later, he would lead India in the first Test at Headingley. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have retired from the longest format, and the keys have been handed over to him. He had an all-timer - only Gavaskar’s 774 wasn’t bettered. He scored four tons, as India managed to draw the series.
The case against him would be that he really starts improving at the start of 2024. Until he starred in the England series, his away record was quite underwhelming. He got to bat at number four on good batting wickets - which is all a batter really wants.
Shubman improved, but was it too late for him to win this crucial prize?
Temba Bavuma
Temba Bavuma is back, baby. He was already nominated (and almost won) a previous award, but now this new version makes hundreds. The big issue last edition was the lack of big scores. Three of his nine knocks above fifty have been tons - all at home. The conversion rate is still not as great as it could be, but you’d take three over zero every day of the week. His median has gone up from an already elite 33.5 to 36. The man really knows how to start an innings.
Bavuma’s match factor has improved from 1.58 to 1.82 (that is very good).
His average in South Africa has risen from 56 to 64. But earlier. his average was bumped up a bit by not outs. His RPI actually increases by more than 20 points. His highest score was 172 against West Indies in Johannesburg, where he made more than half the team’s runs after coming in at 8 for 2.
His other two centuries came at No.5, from 72 for 3 and 89 for 3. But he only bats in that position in six out of 23 innings. From June 2020 to June 2022, 16 of his 20 knocks were from five or below - a much more cushy place to be in. His median entry point was around the 39th over then, while it is the 18th over now. He is better, while it has been harder for him.
Away from home, he was South Africa’s highest run-getter in what was a forgettable tour of Australia. But his most important innings of the cycle was by far in the WTC final, where he limped his way to a match-winning partnership with Aiden Markram in the run-chase as they lifted the title.
Bavuma was one of the most mentioned players when we asked for nominees online. While he has certainly gotten better, he was very good even before this run. It’s incredible to be a finalist last time, and still get better, yet he has. But maybe, he comes up a little short. Another thing that goes against him is that he has missed 10 Tests in our nomination period.
If the timelines were the 2010s vs the 2020s, he would have been a very strong contender. He is probably the most improved player this decade. (There are no made up trophies for that).
Wiaan Mulder
Wiaan Mulder has added more than 50 runs on his batting average from last time. That sounds incredibly dramatic, but a big reason for the huge boost is the monumental series in Zimbabwe. The GOAT of the ‘false three’ came in the vicinity of the World Record, yet decided to declare, which annoyed people more. He had scored another hundred before that knock. But even if we #RootMaths that series, his runs per dismissal goes from 69 to 33.
In his first ten Tests, Mulder averaged only 15 with the bat. That’s a really low mark, even for someone coming in at number seven. He got out a lot against spin, and five of his six dismissals off those bowlers were actually in South Africa.
His average against the quicks is about the same. But there is an exponential jump in record against the tweakers. He goes from averaging about 12 runs per dismissal, to over a 100. Most of those runs were in Bangladesh, where he was undismissed, and he wasn’t too bad against them in the West Indies either.
Mulder really becomes a regular last August onwards. He had solid returns at numbers seven and eight in the West Indies and Bangladesh. But he was moved up to three after that. So he is certainly more helpful to his team now.
He took seven wickets at 15 runs apiece in Zimbabwe. Before that, he had 13 wickets in nine games at 28.4; 19% worse than the other quicks. His match factor in the first 10 Tests was actually better though, and he took 18 wickets at 25.8. His away numbers now are more impressive. Another crucial point is the usage; he just doesn’t bowl a lot. 15 or 16 overs per match is really close to part-time.
Even if his bowling has become marginally worse, there’s a clear uptick in his batting performances. Whether he is going to be a long-term number three in a full-strength lineup remains to be seen. But if he can average around 35 while batting in the top seven and bowl about 20 overs a match, it would certainly provide the Proteas much-required balance.
All-rounders in this award are tricky, because it is rare a player has gotten better at both metrics, and Mulder hasn’t. We left Pope out for big runs against Ireland and Zimbabwe, so while Mulder did some incredible average boosting, we might need to see more.
Mehidy Hasan Miraz
Some of the greatest all-rounders in cricket history took time to develop on both sides of the ball. I coined the term Botham-Pringle continuum, suggesting that an all-rounder is either a joke or a hero. But that isn’t what happened to Mehidy Hasan Miraz. He was a bowler who is now learning to bat. Since June 2022, he averages over 30 with the bat and under that with the ball, delivering nearly 33 overs per Test.
Mehidy’s batting average improves by about six runs, but the match factor and his batting positions tell us even more. He was 39% worse than the top-order players in his games, but is now 3% better. He evolves from a decent number eight to someone that also moonlights at seven (and very occasionally, higher). However, we have to factor in that he has played 17 of his last 21 games in Asia, compared to 6 out of 11 the last time. But even in these conditions, his match factor has improved significantly. He crossed 50 in seven out of 37 innings, compared to two in 19 before.
His last series in the Caribbean was also a productive one: 146 runs in four innings, which was the second-highest of all batters. Compare that with the series in June 2022, when he made only 17 runs in as many knocks. A monumental difference.
Mehidy won the Player of the Series twice - in Pakistan and at home against Zimbabwe - for his all-round efforts. The former was important, because it was the first time Bangladesh beat Pakistan in the longest format. With the ball, he goes from 39 to 28, and the match factor goes from 0.75 to 1.03.
And guess where he averaged the least? Yes, Pakistan. He took 10 wickets at 18.6 in two games there. The other spin bowlers went at over 50. So this wasn’t just him benefitting on turners - which Pakistan started making a bit after that series.
He did take nine wickets in as many games in India too, but was just under par because of the ruthless competition. He does pick up nearly four wickets a game at home, but is 7% worse than the other slow bowlers. Interestingly, he had 61 wickets in his first 11 Tests in Bangladesh, outperforming the other spinners by 25%. However, he wasn’t even close to being as good with the bat back then. If we just look at the basic numbers, he averaged 48 in Asia in the last period, and that has dropped by 20 points now.
So he is not career-best with the ball, but close, and has become a much better player with the bat. Since June 2022, he has the fourth-most runs for Bangladesh, and only Taijul Islam has picked up more wickets than him. Fourth most runs, second most wickets, that is quite the conversion. Is it enough though?
Mitchell Santner
One of the more ignored Mitchells of our game, often only seen bowling economically in white-ball cricket. When he did play Tests, it was not good. In his first 24 matches, he took only 41 wickets at over 45 and averaged less than 25 with the bat. Ugh, that is barely bits and pieces, it might just be pieces. Like a bad, off-brand, early-career Dan Vettori.
Santner comes back into Tests in 2023 in Bangladesh. He collects six wickets in a must-win game and scores an important unbeaten 35 in a tricky fourth innings chase. This was the new - and definitely improved - Santner.
In his last eight Tests, he has picked up 37 wickets at an average of under 20, going at less than three runs an over. (It’s effectively seven matches, because he only bowls an over in the last game in Zimbabwe.) Pune was his magnum opus, as he outperformed Ashwin and Jadeja in true David-vs-Goliath fashion. Mitch Santner broke India.
What makes it more special is that he just came off a terrible series against Sri Lanka. But those are the only two bad games he has in this duration. Even at home, he’s taken 13 wickets in two Tests against South Africa (though they were SA20-affected) and England. He does get a bunch of tailend wickets, but how much more do you really need from your spinner in New Zealand?
He only plays two Tests between June 2020 and June 2022. So we have to go further back to see if he was ever this good. In his first nine matches, he took 24 wickets at an average of 31.4; 38% better than the other tweakers who played with and against him. But his nine wickets from the first two matches in India came at nearly 35 runs per wicket. That was followed by terrible returns in Indore, which hurt his overall numbers a fair bit. It also kicked off his worst period with the ball in this format. In our nomination period, he is 41% better than his spin-bowling peers.
On the face of it, his batting has only gone up one run. His 76 & 49 against England in Hamilton helped that. He really showed the difference in the second innings, smashing five sixes in that cameo. That is how he has changed his batting; before, he struck at a pedestrian 42 strike rate, now it’s at 64. And he can actually get even faster.
He’s had good batting performances at Galle and Pune, too. We are still not talking top seven level batting, but he’s a very useful No.8 to have. Maybe Santner is a 7.5 now, which feels like a jump from earlier. And with power, he can bother teams as well.
Santner is still not an automatic pick in the team, especially on home soil. He has only played two out of seven local Tests in 2024. Perhaps that’s just life as a Kiwi spinner. He also had to miss out on the Wankhede Test due to an injury. The biggest proof that he’s changed as a Test player is he captained them in Zimbabwe when Tom Latham wasn’t around. He was truly awful with the red ball, now many teams in the world would love to have him.
Has he improved the most? I’m not sure, but he’s certainly up there for most dramatic late-career bloomering.
Matt Henry
Did you know Matt Henry used to be comically bad in Tests? After 13 matches, he was going at 51.5 runs per wicket. He literally had the worst record of any quick with at least 20 wickets in that duration. And it made no sense. You saw him bowling and could see the talent. Then you’d head over to Cricinfo and vomit at his stats. At that point, his average in ODIs was almost half of what it was with the red ball, and he was one of the best new-ball bowlers in the world.
Perhaps one of the reasons he struggled in Tests was because he didn’t get the new ball as frequently. He was an opening bowler in only 12 of his first 25 innings, bowling quite a bit as the first and even second-change. That’s because he often had to wait in the shadows of Trent Boult and Tim Southee. But even when he did start the proceedings, he was pretty mediocre - averaging well over 40.
With no Boult, Henry has always taken the new cherry since. But his resurgence really begins in June 2021, where he takes six wickets for just 114 runs in the Edgbaston Test. New Zealand win the game, he is the Player of the Match. It’s only a two-game series, but the Kiwis were the first to beat England at home since Sri Lanka in 2014.
Since that game, Henry has snapped up 105 wickets at an average of just over 20. The only three who concede fewer runs per wicket are Scott Boland, Jasprit Bumrah and Kagiso Rabada. Matt Henry has gone from McDonald’s to Michelin-star.
He’s as good home and away, and Zimbabwe does help his numbers on the road quite a bit. But he won them a Test in India as well. The only two off days he’s had are against Bazball England - when he didn’t get the new ball - and on a graveyard in Pakistan, two nightmares for modern bowlers.
The one caveat in his record would be that he has missed a few games, but 56% availability (since June 2021) for a fast bowler isn’t too bad. In fact, since the start of 2024, he has only sat out of three games - two in Sri Lanka, and one in India. That’s really when he becomes more of a regular in the playing XI.
Right-hander or left-hander, home or away - it doesn’t matter; he’s just better now. But is he better enough?
Alzarri Joseph
Before the inception of the World Test Championship, Alzarri Joseph had picked up 25 wickets in nine matches at an average of just under 33. It might sound alright, but this was at a time where everyone was taking wickets in the West Indies. After that, the first 11 games of the WTC era his average bloated to 46. He struggled both home and away, and his career average hovered around 40 after 20 matches.
But that has dropped by almost six runs during the course of our nomination period. The man who startled peak Virat Kohli with extra bounce on his debut might just have reached the level he was always meant to.
Alzarri has played 20 of the 24 Tests for West Indies in this duration, compared to 20 out of 48 before. He is always available.
No other West Indies quick has delivered even 400 overs, while he’s up at nearly 550.
But the big change is his record against left-hand bats. After 20 Tests, he had an average of 74. Very part-timer numbers. But since then, it’s 27. Versus the right-handers, he’s about the same in both periods.
At home, his match factor is better now than before. But despite averaging in the mid-20s now, he doesn’t stand out. And that makes sense, as a couple of his teammates are around 18.
His away record isn’t awe-inspiring either, though he is above par in South Africa. He might have gotten a bit of tap in England the last time, but ten wickets in three matches is easily better than the three in two in the tour before. Both his tours of Australia came in our nomination period - he averaged 53 the first time, and 30 the next.
Alzarri Joseph is certainly still not his team’s best bowler. Any - or every - West Indian fan will tell you that. But for a long time, he was all promise and no action. Now he’s more than one good spell. Is that enough for our judges to give him the award? We don’t know.
Jasprit Bumrah
Even before his Test comeback in December 2023, Bumrah was one of the greatest (if not the greatest) Indian seamers of all time. After his debut, India’s overseas performances improved significantly. India went back to back in Australia, and he was obviously a big part of that.
Yet, there was a feeling he only performed for Mumbai. Imagine having your greatest ever seamer and still trolling him because his unique action causes him injury issues.
We previously had Pat Cummins as a nominee, essentially because he went from very good to great. It’s a similar story here. Bumrah has gone from averaging 23 to 17. The Indian star was already on the path to greatness, but his current peak has just elevated him that extra bit in these conversations. He was 9% better than the other quicks in his matches. Now that mark has risen up to a staggering 76%. So his relative improvement has been even better than Cummins back then.
Bumrah was elite at home even in the last time period, but he was used sparingly - playing only four of his 15 Tests there. Now, he has been used more often in India, showing incredible skill against England and Bangladesh. The fast bowler has also somehow managed to more than halve his average in Australia, and bring it down by over 10 points in South Africa. In England, it’s about the same.
This is better illustrated by the match factor in each country. Bumrah averaged 7% less than the other pacers in his games in South Africa and Australia, and was almost par in England. Now, he’s significantly outperformed his peers everywhere he has played.
We are talking about a truly generational run. This is a level we’ve barely seen a handful of bowlers operate at in almost 150 years of the sport. Being at Bumrah’s level is the hardest to win this, it’s a small jump. But maybe he went from all-time great to GOAT.
Is that enough to win this award? The world waits in anticipation.
Josh Hazlewood
My dad doesn’t rate Josh Hazlewood, which brings me endless amounts of joy at every wicket he gets. Some of the issues my dad had is that Hazlewood was hyped, and never got to that level. He has now got to that level, and my dad still can’t give it to him.
Since June 2022, he has picked up 80 wickets in 19 matches at an average of under 20. Hahahahaha, shut up. Nobody else apart from Bumrah has over 50 wickets at a sub-20 average - the closest is Kagiso Rabada, who averages exactly 20. Before this stretch, Hazlewood had the 11th-best average of the 21 quicks with at least 100 wickets since his debut.
In simple terms, he goes from being pretty good to absolutely elite. He is currently a better bowler than Cummins. That’s largely down to left-handers. He went from averaging 31 to 17 against them, while also improving from 24 to 21 against the righties.
He has snapped up 38 wickets in nine matches in the last three home seasons, averaging less than 16. While the reinforced Kookaburra seam and more bowling-friendly surfaces mean that batting in Australia is hard now, he is still outperforming the rest of the pacers by a staggering 82%.
Essentially, Hazlewood was always a hybrid Australian-English quick. And now the Aussie wickets still bounce, but he gets more lateral movement. No one can score off him either - his economy rate is 2.32.
While he has comfortably been the best Aussie quick when he has played, he has also missed six Tests in Australia. Hazlewood’s body is starting to slow down, and he hasn’t played a single match in Asia either during this incredible run of form. That matters, because Australian fast bowlers took 18 wickets at 42 in those eight games. Not having to play there definitely helps your overall mark.
But he does improve in New Zealand. In 2016, he was 22% better than par. Last year, it had an exponential rise to 81%. He performs really well in the Caribbean as well, but he had a single digit average in the 2015/16 tour, and a significantly better match factor.
The most important away tour for an Aussie quick, though, is England. In terms of raw numbers, 2023 was Hazlewood’s worst away Ashes. But we have to remember the wickets were a lot more batting-friendly that summer.
So, we turn to match factor again. 2023 is better than 2015, but below 2019.
He also struck more often in 2023 than ever before, which is also a function of how Bazball England went after the bowling.
He was economical against South Africa in the WTC final at Lord’s, but only took two wickets in the game.
There is no doubt he’s raised his game a notch higher, but there are still caveats and unchecked boxes. I feel that he is better, and this is the version he always could have been. He’s improved, but you know, this is a tough competition.
Nathan Lyon
Again, Nathan Lyon’s case is a bit like that of his teammate Hazlewood and Bumrah. Because he was already a star even before our nomination period, it’s sometimes easy to ignore that there is legit improvement in his game. But his career bowling average has gone from 32 to 30, which is a big deal for a spinner who has taken the seventh-most wickets in the format.
There is something else we care about more. Lyon wasn’t always a great bowler in Asia. After Australia lost the series in Sri Lanka in 2016, Darren Lehmann - Australia’s coach at the time - said that “his record on the subcontinent is not great” and that he’s got to improve it. At that point, the offspinner had an average of 44, so there was certainly some truth there. But he goes on to do well in India and Bangladesh after that.
His average in Sri Lanka improves with each tour. But as always, we need to look at the match factor as well. His 2022 tour is better than 2016, but still below his first one back in 2011. And 2025 is his best.
On the Indian tour, the pitches spun a lot, so of course his numbers are great. But even so, he outperformed what the collective spinners did on match factor, so it was his best tour on those shores.
It’s clear that he improves in Asia, and a big part of it is that he becomes far more incisive in the second innings. It has taken him a long time to work out how to be this good there. Before 2022, he had an average of 42 in that part of the game in those two nations. That has now dropped to 26.
In the last three home seasons, he has 52 wickets at 26. The other spinners in these matches have an average of over 60. He wasn’t actually required as much against India because of the nature of the pitches. He just doesn’t bowl as much at home because the seamers take all the batters so quickly.
In the West Indies, he was even dropped. Less a victim of his form, but the great efforts of Australia’s four quicks.
But in the three years as a total, this was next level improvement from the ironic GOAT.
A Lyon who can bowl this well in Asia is great for Australia. He is finally as smart as he is skillful, and is just hoping his body allows a couple more years to cash in. But will he take MIP home tonight?
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So that is it, our long list of nominees is:
Dinesh Chandimal
Shubman Gill
Temba Bavuma
Wiaan Mulder
Mehidy Hasan Miraz
Mitchell Santner
Matt Henry
Alzarri Joseph
Jasprit Bumrah
Josh Hazlewood
Nathan Lyon
They could all be winners (except that is not how things work).
We had three that just seemed to be the clearest in terms of improving. Two Kiwis who used to be bad, and a Bangladesh spinner who upped his batting.
So our short list is: Mitchell Santner, Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Matt Henry.
They could all be winners (except that is not how things work).
So let’s take one last look.
Mitchell Santner’s transition from a white-ball specialist to a genuinely impactful Test player has been remarkable. He ended India’s Test run on his own (It wasn’t actually on his own, but that sounds more poetic). Previously, he couldn’t even stop crap tailenders from scoring runs. We can nitpick and say he’s still not a regular, especially at home, but it is New Zealand. And he didn’t have a good time in Sri Lanka either. But it is a serious evolution, one that was as violent as it was shocking.
Mehidy Hasan Miraz enhancing himself as a Test player probably helps the most with the team balance. Not only is he better, but Bangladesh don’t have the huge drop off that Shakib’s retirement could bring. If he can consistently step up at 7 and bowl the way he has been, it allows Bangladesh to pick five bowlers. But he wasn’t tested much outside Asia, apart from the Caribbean. It will be interesting to see how his performances translate when Bangladesh tour Australia and South Africa in this cycle. However, this is a huge uptick in form. And we say, yay, Mehidy.
And then you get to Matt Henry, whose bowling was busted in Test cricket, and now he is busy busting batters. For the longest time, his Test numbers never really made sense to a lot of us. Now, not only might he be the player who improved the most, but he is certainly the player whose numbers have reverted to the mean more than anyone else.
So who are we going to pick? The two finger spinners, or the quick who is no longer bad?
The third winner of Good Areas’ unprestigious Most Improved Player award is….
The pride of Christchurch, Matthew James Henry.
Basically he unKafka’d himself. Before the Kiwi seamer was a cockroach, and now he is one of the best bowlers in the world. It was a Mattamorphosis.
Arise, the most improved player in Test cricket over the last three years as given to you by a random YouTube page you probably haven’t heard of.