Tim Southee’s Test debut from 2008 retains an alluring and unprecedented Test record.
But it was not his maiden five-wicket haul in his first bowling innings against the Englishmen that took the spotlight. He’d make any side for his doggedness with the ball but Southee had hinted at his willow-wielding skills in only his second hit with the bat. Smashing an unbeaten 77 in an eventual 121-run defeat, Southee carved three major highlights that day in Napier.
His 40-ball 77* at No. 10 is still his highest Test score. The nine sixes he walloped are still the highest by any No. 9-11 batter in Test cricket. They are also the most by a debutant in Test history.
Sixteen years later against India in Bengaluru, Southee exemplified that he is just as fine with the bat as he was then, entering an elite list of Test cricket’s greatest six-hitters.
Outrunning Sehwag
On Friday, Southee biffed past the marauding Virender Sehwag’s 91-sixes mark in his 103rd Test with his second six batting at No. 9, which evolved as his most favoured position since his formative days.
A more jaw-dropping measure would be the number of deliveries faced. It took the maverick Sehwag 10,234 deliveries to get to 91 sixes. Southee stormed to the mark in only 2606 balls! Six deliveries later, he smote another, propelling him over Sehwag to the sixth spot among the format’s highest six-hitters.
| Player | Inns | Balls faced | SR | 6s | Balls per six |
| Ben Stokes | 192 | 10974 | 59.65 | 131 | 83.77 |
| Brendon McCullum | 176 | 9989 | 64.6 | 107 | 93.35 |
| Adam Gilchrist | 137 | 6796 | 81.95 | 100 | 67.96 |
| Chris Gayle | 182 | 11970 | 60.26 | 98 | 122.1 |
| Jacques Kallis | 280 | 28903 | 45.97 | 97 | 297.96 |
| Tim Southee | 148 | 2637 | 82.66 | 93 | 28.35 |
| Virender Sehwag | 180 | 10441 | 82.23 | 91 | 114.736 |
Test cricket’s best No. 9?
Perhaps you could occasionally discount that he is still the only pacer to play 100 matches in all formats and is New Zealand’s highest international wicket-taker. But one cannot move past the fact that he is arguably Test cricket’s most entertaining ‘No. 9’. He is second on the run charts (1240) for the slot, only behind Stuart Broad (1388). His average might be middling around 15 but Southee is more than twice as deadly as the next-best six-hitter at No. 9. 49 of his 93 sixes have come in the slot, with a six every 33 balls.
| Fastest to 90 sixes (balls faced) |
| 2606 – Tim Southee |
| 6220 – Adam Gilchrist |
| 8775 – Ben Stokes |
| 9288 – Brendon McCullum |
| 10156 – Virender Sehwag |
| 11570 – Chris Gayle |
| 27149 – Jacques Kallis |
Though there have been more pronounced daredevils in the modern era, like Rishabh Pant who smacked a six off only the second delivery he faced on debut, Southee’s consistency has taken him over a significant checkpoint. He ranks second among tail-enders (8-11) in the World Test Championship era since 2019, his 18 maximums only bettered by Pat Cummins (19) and Alzarri Joseph (19).
Southee summoned his seventh Test fifty on Friday, ending with 65 off 73 balls, and moved up to 93 maximums, frustrating India with his enterprising 137-run stand for the eighth wicket with Rachin Ravindra.
A special hundred is not far away but it is a stunning highlight that Southee is the fastest to have ever crossed 90 maximums, acquiring the best balls per six/ratio of the seven batters who have hit the mark. He takes only 28.3 balls per maximum, miles ahead of the next-best Adam Gilchrist (67.96). The duo are the two quickest batters to slam the 90-sixes mark. But nearly 4000 deliveries separated Southee and Gilchrist when they reached the feat in their respective careers.
Though he may have the leverage of slogging more freely than most accomplished Test top-order batters, Southee has also notably outperformed most attacking lower-order bats on the six-hitting front.
| Most Test sixes batting No. 6-10 | |||||
| Player | Inns | Runs | Balls | 6s | Bp6 |
| Tim Southee | 147 | 2180 | 2635 | 93 | 28.33 |
| Adam Gilchrist | 126 | 5074 | 6190 | 93 | 66.59 |
| Ben Stokes | 130 | 4309 | 6880 | 83 | 82.89 |
| Chris Cairns | 99 | 3205 | 5643 | 81 | 69.66 |
| Andrew Flintoff | 127 | 3709 | 6056 | 78 | 77.64 |
| MS Dhoni | 139 | 4717 | 8023 | 75 | 106.97 |
Both Gilchrist and Southee have struck 93 sixes batting between No. 6-11 in Tests – the most among all batters. While Southee strikes a six every 28 balls, it took Gilchrist more than double the number of deliveries (66.8) to send the ball over the ropes. Southee even trumps bludgeoners like Shahid Afridi (37.94) and Pant (56.4) on Bp6 ratio.
Most certainly now, the 35-year-old Kiwi can place his unlikely batting heroics among his best bowling laurels in Test cricket and finish his career as one of its most successful sluggers.
