The lone crusaders
Through all of Bangladesh's travails in Test cricket, one player has consistently shored up their batting: Habibul Bashar's 113 in the first Test against West Indies in St Lucia was his third in Tests, and only the sixth for Bangladesh. (Since then, Mohammad Rafique and Khaled Mashud have helped swell the tally to eight.)
Bashar's aggregate of 1983 Test runs forms nearly 18% of all the runs scored by Bangladesh in matches in which he has played (that's excluding any extras). Among batsmen who have scored at least 1000 Test runs, Bashar's percentage puts him in seventh place in the alltime list. The Don and the Black Bradman (George Headley) are on top of the charts – no surprises there – and in third place is another batsman who has waged many a lone battle for his side: Brian Lara has scored nearly a fifth of the West Indian runs. There's a Zimbabwean in the top five as well, but it isn't Andy Flower; Murray Goodwin, who played with much distinction in a brief 19-Test career, scored more than 18% of the team runs. Flower's 16.78% only puts him in 15th place.
Runs % of team runs
Bradman 6996 24.28
Headley 2190 21.39
Lara 9710 19.16
Hutton 6971 18.13
Goodwin 1414 18.08
Hobbs 5410 17.91
Bashar 1983 17.80
-Cricinfo
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