page_title: Herschelle Gibbs
section_title: Struggle with form
hierarchical_section_title: Herschelle Gibbs / International career / Struggle with form
caption_attribution_description: English: This graph details the Test Match performance of Herschelle Gibbs. It was created by Raven4x4x. The red bars indicate the player's test match innings, while the blue line shows the average of the ten most recent innings at that point. Note that this average cannot be calculated for the first nine innings. The blue dots indicate innings in which Gibbs finished not-out. This graph was generated with Microsoft Excel 2002, using data from Cricinfo [1] and Howstat [2]. The information in this chart is current as of 28 January 2008.
context_page_description: Herschelle Herman Gibbs is a South African former cricketer, who played all formats of the game for fourteen years. A right-handed batsman, mostly opened the batting, Gibbs became the first player to hit six consecutive sixes in one over in One Day International cricket, doing so against the Netherlands in the 2007 Cricket World Cup In West Indies.
  Regarded as one of the most naturally talented cricketers South Africa have ever produced, Gibbs was also known as an excellent fielder, like his compatriot Jonty Rhodes, with former Australian captain Ricky Ponting noting that in his opinion Gibbs is better than Rhodes in his ability to hit the stumps, with a report prepared by Cricinfo in late 2005 showing that since the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he had effected the eighth highest number of run-outs in ODI cricket of any fieldsman, with the tenth highest success rate.
  He was the fifth international franchise player signed to the Caribbean Premier League and the first South African player to be named to the new Twenty20 tournament.
context_section_description: In the past two series against England and the West Indies he was brought down the order from the opening batsman to the middle order due to lack of form. After the move he regained form and looked more comfortable batting against the older ball.
  On 22 April 2006, Gibbs paid the price for his recent run-drought, and was dropped for the second and third Tests against the New Zealand cricket team. He has been short of confidence in Test cricket of late, and scored only 6 and 2 in the First Test at Centurion Park.  South Africa's chief selector, Haroon Lorgat said, "We had a meeting and agreed that a break and a fresh start next season will do him a world of good."  This decision was widely viewed as a harsh one.
  He came back into the side in the middle order but continued to struggle for runs. On the conclusion of the 1st Test against Pakistan in January 2007 he had gone over 2 years without scoring a century. He had come close on many occasions to ending the drought, getting out in the nineties four times.
  Yet, for his performances in 2008, he was named in the World ODI XI by the ICC.
  In April 2009, his sixteen One Day International innings since the March 2008 one-day series in Bangladesh having yielded just three fifties, even Stuart Hess, his most ardent media supporter, was moved to cast doubt over his future.  Hess had famously recommended Gibbs as captaincy successor to Shaun Pollock in 2003, but now, noting that his "average, as an opener, in that same period is 25.25, more than 10 runs below his overall average of 35.87", Hess felt "a sense that Gibbs is living off past deeds and not playing with the requisite form needed to hold on to a national spot."  He noted, however, that Gibbs was the only South African with more than 1,000 World Cup runs and that, of the twelve others, only Sachin Tendulkar with 57.93 and Sir Viv Richards with 63.31 had better averages:
  Perhaps putting up with Gibbs's current inconsistent streak may just have to be the pay-off South Africa have to make if it means he can help guide the national side to greater glory in two years time.
  After being dropped from the side Gibbs stated that he wanted to perform well in the domestic cup and that he was feeling well about it. He stated that his aim was to play in the 2011 Cricket World Cup
  His Test career came to an end following the 2007/08 West Indies tour of South Africa.
caption: An innings-by-innings breakdown of Gibbs' Test match batting career, showing runs scored (red bars) and the average of the last ten innings (blue line).
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