Over a career that lasted over 21 years, Shivnarine Chanderpaul played 57 Test series (excluding one-off-Tests), of which only in 16 did he average below 30. That, in a nutshell, illustrates his consistency, even when playing for a relatively weak team for much of his career. There were instances when he batted for himself, which comes through in the number of times he remained not out - among those who batted in the top seven, no one was unbeaten as often as he was (49 times).
Yet, there is no arguing with the sort of numbers he stacked up. Only six batsmen have scored more Test runs than he has, while among West Indians he is second to Brian Lara. More than anything, though, it's his consistency over a couple of decades that stands out: apart from a four-year period between 1998 and 2001, when he averaged 31, he hardly had a lean spell. His last six Tests (11 innings) fetched him 183 runs, which was the only other period when he didn't pull his weight in the side.
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