My last post , inspired by a Cricinfo series, selected a ODI XI from players between 1995 to 2017. The team was compiled basis my gut feel, intuition and personal bias – heart over head really. In this post the attempt is to arrive at a ODI XI basis career statistics. I understand that cricket statisticians today use a number of metrics apart from the traditional metrics. However for the sake of simplicity, I have considered batting average and strike rate for batsmen and bowling average and economy rate for bowlers. For all-rounders it’s a combination of the batting and bowling averages. One adjustment I have made is I have only considered performances against test playing countries and excluded the so-called “minnows”. As you will see the team is fairly different from the previous team and does have a few surprises – not that surprised by this though. All stats have been taken for Cricinfo Statsguru.
1. Wicket Keepers: The shortlist has three players – Dhoni, Gilchrist and Sangakarra. I have assumed all three are good enough keepers and have selected purely on basis on batting ability. Following graph plots average on X-Axis and Strike Rate on Y-Axis:
MS Dhoni has a superior average over the others and a strike rate of ~90. While Gilchrist has a better strike rate, MS Dhoni’s superior average more than makes up for it.
2. Batsmen: Whole host of batsmen in the short list. The graph below is a revelation! Look at where the RCB batting unit of ABD and Kohli are at : 50+ avg and 90 + strike rate. While one may argue that this was due to better batting conditions, the fact remains that they along with Amla are the only contemporaries in that part of the chart. Selections: ABD, Virat Kohli, H Amla and Sachin Tendulkar. If i had to do a fifth choice – either Bevan or maybe Ponting. Any of the other 4 could happily open the innings.
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3. All Rounders: In my previous post i had separated spin and pace bowling all rounders. What I have done now is lump them together and see how it pans out. The markers in orange are spinners and the rest are pacers. Just a note of caution – top right is not the best quadrant here – its bottom right – higher batting and lower bowling average then the more valuable you are. I have created 4 quadrants with 30 as the cutoff for both batting and bowling averages. The bottom left are bowling allrounders, the top right are batting allrounders, the top left are players who should not be considered and the final quadrant are probably genuine all rounders. As you can see spinners just don’t make the cut!
Andrew Flintoff the only one who just about fits into the All Rounders category – batting average just over 30 and bowling average just around 27. I would then pick up the closest from the other two categories – Shaun Pollock by being the only one in the “bowlers who can bat” category gets in. He has a 25 bowling average which is good enough for a front line bowler. Lance Klusener is at the border of the two categories and is the third choice. If at all I had to choose a spinner it would still be Shakib.
4. Bowlers: Like all rounders I combined the spinners and the fast bowlers. I also ignored the distinction between left and right arm bowlers. Spinners are highlighted in orange.The data is quite conclusive – Allan Donald & McGrath are the fast bowlers who get in. Spinners surprisingly is a toss between Ajmal and Saqlain with slight edge for Ajmal.
So here’s the final team: Sachin Tendulkar, H Amla, Virat Kohli, AB De Villiers, M Dhoni, Lance Klusener, A Flintoff, S Pollock, S Ajmal, Donald, McGrath. The team’s more diverse than the other team in terms of international representation. 3 Indians, 5 South Africans, 1 Pakistani, 1 Englishman and just 1 Australian. 12th Man – M Bevan / Ponting. The team has a slightly longer tail as compared to the previous team and lesser variety in bowling – I would still prefer the previous team 🙂