This is the last of my posts inspired by Cricinfo’s idea of selecting the best team across formats from the years 1995 to 2017. Earlier posts can be found here: Selection By Stats – Test XI for last 25 years , Selection By Stats – Cricket ODI XI , Cricket – All Time T20 XI , Cricket ODI XI for the last 25 Years , Cricket Test XI For The Last 25 Years.
In this post the idea is to select the Best XI in terms of statistics. I have used batting average and strike rate to select batsmen and the keeper and the bowling economy rate and bowling average to select the bowlers. I have put in the all rounders in both categories. The ideal team balance is to have 4 batsmen, 1 keeper, 2 all rounders, 4 bowlers.
Graph 1: Batting Average and Batting Strike Rate
- Virat Kohli with a batting average of 50 at a strike rate in excess of 135 makes him probably the best T20 batsman of all time.
- Aaron Finch selects himself based on the average of 40+ and SR of 150+.
- Amongst the keepers ( highlighted in orange ) – it’s a choice between McCullum and Dhoni – one more comfortable opening and the other a master of finishes.
- Amongst the all rounders, Shane Watson’s batting prowess far exceeds the others.
- Maxwell & Munro have the best strike rates amongst all the batsmen.
- Kevin Peterson and Chris Gayle are other giants who stand apart from the rest with healthy averages and high strike rates in excess of 140.
Graph 2: Bowling Average and Economy Rate
- Generally the preference is more towards containment in this form and hence the economy rate probably takes precedence over the average.
- Rashid Khan is by far the pre-eminent T20 bowler. His average is around 13 and he has an economy rate less than 6.
- Daniel Vettori is the only other bowler apart from Rashid Khan with an economy rate less than 6.
- There is not much to choose between Badree and Narine. A host of other spin bowlers such as Mendis, Swann, Ajmal and Dockrell have economy rates less than 6.5 and averages less than 18. This also indicates how dominant spin bowlers have been over their fast bowling compatriots.
- Among the all rounders Shakib Al Hasan’s average is superior to other all rounders such as Afridi, Hafeez and Mathews who all have similar economy rates.
- 4 fast bowlers have similar economy rates – Steyn, Bukhari, Amir and Bumrah with the latter having a distinctly higher average.
The problem here is one of balance – spinners dominate the game and if you go strictly by the numbers one should just select 4 spinners. But that will make the bowling too predictable. All rounders are also a bit of a problem – none of them except ( Watson for batting ) can walk into the team on one skill only. Packing the team with all rounders adds options but comes at the cost of efficiency. The way I have chosen to resolve this is also to select atleast 2 bowlers with high batting strike rates – the rationale being they will mostly come at the end overs and try to maximize the score. Hence average does not matter as much as strike rate. Thankfully both Narine and Rashid Khan have strike rates in the range of 125 so this makes the selection problem easier! While I was tempted to choose Shakib as a bowling all rounder I decided to go with Vettori as i could not ignore the economy rate of 5.71! I am a fan of fast bowlers and find it tough to go into a team without two genuine fast bowlers – I settled on M Amir and Dale Steyn. Bukhari was another strong contender.Moving to the batting – since the team has Narine, I would use him as a pinch-hitting opener along with Aaron Finch. One down would be Virat Kohli followed by Kevin Peterson and Shane Watson. Maxwell and Munro are alike as per numbers and I have chosen only one of them – Maxwell. At # 7 I would have MSD playing in as Keeper. 8 would be Rashid Khan followed by the tail of Vettori, Steyn and Amir. 12th man would be Shakib Al Hasan. If Shakib plays then Watson would open and Shakib would come either after Pieterson or Maxwell.
To summarize final team: S Narine, A Finch, V Kohli, K Pieterson, S Watson, G Maxwell, M Dhoni, R Khan, D Vettori, D Steyn, M Amir. 12th Man: Shakib Al Hasan.
