How Good is Virat Kohli?
This article first appeared on DAWN.
Virat Kohli’s masterful
chase against Australia a few days ago excited the cricket world beyond
boundaries. Everyone is talking about how great Kohli is and how he compares to
other batting legends. Headlines have hailed how he is better than Sachin;
Sambit Bal tweeted that he is to Pakistan what Miandad used to be to India; and
social media forums are in a frenzy over discussions comparing Kohli with Viv
Richards, Ponting, ABD, and others.
There is no doubt that he
is an exceptional talent and a phenomenal batsman. There is no doubt in my mind
that his unbeaten 80 odd against Australia was the best T20 knock I have ever
witnessed. Kohli has played similar outstanding knocks in ODI cricket as well
and he definitely is the king of all chases. No one chases a target like Kohli;
no one builds an innings in a chase like Kohli; no one has won matches for
India like Kohli has; no one has won matches for anyone like Kohli has.
He really is exceptionally
good. But how good really?
It is not only difficult
but probably wrong to compare batsmen of different eras. Limited overs cricket
has changed so much in the favor of batsmen that averages and strike rates are
inflated in these modern times. Shorter boundaries, bigger bats, field
restrictions, bouncer limitations, better pitches, and many other one-sided
rules have resulted in a plethora of batsmen averaging above 50 in ODIs, which
was unheard of in the 80s and 90s. Plus, batsmen these days don’t face Wasim,
Waqar, Garner, Marshall, Lillee, Thomson, Ambrose, Donald and the likes.
Currently, there are 7
batsmen who average above 50 in ODIs and only one of them (Bevan) made his
debut in the 90s. In T20 cricket, there is only one batsman who averages above
40 – Virat Kohli – he averages 55.42 !!! The next best T20 average is 38.96.
In terms of numbers there
are other modern day ODI batsmen that are as good as Kohli is; however there
are none in T20 cricket. No one even comes close! His T20 average is 16 runs
more than the next best. That is a significant difference and shows how well
Kohli has mastered the art of batting in the shortest format.
While compare averages and
strike rates across eras cannot be compared, I think there is one factor that can
be definitely compared – the match winning ability of batsmen. I believe that
we can fairly compare a batsman’s contribution to wins irrespective of era,
conditions, rules, and opposition.
There are 50 batsmen that
have scored around 4,000 runs in ODI wins. Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting
are right at the top of this list with both scoring over 10,000 runs in wins.
In terms of average, Virat Kohli’s 67.5 in wins is third on the list, behind
Hashim Amla’s 68.3 and Ms Dhoni’s 73.1. These numbers individually represent
greatness; however the only way to compare the overall impact of a batsman in
wins for his country is to develop an index that can take out biases with
respect to era, conditions, rules, and opposition. While some bias may still
remain, I tried to take into account 4 key factors to come up with the Match
Winning Index (MWI); which is calculated as an average of these 4 factors:
Percentage of Innings played in wins;
Percentage of runs scored in wins;
Percentage of centuries in wins;
Percentage of not outs in wins.
(Key
Note: When you take a percentage, you automatically rule out the absoluteness
of a number. For example scoring 8-10 ODI centuries in the 80s is equivalent to
about 15 centuries in the 90s and 25 centuries or more in the post 2000 era.
However how many of them were scored in wins eliminates this bias. Moreover, a
percentage of not outs is considered in order to eliminate the bias towards top
order batsmen who have more opportunity to score centuries than lower order
batsmen who may contribute a valuable 30 or 40 in a winning cause)
Here are the Top 20 match
winning batsmen in ODIs.
Sir Viv Richards right at
the top!
That should put to rest
any discussion on whether Kohli is better than the best ever ODI batsman or
not. Kohli ranks 16 on this list; however among Indian batsmen he is at the
top. No other Indian batsmen has contributed to wins as much as Kohli has with
only Gambhir and Sehwag coming close to him. It is also fair to say that Kohli
still has majority of his career ahead of him so we will surely witness this
modern day great reach greater heights.
While Kohli may not be as
good as Viv Richards was, nor as good as many other modern day batsmen as an
ODI match winner, he is the best India has produced. For comparison, Sachin
(MWI of 0.655) ranks 43rd on this list.
It is interesting to note
the high number of Australians at the top end of the table. As many as 6 of
them played as part of the same team also. No wonder they won so many ODIs and
lead the tally of most World Cup wins.
For Pakistan, Mohammad
Yousuf and Saeed Anwar stand out; but it is also interesting to see that Saleem
Malik (0.728), Younis Khan (0.714), Shahid Afridi (0.711), Ijaz Ahmed (0.698),
and Inzamam Ul Haq (0.687) were great contributors to ODI wins for Pakistan,
and hence the dominance in the 90s.
Coming back to Virat
Kohli; it is a different story altogether when you compare the MWI for batsmen
in T20 Internationals.
Barring Afghanistan’s
animated Mohammad Shahzad, Virat Kohli is the best in the business when it
comes to winning T20 matches for India. He has the best ever T20 average, he is
the only batsman to average above 40 in the format, and he has the best ever
T20 average in wins. Virat Kohli is a T20 giant and a master of the format.
I can understand the
euphoria created by that explosive and perfectly executed innings against
Australia. We also tend to live in the moment and forget about other greats
that have played the game. It is fair to say that Kohli is the best T20 batsman
out there and the biggest T20 match winner the world has seen. It is also fair
to say that he is the best ODI match winner produced by India; however he is
some distance away from being the best in the world.
Kohli may well end his
career as the best limited overs batsman ever and he may well be counted among
the test greats one day as well; but there is some time till that happens. For
now, we should just enjoy his mastery and the effortless ease with which he
bats.
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I was viewing recent matches of Virat Kohli in which he made exceptional display of batting prowess and that reminded me of comparative assessment of such extraordinary calibre with one of greatest mentor of this game i.e none other than GOD OF CRICKET (SACHIN TENDULKAR).
Virat may be fine in his techniques in scoring comparatively faster than Sachin in his overall innings but that does not take the credibility of LITTLE MASTER who with his master strokes had been the canter stage of attraction for millions of viewers like me who have been enjoying the CRICKET BALL TO BALL only to see the star rising day by day.
As at the said times bowling attack appeared to be quite lethal and brutal in shape of ALLAN DONALD (AFRICA) PAKISTAN ( Wasim Akram). WEST INDIES (AMBROSE), BRUCE REID (AUSTRALIA), HADLEY and against said bowlers of extraordinary talents,and against said lethal attacks, batsmen were having limited options.