Showing posts with label Viv Richards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Viv Richards. Show all posts
Monday, April 10, 2017

How Special is Babar Azam?


Posted by Q at Monday, April 10, 2017 Pitched (1)
With over 1,000 ODI runs, 5 ODI centuries in 25 innings, an average of 56.78, and a strike rate of 90.50 - at the age of 22 - I think extremely special.

BEST EVER ODI AVERAGE

That average of 56.78 is the second best average ever in ODI cricket; and if you exclude associate nations, then Babar Azam currently has the best ever ODI average of all time.

Among these 10 batsmen with the best ODI averages of all time, Babar has the third best strike rate, behind the magnificent AB de Villiers and very marginally behind the great Virat Kohli.

For Babar to be spoken of in the same breath as ABD and Kohli, he will have to sustain this performance and average for at least another 100 ODIs.

With the start he has achieved, I do not have any doubts that in about 5 years time, Babar's ODI record will be very similar to that of ABD, Kohli, and Amla.

 PHENOMENAL AT NUMBER 3

Out of his 25 ODI innings, Babar has played nine at number three and all of his 5 ODI centuries have come from that position.

Why Pakistan even bothers to change his batting order around is beyond me.

He has been phenomenal at number 3. His average of 95.62 at number 3 is the current best ODI average ever from that position.

Among the 10 batsmen with the best ODI averages at number 3, only ABD and MS Dhoni have a better strike rate than Babar Azam's.

I'll say it again that in order to be considered one of the best alongside Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Joe Root and other star performers at number 3 in ODIs, Babar will have to sustain this performance for another 30-40 odd ODIs.

Pakistan's team management will have to play its part though, by sustaining with him at number 3.

BEST SRIKE RATE EVER FOR PAKISTAN

 There are only two batsmen in all of Pakistan who have a better strike rate than Babar Azam in ODIs - the one and only, Shahid Afridi, and the one who may never play again, Sharjeel Khan.

Never has Pakistan had a batsman like Babar, who scores freely and consistently. Not since Zaheer Abbas, Saeed Anwar, and a young Inzamam Ul Haq anyway.

But even those names (besides Zaheer Abbas) do not feature in the top 10 batting strike rates for Pakistan.

*                  *                   *

This is just the start of what looks like a promising career. Earlier this year, Babar joined the likes of Sir Viv Richards, KP, Trott, and de Kock as the fastest batsmen to reach 1,000 runs in ODIs. It took them just 21 innings. No one has for their faster.

Here's hoping that Babar Azam continues in the same vein and that he continues to build on this exceptional platform by scoring runs and runs and more runs.

For this batsman is special and Pakistan have rarely seen better.

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Thursday, March 31, 2016

How Good is Virat Kohli?


Posted by Q at Thursday, March 31, 2016 Pitched (1)
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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Sunday, November 23, 2008

453 Runs


Posted by Q at Sunday, November 23, 2008 Pitched (7)
That is how many Graeme Smith requires this year to over haul Mohammad Yousuf's 1,788 in 2006.

Smith just mauled the Bangaldeshi boys for 157 in the just concluded test.

He has another test against them starting in 3 days.

Following that, Smith plays another 2 test matches against the Aussies before the year comes to a close.

A maximum of 6 innings and a probable of 5 to score 452 - can he do it?

Considering his form against Bangladesh this year he can probably get half of those in his next innings.

Besides the Bangladeshis, Smith has scored his 1,336 runs this year against West Indies, India, and England. Its taken him 12 test matches and 20 innings to get there.

Yousuf got his 1,788 against India, Sri Lanka, England, and the West Indies in 11 tests and 19 innings.

Viv Richards, who held the record for 3 years before Yousuf got past it, got his 1,710 against India, England, and Australia in 11 tests and 19 tests.

So atleast we have established that Smith is no where near the class of Richards or Yousuf.

But we have also established that if you want a crack at the record, make sure you get to play tests against India and England during the same year!

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Monday, November 19, 2007

The Greatest Cricket Captain of the last 4 decades - Part 2.5


Posted by Q at Monday, November 19, 2007 Pitched (3)
I concluded Part 2 of this series with a list of three captains - Waugh, Lloyd, and Chappell. I had initially planned to conclude this series of blogs with a 'Part 3', in which I would have chosen the best captain out of the three I shortlisted. However, taking into consideration all the comments that I received, I decided to do a Part 2.5.

This part lists the top 10 captains in terms of least number of match lost, rather than the top 10 captains in terms of most wins. This takes us back to where we started from - Mikesiva's blog, where he pointed out that the best captains have to be judged on the basis of invincibility, i.e. those that lost the least number of matches / series rather than those who won the most. Thus back to ground zero.

The usual suspects make their presence felt here as well, however there are also a few new entrants on this list, namely Ray Illingworth, Imran Khan, Sunil Gavaskar, and Javed Miandad. These captains do not have such high win ratios, however they are among those who have lost the least number of matches.
From this list, I rule out Ponting, Brearley, and Vaughan for the same reasons presented in Part 1 and 2.

The next step that I followed in 'Part 2' was compare the best captains' performances. Below, I have reconstructed the same table, leaving out those that I left out in 'Part 2' there and adding those that have made an entry on the list above. I have re-added Viv Richards because his 4th position on the above list coupled with the 5th position in 'Part 1' makes him a strong contender for best ever captain.

I was as surprised as you may be to see Imran Khan top the table. Imran Khan averages slightly more than Steve Waugh, however the difference in Imran Khan's career average and his average as a captain is the largest amongst all captains. This highlights the fact that the allrounder led from the front not only with the ball, but also with the bat.

Ray Illingworth can easily be left out of the running based on the numbers above. Javed Miandad and Sunil Gavaskar had similar averages as player and as captain. While both these great batsmen lost very few matches as captain, Gavaskar did not win many either. Miandad has a healthy win ratio of over 41%, however Gavaskar's is below the 20% mark. Gavaskar doesn't have many intangibles either that can make me consider him to be one of the best.
As I move forward, the task of deciding on the best is getting tougher, rather than easier. Moreover, now I'm considering several other areas on which these captains should be judged such as the quality of the teams these men captained, their performance in wins, number of series won and lost, and performance in ODIs. For now, I leave it upon you to discuss these men and judge who is your best.

Expect more parts to this series before the final piece, in which I will decide on my best.

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Sunday, November 11, 2007

The Greatest Cricket Captain of the last 4 decades - Part 2


Posted by Q at Sunday, November 11, 2007 Pitched (11)
In part 1 of the same post I had mentioned a criteria covering 3 factors to decide on the best cricket captain of the last 40 years. Part 1 ranked the captains according to win ratio, and here I move on to the 2nd factor - performance of the ranked cricketers as captains.

Before I go on to comparing the performances of the top 10 captains, I want to take some of them off the list due to a number of reasons, with Hansie Cronje being the first. Undoubtedly he was a good captain but with the match fixing scandal lingering over his head, I believe it is a huge blemish on the man's career and doubts will always remain whether or not South Africa were paid to be "chokers" under him.

I will also remove the man who tops the list - Ricky Ponting. He is arguably the best batsman in the world and will definitely go on to break all batting records in tests, but I don't rank him as one of the best captains because he inherited the team from Steve Waugh. His test as a captain begins now after Warne and McGrath have moved on and it will be interesting to see how he fares as captain hereon and especially after the likes of Hayden and Gilchrist hang up their boots. Plus another factor against Ponting is the same reason I went against Alan Border, i.e. the Cricket Australia structure.

I also leave out Micheal Vaughan as he has been in and out of the team lately due to injury and he hasn't been captain long enough to be judged along side the greats in my list. Shaun Pollock also misses out as he is the only bowler in a list dominated by batsmen and to judge a bowler's performance against that of batsmen is a difficult task.

This leaves us with 6 captains to decide from and here are their performances in tests in which they captained.

It is interesting to note here that Viv Richards, who was rated as one of the best captains by the blog from where I got the idea of doing such an analysis, was a much better batsman when he wasn't captaining the side. His batting average as captain fell by more than 5 runs per innings as compared to his career average. Sir Richards averaged 53.64 in the 71 test matches he played while he wasn't captain, 8 runs higher than his average as captain. Moreover, in those 71 matches he managed 18 centuries, while in the next 50 as captain, he managed only 6. Finally, his case is similar to that of Pontings - he continued from where Lloyd left.

Brearley can easily be discarded from the list as his performance as captain or otherwise isn't much to speak of. I would also leave Mark Taylor out based on the numbers above.

This leaves us with Steve Waugh, Clive Lloyd, and Ian Chappell, the last of whom improves on his career batting performance the most when playing as a captain. Steve Waugh and Clive Lloyd have very similar records as captains, although Lloyd's improvement from his career average is much more than Waugh's. At this time, I still think Waugh has his nose slightly in front as he ranked #2 in part 1 and #1 here.

Watch this space for the final part where I analyze the 3rd criterion and reach a decision on who has been the best cricket captain in the last 40 years.


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Thursday, November 1, 2007

The Greatest Cricket Captain of the last 4 decades - Part 1


Posted by Q at Thursday, November 01, 2007 Pitched (2)
I came across a very interesting blog discussing who the greatest captain has been since the post-packer era. While the author discussed the likes of Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Mark Taylor, and Steve Waugh, the readers gave their own views and bounced off names like Imran Khan, Allan Border, Saurav Ganguly, Mike Brearly, and Stephen Fleming. The author concluded that Lloyd and Richards ranked ahead of Taylor and Waugh but left it to the readers to decide between the two great West Indians.

The author's basis of ranking the West Indians above the Australians was that they led more invincible sides, i.e. lost a lesser number of test series. Is that the correct criteria? According Mikesiva, it is, but it got me pondering. Do we judge captains on who has a higher win ratio or who lost fewer series? Or do we judge them on intangibles such as who was a good leader of men - Who managed the teams better? Or who converted mediocre players into world beaters? I guess its a combination of all factors.

I think a combination of win ratios, performance of the player as a captain, and his performance in the wins spells out a good criteria to judge who the best captain is. There is no way to measure the intangibles, but as you will see, those regarded as the best leaders of men, have very low win ratios thus counting them out of the race.
If one were to judge based on the highest win ratios then Ricky Ponting (77%) and Steve Waugh (72%) head the table. While Steve Waugh can definitely be counted as one of the best leaders, I don't feel the same way about Ricky Ponting since he inherited a world beating team from the former.

If you look for intangibles such as best motivators, or those who created champion teams, then the likes of Allan Border and Imran Khan come to mind, but their win ratios are very low - 34% and 29% respectively and don't feature in the top 10 win ratios of captains since 1965.
Stephen Fleming and Saurav Ganguly also fit into this category of leaders with intangible qualities. However, neither, with ratios of 35% and 43% respectively, features in the top 10 list. While Fleming converted average individuals into a good team, Ganguly achieved what no other international captain has been able to in the last decade or so - beating Australia in a test series and holding them to a draw in another.
While Mikesiva thinks Lloyd and Richards, I tend towards Waugh because of his higher win ratio coupled with the fact that he converted the Aussies into a ruthless and invincible unit, something Mikesiva says is essential to term one as the 'best captain'. But I still don't have my definite answer - I will though in subsequent parts to this where I will compare the other criterions I mention.
There are a number of names in the list above, who have not been discussed and I intend to do that in Part 2. Stay tuned for that, but in the meantime, do give me your opinion about who you think is the best cricket captain to have played during the period discussed?

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