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Monday, August 31, 2020
Lesnar hits free agency: Potential landing spots for the former UFC and WWE champion
Brock Lesnar's WWE contract has expired. Will he remain in pro wrestling or go back to mixed martial arts?
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Coco Gauff exits US Open as organizers use 'enhanced protocol plan' after positive Covid test
Coco Gauff lost her opening match at a different looking US Open against former semifinalist Anastasija Sevastova, while two fellow pros who came into contact with a player who tested positive for the coronavirus were allowed to compete on the opening day.
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Who do you think is gonna be the best limited overs batsman this decade?
My bet is on nicholas pooran, strikes the ball a mighty distance while averaging 49.5, has proven that he can bat well on multiple types of pitches and overall makes the west Indian side a lot more competitive.
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Butler pours in career playoff-high 40 as Heat roll
Jimmy Butler fits in with the Heat by taking control. In Game 1 vs. the Bucks, he dominated. "I told my teammates I probably wasn't gonna pass the ball," Butler said of his late-game mindset. "I made a couple shots, and they said, 'That's fine with me.'"
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Name a more iconic duo than Jimmy Butler and the Heat
A 40-point game to open the semifinals is the latest validation that Jimmy Butler is tailor-made for the Heat.
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New on SI: NFL Takes Over Investigation Into Washington Football Team
The team launched the investigation after allegations of sexual harassment within the workplace were reported in July.
The NFL has taken over the investigation into allegations of sexual harassment within the Washington Football Team's workplace.
Owner Dan Snyder confirmed the decision in a statement, saying he suggested the move to commissioner Roger Goodell.
"Recently, The Washington Football Team launched an independent third-party investigation into allegations about our culture and incidents of harassment. In conversations with Commissioner Goodell, Tanya and I suggested that the NFL assume full oversight of the investigation so that the results are thorough, complete and trusted by the fans, the players, our employees and the public," Snyder said in a statement,
via ESPN's Adam Schefter. "I appreciate Commissioner Goodell agreeing to our suggestion and the entire Washington Football Team remains committed to fully cooperating with all aspects of the investigation."Attorney Beth Wilkinson, who is conducting the investigation, will now report to the NFL instead of the team. Washington hired Wilkinson following a report from The Washington Post last month that included 15 former female employees of the team describing their experiences with sexual harassment within the organization. Last week, the Post published another report alleging a former senior executive instructed employees to create a behind-the-scenes video for Snyder, featuring outtakes of partially nude team cheerleaders from a 2008 team swimsuit calendar shoot. Snyder later denied the allegations.
"While I was unaware of these allegations until they surfaced in the media, I take full responsibility for the culture of our organization," Snyder said in a statement. "Even before today's article, I have begun taking any and all steps necessary to ensure that the Washington Football Team is an organization that is diverse, inclusive and respectful of all."
Between its two stories, The Post interviewed 40 female employees about being sexual harassed in the workplace.
Attorneys Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, who represent over 12 former Washington employees, demanded last week that the NFL should launch its own independent investigation into the allegations and suspend Snyder pending the outcome of the probe. They also asked for Snyder's removal as majority owner if the investigation substantiates the claims.
In a statement, the Washington firm Katz, Marshall and Banks said Snyder will "release employees or former employees from any non-disclosure agreement for purposes of speaking with the investigators."
No Stupid Questions Tuesday Thread
All cricket questions welcome! No question is too stupid so fret not and ask away!
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Daily General Discussion and Match Links Thread - September 01, 2020
Follow this link to find current match threads and upcoming scheduled threads.
This a daily thread for general cricketing discussion/conversation about all topics that don't need to be posted in their own thread.
This provides a space for things like general team changes/opinions/conversation and other frequently-asked questions or commonly-posted subjects.
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Without a roaring crowd, Coco Gauff makes early exit at US Open
Gauff didn't have the extra support that she often does as she lost for the first time in the first round of a Grand Slam.
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How to pickup line and length early
Any tips guys?
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NFL takes over Washington Football Team probe
The NFL is now overseeing the investigation by Beth Wilkinson into the Washington Football Team over alleged sexual harassment issues in the organization.
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Which 90+ score would have got more credit if the batsman managed to make a century?
Basically, can you think of a high-quality, tough, and/or meaningful innings where a batsman was either out or stranded in the 90s, that would have been remembered or valued more if the batsman had made a century?
One I think of immeidately is Kane Williamson's 97(210) in the 3rd innings against Australia at Christchurch 2016. While we still ended up losing the match fairly comfortably by 7 wickets, it was a superb rearguard action against a very good seam attack in bowling-friendly conditions. It took a peach from Bird to nip out his off-stump.
Any others you can think of?
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Source: Chargers' James to undergo knee surgery
Chargers safety Derwin James needs surgery on his injured right knee and will be out six to eight months, a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter on Monday.
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Sources: KC reaches extensions with Reid, Veach
The Chiefs have agreed to contract extensions through 2025 with coach Andy Reid and general manager Brett Veach, sources confirmed to ESPN.
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Pelicans' Ingram caps breakout season with MIP
Brandon Ingram won the NBA's Most Improved Player award after setting career highs in points, rebounds, assists, steals and 3-point percentage.
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Recapping the duel between Mitchell and Murray
Murray and Donovan Mitchell are having a battle of the ages that will be decided with a Game 7.
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Sunday, August 30, 2020
Murray again magical as Nuggets force Game 7
Helping stave off elimination again by scoring 50 points for the second time in three games, Jamal Murray outdueled Donovan Mitchell and lifted the Nuggets to a 119-107 Game 6 win over the Jazz.
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Which T20 league has the best sounding or coolest team names and which league has the least cool names?
I am impressed by some of the Caribbean Premier League team names. Barbados Tridents sounds formidable IMO.
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Everton can help James Rodriguez reach his potential
One of the stars of the 2014 World Cup, James Rodriguez never really got going at Real Madrid. Can Everton provide him a better platform?
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Local Match Report/Playing Advice Monday Thread
This thread is for the discussion of local cricket matches, performances, and results from around the world.
If you played a game on the weekend let us know how you went, or share the results of a local cricket match from your area. No skill level or grade requirement, it's all for the love of the game.
Also a place to discuss cricket tactics, techniques, strategies, and general advice for improving your skills.
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Daily General Discussion and Match Links Thread - August 31, 2020
Follow this link to find current match threads and upcoming scheduled threads.
This a daily thread for general cricketing discussion/conversation about all topics that don't need to be posted in their own thread.
This provides a space for things like general team changes/opinions/conversation and other frequently-asked questions or commonly-posted subjects.
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Sources: Busy Padres get Nola, ship Trammell
The Padres on Sunday acquired catcher Austin Nola from the Mariners as part of a seven-player deal, sources told ESPN. Part of the return for Seattle is one of San Diego's top prospects, outfielder Taylor Trammell.
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Auburn down 16 players for virus-related issues
Nine of Auburn's players have tested positive for the coronavirus, and seven others are at high risk, coach Gus Malzahn said.
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Did Muralitharan's bowling style/strategy change over time?
The reason I ask this question is because I only really saw Murali at the very end of his career (I only started watching cricket to a tragic degree in the 2010s), which is a shame because I did love watching him bowl when I had the chance.
I recently watched two videos of Murali where his wicket-taking deliveries were very different. In the first video Murali took 16 wickets against England at the Oval in 1998. Most of his wickets came from big-turning offbreaks, pitching well outside off stump and then ripping in quickly to bowl batsmen or catch them LBW. Left-handers were mostly out stumped or caught at slip due to the big turn. In fact, none of his wickets in this match came from bowling a doosra - they all appeared to be off-breaks or straighter deliveries.
The second video shows Murali taking 10 wickets against England at Lords in 2006. In this clip most of his wickets are from doosras (7 of them if I've counted correctly) where he bowls over the wicket to left-handers and catches them in-front of the stumps, or duping right-handers into playing for the turn in only to be bowled/LBW by the ball turning away. While he does catch the left-handers Trescothick with a big off-break spinning across him, the magnitude of spin on Murali's off-breaks isn't as noticeable in the 2008 clip as it is in the 1998 clip.
For those who have watched Murali's career, is this difference due to a change in his bowling style over the years? I've always assumed he bowled the doosra from the beginning - did he only develop it partway through his international career? Did he have injuries that impacted his ability to turn it as much, so he began to use variations such as the doosra more? Or is simply down to different pitches,the make-up of the opposition etc.
Thanks in advance.
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'Man of business' Kawhi stomps on gas vs. Mavs
Kawhi Leonard helped the Clippers finish off the Mavs with 33 points, 14 rebounds, 7 assists and 5 steals to become the seventh player to have 30 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 steals in a playoff game.
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Seahawks put DE Jackson on IR after knockout
The Seahawks put defensive end Branden Jackson, who was knocked out in a scrimmage, on injured reserve.
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How Jon Rahm made a mistake and still won the BMW Championship
Normally, Rahm's temper would have gotten the best of him. Not this time.
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Rahm's 66-foot putt in playoff stuns DJ, wins BMW
Dustin Johnson made a 45-foot birdie on the 18th to force a playoff. Jon Rahm answered with a 66-footer on the opening hole of that playoff, winning the BMW Championship. Johnson, though, stays at No. 1 in the FedEx Cup going to the Tour Championship.
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Luka Doncic and the Mavericks' championship window is approaching
Luka Doncic is the generational talent speeding up the Mavs' process. But is Dallas done searching for his sidekick?
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New on SI: Eagles WR Jalen Reagor Out 3-4 Weeks With Shoulder Injury
The Eagles rookie WR is expected to miss a month after injuring his shoulder making a tackle in practice. SI Fantasy insider Ben Heisler discusses the fantasy ramifications.
Eagles rookie wide receiver Jalen Reagor is expected to miss 3-4 weeks after suffering a shoulder injury during practice on Sunday.
John McMullen of EagleMaven reports the injury was suffered as a result of trying to make a tackle after a pass was intercepted:"Reagor was blanketed in coverage by Avonte Maddox and a pass-breakup hung in the air for Will Parks and the Philadelphia native intercepted it before being tackled by Reagor.
The TCU product seemed to be favoring his hand or wrist and was taken inside. Sources then confirmed that the injury was with the left shoulder."
Initial reports from Geoff Mosher were that Reagor suffered a left shoulder injury on the play, and that surgery will not be required. Mosher adds that Reagor may have a slight labrum tear.
From a fantasy standpoint, Reagor's ADP (average draft position) had continued to climb since making a noticeable first impression in Training Camp. With Marquise Goodwin opting out for 2020 due to COVID-19 and Alshon Jeffery rehabbing from Lisfranc surgery, Reagor was set to be the starting "X" receiver for Carson Wentz and the Eagles when they open the season against the Washington Football Team on Sunday, September 13th.
Reagor currently is ranked as the WR49 on the board according to SI Fantasy's Advanced ADP rankings. SI Fantasy expert Michael Fabiano is ahead of consensus on Reagor, ranking him as his WR42 in his latest up-to-date Top 200 PPR Rankings.
Even with the injury, Reagor still remains my top sleeper for the 2020 season on my SI Preason Pro Breakdown.
Check out SI Fantasy team's full list of Top Sleepers for 2020 here.
Unless Jeffery is able to start the season healthy, JJ Arcega-Whiteside would be the other starting outside WR alongside DeSean Jackson. Greg Ward would play in the slot.
Additionally, the injury to Reagor could also indicate a higher role for tight end Dallas Goedert if the Eagles choose to go to more two-TE sets.
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For more SI Fantasy and Gambling:
• 2020 Fantasy Football Rankings
Celtics' depth is showing up in these playoffs
Boston isn't missing a beat without Gordon Hayward.
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Saturday, August 29, 2020
Melo eyes Blazers return: 'Think I found a home'
Carmelo Anthony said after the Blazers' season-ending loss to the Lakers on Saturday night that he expects to "be right back in the fray of things when next season comes," adding, "I pray that it can be Portland, I think I found a home in Portland."
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Managers tossed as benches clear in Cubs-Reds
Cubs manager David Ross and Cincinnati's David Bell were ejected from Game 2 of Saturday night's doubleheader after "chirping" by Chicago and errant fastballs led to both benches clearing.
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Damian Lillard remains the Blazers' safety net from a rebuild
Damian Lillard wouldn't join the bubble unless Portland had a shot. With their superstar guard, the Trail Blazers will always have one.
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Is a title shot next for Aleksandar Rakic? Does Neil Magny get enough respect?
Rakic showed that he belongs near the top of the light heavyweight division, while Magny shined against a legend.
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Black NWSL players unify to condemn Utah owner
A coalition of Black players from the NWSL expressed support for the probe of Utah owner Dell Loy Hansen over allegations he used racist language.
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Shitpost Sunday Thread
This a weekly thread where normal subreddit rule 7 is completely relaxed. A place to share the week's best memes/image macros/low effort posts. All other rules still apply as normal.
During the rest of the week you can fill your boots with all the slop you need over at r/CricketShitpost.
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Daily General Discussion and Match Links Thread - August 30, 2020
Follow this link to find current match threads and upcoming scheduled threads.
This a daily thread for general cricketing discussion/conversation about all topics that don't need to be posted in their own thread.
This provides a space for things like general team changes/opinions/conversation and other frequently-asked questions or commonly-posted subjects.
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Byron wins at Daytona; Johnson misses playoffs
William Byron earned his first career Cup Series victory on Saturday, clinching a playoff berth by winning at Daytona. Jimmie Johnson, meanwhile, was caught up in a late wreck and will miss the playoffs in his final full-time season.
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England Test Batsmen and Strike Rotation
Introduction
Under Trevor Bayliss, a common criticism of England's Test team was that the batsmen played too aggressively rather than demonstrating patience and waiting for the bad balls to hit. The appointment of the new England head coach, Chris Silverwood, appears to have marked a shift from Bayliss in that under his leadership, our Test batting has been a little more cautious (under Bayliss, the aggregate strike rate of our Top Six was 49.98, whereas under Silverwood so far, it has been 48.05). This in and of itself is not a bad thing; in fact, it is how Test cricket is supposed to be played.
However, some England fans appear to be under the impression that the 'correct' way to play Test cricket is to block as many balls as possible unless you receive a full toss which you can hit for four; if you're really lucky, you might be able to run a single. Of course, this is an exaggeration of sorts on my part, but the general sentiment is not too far off. To be clear, I can certainly understand the mentality: After all, we have had four years of batting with INTENTTM under Bayliss and while that strategy has worked wonders for the ODI team, it has not been nearly as successful in Tests.
That being said, there have been times when that sentiment has rubbed me the wrong way, and there are two examples in particular which I want to highlight.
- Opening batsman Dom Sibley has come under criticism from some pundits for his rather slow rate of scoring. To some degree, openers ought to prioritise survival over run-scoring, at least at the start of their innings, but the way in which some England fans have responded to this criticism has been to accuse said pundits of wanting Sibley to start attempting to slog every ball for six, even though this is clearly not what those pundits are asking him to do.
- Some time around the Ashes, back when I was a mere lurker, a user brought up the possibility of bringing Ollie Pope, who averages around 60 in domestic FC cricket, into the England Test side. Said user made an offhand remark about how Pope could bat aggressively, and another user decided that this was justification to leave him out of the team as England had already tried and failed with aggressive middle-order batsmen.
In both these situations, the perception among some fans appears to be that the only way to bat positively in Test cricket is to smack boundaries; if you are not blocking every ball then you must be batting as if it is a T20. This couldn't be further from the truth, however. Do people seriously believe that some of the best batsmen of the modern era (Ponting, Tendulkar, Lara, Smith, Kohli, Sangakkara) achieved their success through negative defensive batting?
It is easy enough to look at strike rate alone, but in Tests, success is not measured by how quickly you can score runs but rather how many runs you can score, so most people do not pay much attention to it. However, in my view, strike rotation is an important yet undervalued skill, especially in Tests where even though attempting to score boundaries can indeed be too risky, this doesn't change the fact that you can't win games without scoring runs. I would argue that any good Test batsman should at least be competent at rotating strike and running those cheeky ones and twos, though the stats may end up proving me wrong.
To this end, I would like to analyse England's Test batsmen of the past ten years (plus some past greats) using a metric I call 'rotation rate'. This is essentially just the strike rate of a particular batsman, but only after all boundaries are discounted. For example, if a batsman scores 30(50) having hit two fours and a six, their strike rate will be (30/50)*100 (i.e. 60.00) while their rotation rate will be (16/47)*100 (i.e. 34.04). In other words, through running alone, that particular batsman will be expected to score 34 runs for every 100 deliveries.
In addition to that, I'll be calculating what I call 'boundary reliance', which is simply strike rate divided by rotation rate. Yes, it really is that crude. Basically, a higher value implies that the batsman is forced to (or chooses to) score more of their runs from boundaries, whereas a lower value implies, well, the opposite. With that out of the way, it's time to begin the analysis.
Aggregate Stats
As always, I am going to start with the aggregate stats of all Test batsmen (which for the purposes of this analysis I am defining as any player batting in the Top Six). However, instead of just running Statsguru on every single batsman ever, I am going to restrict it to the past ten years, for no other reason apart from the fact that I am mainly interested in seeing how modern English batsmen fare when compared to modern standards (though I will also be comparing them to past English batsmen), and ten years is modern enough for me. In addition, I will be breaking down the stats by batting position in recognition of the slightly different demands that each particular position places on its occupant.
Here is the aggregate data for all non-English batsmen for the past ten years:
| Batting position | Batting average | Strike rate | Rotation rate | Boundary reliance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Openers (#1 and #2) | 34.66 | 50.59 | 26.24 | 1.93 |
| Top order (#3 and #4) | 40.42 | 50.43 | 27.65 | 1.82 |
| Middle order (#5 and #6) | 38.42 | 50.95 | 27.11 | 1.88 |
It would not appear from this data that top-order and middle-order batsmen are significantly better at rotating strike than opening batsmen and, perhaps surprisingly, top-order batsmen score slightly slower than openers (but are also less reliant on boundaries). However, this is for all Test batsmen, including ones who are frankly not that good. Let's see what happens when we restrict our search to only those who average 40+ with a minimum of twenty innings in the past ten years:
| Batting position | Strike rate | Rotation rate | Boundary reliance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Openers | 58.53 | 31.05 | 1.89 |
| Top order | 51.86 | 29.31 | 1.77 |
| Middle order | 51.42 | 27.88 | 1.84 |
I double-checked and yes, openers who average 40+ tend to strike at nearly 60. Great openers are very good at rotating strike when compared to average openers, and are also slightly less reliant on scoring boundaries (though still more reliant than other batsmen). In other words, the best openers do not simply sit back and allow the bowlers to place them under pressure, but rather they rotate strike relatively often. The rotation rate then decreases as you move down the order.
As for the middle order, it might be the case that batting with the tail makes farming the strike more desirable than rotating the strike, which would explain why the rotation rate is relatively low. It might also simply be the case that hitting boundaries is less risky as the innings continues, so batsmen further down the order might be more open to the idea of relying on boundaries for most of their runs. Even then, though, the boundary reliance for the middle order is not as high as it is for openers.
In any case, the best batsmen do a better job at rotating the strike than the average batsman regardless of position, and are also less reliant on scoring boundaries than the average batsman (boundaries generally being more risky than running), which should hopefully prove my point regarding why it is such an important skill to master.
England Openers
Finally, we can move on to England! Let's start with a position which England struggled to fill throughout most of the 2010s: The openers. It's fair to say that we've been through a lot of openers since 2010, initially due to the retirement of Andrew Strauss and later due to the retirement of Alastair Cook, but the position has also been a bit of a revolving door for England, with the result that only six openers (Burns, Cook, Hales, Jennings, Stoneman and Strauss) have batted twenty innings or more for England since 2010. Sibley barely misses out having batted nineteen innings; since he only missed the cutoff by a whisker and since he's one of the two main reasons I made this post in the first place, I'll stick him in there.
I'll also include every England opener to have averaged 40+ in the past thirty years (aside from Cook and Strauss, there's also Gooch, Stewart, Trescothick and Vaughan) and I'll include Boycott and Tavaré just to see how low they rank in terms of rotating strike.
Before I present the stats, there are three caveats. Firstly, I am only considering each batsman's stats as opener. Secondly, I am considering overall career stats, not just the stats since 2010. Finally, for Boycott, consistent ball-by-ball data for his innings is not available prior to March 1968, so the early years of his Test career are unfortunately cut off from this data set.
| Player | Batting average | Strike rate | Rotation rate | Boundary reliance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graham Gooch | 43.88 | 49.96 | 26.83 | 1.86 |
| Alastair Cook | 44.86 | 46.93 | 26.45 | 1.77 |
| Andrew Strauss | 40.85 | 49.03 | 26.01 | 1.89 |
| Michael Vaughan | 45.48 | 54.13 | 25.41 | 2.13 |
| Rory Burns | 32.44 | 44.83 | 24.35 | 1.84 |
| Keaton Jennings | 25.16 | 42.32 | 23.98 | 1.76 |
| Alec Stewart | 44.64 | 49.01 | 23.70 | 2.07 |
| Marcus Trescothick | 43.78 | 54.51 | 22.91 | 2.38 |
| Mark Stoneman | 27.68 | 44.27 | 22.84 | 1.94 |
| Geoffrey Boycott | 49.68 | 35.18 | 22.46 | 1.57 |
| Alex Hales | 27.28 | 43.84 | 20.13 | 2.18 |
| Dom Sibley | 38.11 | 36.68 | 19.91 | 1.84 |
| Chris Tavaré | 31.16 | 29.57 | 18.60 | 1.59 |
Now let's see what we can conclude from this data.
- Cook and Gooch (arguably England's two best openers of the last thirty years) are the only batsmen on the list who are better at rotating strike than the average opener from the past ten years
- Cook was notably less reliant on boundaries to score runs than the average Test opener
- Strauss was a fairly typical opening batsman by these metrics
- Burns, though a bit more defensive than Strauss, plays in a similar style; I'll note that Burns doesn't receive nearly as much criticism from pundits for scoring slowly as Sibley does
- Some England fans have compared Sibley's defensive batting style to Cook's, but this notion that Cook was some glorified nightwatchman who always took forever to score a single run is clearly not backed up by the stats
- Jennings gets a lot of stick from England fans, and it's true that his batting average is appalling, but one thing you can't criticise him for is playing too aggressively; if anything, perhaps he bats too defensively for his own good, and a more positive outlook on his part might relieve the pressure somewhat
- Vaughan, Stewart and Trescothick are somewhat odd in that they didn't rotate strike that often, but all of them batted positively nonetheless; it just so happened that those batsman (especially Trescothick) relied on their ability to hit boundaries to apply pressure to the fielding side, and to be fair, that strategy worked for them
- That particular strategy didn't work for Stoneman, however; I feel as if he'd have been better off rotating strike more often, as his boundary-hitting clearly wasn't up to scratch
- Let's dispel with this myth that Hales failed as a Test opener because he was too aggressive; if anything, he remained trapped within his crease for almost as long as Sibley, and the subsequent reliance on scoring boundaries clearly didn't help him one bit
- Boycott and Tavaré (especially the former) both had the mental fortitude not to get drawn into big shots despite the fact that both struggled to score runs at a brisk pace
- Boycott had a much better average than Sibley does at a strike rate that was only slightly lower and a rotation rate that was actually higher, yet even he was criticised for scoring too slowly; it should thus not surprise anyone that Sibley cops the same criticisms
It is true that Sibley's done a good job so far, but looking at this table, I have to say that I see where the pundits are coming from. The only English openers in recent times to stay in their crease for as long as Sibley does are Hales and Stoneman, and both of them were failures. Sibley is, in fact, even worse than those two when it comes to rotating strike, and his resolve not to chase boundaries is not nearly as impenetrable as Boycott's or Tavaré's (though thankfully stronger than Hales'). No English Test opener since Boycott has succeeded while playing in the manner which Sibley has so far, and the fear that Sibley places too much pressure on himself by not taking singles is understandable. This does not mean that Sibley will fail (he could very well end up being a modern Boycott); I am just saying that if he does succeed, he will be the exception, not the norm.
Top-Order Batsmen
Much has been made of England's problems finding an opener during the 2010s, but our top order (i.e. #3 and #4) for that period has basically been Joe Root plus whoever Ed Smith feels might do a job at any particular time. Whether or not the emergence of Zak Crawley has finally solved that issue remains to be seen, but in any case, let us compare how well our top-order batsmen have done at rotating strike. Six batsmen have batted twenty innings or more at positions #3 or #4 for England in Test matches in the past ten years: Ballance, Bell, Denly, Pietersen, Root and Trott.
In addition, I'm including any top-order batsman who averages 40+ for England with a minimum of twenty innings in those particular positions in the last thirty years...and the only one who fits that bill who hasn't already qualified is Thorpe. Wow, I didn't realise just how bad the 1990s were for English top-order batsmen. Also, I will once again be including Chris Tavaré just because I'm curious to see how low he features.
| Player | Batting average | Strike rate | Rotation rate | Boundary reliance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joe Root | 44.73 | 55.46 | 31.27 | 1.77 |
| Kevin Pietersen | 48.95 | 62.48 | 30.91 | 2.02 |
| Jonathan Trott | 46.89 | 47.40 | 26.46 | 1.79 |
| Graham Thorpe | 41.88 | 46.45 | 26.01 | 1.79 |
| Ian Bell | 35.54 | 48.29 | 25.36 | 1.90 |
| Gary Ballance | 41.22 | 48.13 | 22.97 | 2.10 |
| Chris Tavaré | 34.30 | 31.95 | 19.47 | 1.64 |
| Joe Denly | 29.04 | 39.39 | 18.07 | 2.18 |
Time for some more observations.
- It genuinely makes me laugh that Denly played more negatively than even Chris flipping Tavaré; it's no wonder that he tried the pull shot so often or else he wouldn't have been able to score a single run!
- Jokes aside, as much as I enjoyed seeing Dendulkar occupy the crease while scoring denturies left, right and centre, his style of batting just left him under far too much pressure to score runs some other way, thus his habit of attempting risky boundaries (this is probably why he had a tendency to get himself dismissed cheaply once he had faced around a hundred balls)
- Root and KP, two of England's best in recent years, feature at the top of the list, thus proving that it is possible to bat positively in Tests without getting yourself dismissed for playing stupid shots
- KP supplemented his ability to rotate strike with superb boundary-hitting skills, whereas Root relies more on running quick singles
- Trott and Thorpe were slightly more defensive than top-order batsmen have generally been for the past ten years, but in Trott's case at least, it didn't do him any harm
- Bell's cover drives were majestic, but as can be seen by his stats, relying on those alone cannot ensure success near the top of the order
- Ballance loved playing on the backfoot to hit bowlers for fours, but not only did this leave him incredibly vulnerable to Test match bowling, it also appears to have limited his ability to find the quick singles to rotate strike effectively
That's about all I have to say regarding the top order, so now it's time to move on to the final category: The middle order.
Middle-Order Batsmen
There are seven batsmen who have batted at #5 or #6 in at least twenty innings for England in the past ten years: Moeen, Bairstow, Bell, Buttler, Malan, Root and Stokes. I'm going to include Pope solely because, along with Sibley, he's a big reason why I wanted to post this analysis in the first place; I must caution you, however, that he's only batted in fourteen innings at #5 or #6, so it's not quite as big of a sample size as I would ideally want.
In terms of England middle-order batsmen who average 40+ with a minimum of twenty innings in the past thirty years, in addition to the above, we have Collingwood, Crawley (John, not Zak), Smith (Robin, not Steve) and Thorpe. No Chris Tavaré this time, unfortunately, so everyone has a shot at claiming the 'Most Negative Batting' title.
| Player | Batting average | Strike rate | Rotation rate | Boundary reliance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joe Root | 63.68 | 55.63 | 33.01 | 1.69 |
| Kevin Pietersen | 42.16 | 58.42 | 30.47 | 1.92 |
| Jos Buttler | 43.08 | 56.12 | 29.71 | 1.89 |
| Ollie Pope | 46.09 | 56.90 | 28.76 | 1.98 |
| Jonny Bairstow | 32.88 | 51.83 | 27.92 | 1.86 |
| Ian Bell | 52.35 | 50.87 | 26.88 | 1.89 |
| Paul Collingwood | 40.76 | 47.20 | 26.39 | 1.79 |
| Graham Thorpe | 46.51 | 45.75 | 25.58 | 1.79 |
| Ben Stokes | 40.47 | 58.14 | 25.31 | 2.30 |
| Robin Smith | 50.36 | 46.52 | 25.11 | 1.85 |
| John Crawley | 42.57 | 41.11 | 24.69 | 1.67 |
| Moeen Ali | 24.17 | 41.12 | 21.50 | 1.91 |
| Dawid Malan | 32.65 | 41.77 | 19.76 | 2.11 |
Now let's analyse all that data.
- We saw previously that a good rotation rate is not necessary for a good middle-order batsman, and these stats seem to bear that out
- Root and KP are once again the frontrunners in this category (Root especially loves to rotate strike when batting in the middle order and is far less reliant on boundaries than most middle-order batsmen)
- Buttler does a pretty good job at rotating strike when batting at #5 or #6 (although Foakes' rotation rate would be 29.72)
- Pope is adept at rotating strike, but not to the degree that I thought he was, and he is very reliant on boundaries as a result; that being said, he is fluent enough with the bat that this hasn't posed a problem for him so far
- Bell played in a similar fashion regardless of where he batted but his strategy of 'cover drive and inshallah' clearly worked much better in the middle order than in the top order
- Pope has often been compared to Bell, but in the middle order, the former bats much more positively than the latter
- Bairstow isn't particularly aggressive for a middle-order batsman; his issues at Test level have little to do with his positive mentality and much more to do with the fact that he gets bowled a lot
- Collingwood and Thorpe batted in similar fashions but Thorpe found much more success with it than Collingwood did
- Stokes isn't particularly good at rotating the strike (either that or he's left batting with the tail too often and thus has to farm the strike), which leaves him feeling the need to chase boundaries far too often
- Robin Smith's average is surprisingly high, but he was not out eleven times in forty-four innings which no doubt boosted his batting average; even so, he showed remarkable discipline for a middle-order batsman
- John Crawley was praised for his leg-side game but criticised for not being able to play off-side shots (sound familiar?)
- Crawley was moved up and down the order for England, but his best performances came in the middle order despite his defensive mindset (it should be noted that like Boycott, he is an anomaly in that regard)
- Malan and Moeen are sometimes seen as encapsulating the issues with Trevor Bayliss' attempts to instil a more positive mentality into the Test team, but both batted far more negatively than most middle-order batsmen when it came to rotating strike (Malan had a lower rotation rate than Dom Sibley!), which is probably what forced them to try to play big shots (unsuccessfully, as you can see)
As Smith and Crawley show, it is not impossible to be a good middle-order batsman while staying on strike, and as Stokes shows, it is indeed possible in the middle order to rely largely on boundaries to score runs. The exciting thing about Ollie Pope (and this is going to sound clichéd) is that he likes to look busy at the crease; he feels comfortable both with rotating the strike and with hitting boundaries. If he can continue to play in that fluent manner while still scoring runs on a consistent basis then he will hopefully develop into a very fine middle-order batsman indeed.
Conclusion
One thing I found interesting was that the batsmen who England fans most associate with Trevor Bayliss' 'aggressive' strategy (Hales, Bairstow, Moeen, Malan) tend actually to score slower than the 'proper' Test batsmen (with the exception of Bairstow) and also don't tend to run as often (once again, with the exception of Bairstow); instead, their issue is that they are too reliant on scoring boundaries (for the final time, with the exception of Bairstow) not necessarily because they want to show INTENTTM but rather because they feel that it's the only way they can score runs (which is the main job for any batsman).
As a check, I decided to compare the stats of Top Six batsmen under Bayliss to the stats under Chris Silverwood and to the stats under Andy Flower (who was England head coach from 2009 to 2014):
| Head coach | Batting average | Strike rate | Rotation rate | Boundary reliance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andy Flower | 40.72 | 48.70 | 25.97 | 1.88 |
| Trevor Bayliss | 33.13 | 49.98 | 26.04 | 1.92 |
| Chris Silverwood | 42.88 | 48.05 | 25.05 | 1.92 |
Hmm. This is awkward. My initial conclusion was going to be that the problem under Bayliss was that we were inept at rotating strike when compared to how we played under Flower and that this was what led to an over-reliance on big shots, which inevitably led to batting collapses. I would then go on to say that under Silverwood, we were not any better at strike rotation despite putting away the big shots and so our batsmen would continue to crumble under pressure and we were left not much better off as a result.
However, looking at that table there...that conclusion is no longer sustainable. Yes, we are worse at rotating strike under Silverwood than we were under Flower, but there was practically no difference in our rotation rate between Flower and Bayliss (if anything, it was higher under Bayliss), nor are we any less reliant on hitting boundaries under Silverwood than we were under Bayliss. Despite these supposed shortcomings under Silverwood (we have gotten worse at rotating strike and we are no less reliant on boundaries to score our runs), our Top Six are not only batting better than they were under Bayliss but they are batting better now than they were under Flower.
What explains this? How has our batting improved despite the fact that our batsmen are inviting even more pressure on themselves at the crease than they were inviting under Flower and Bayliss? Part of it is no doubt the fact that Silverwood is still a recent appointment and that apart from New Zealand (who we were beaten by), we haven't exactly faced strong opposition. Perhaps things will return to normal once we tour India and Australia and get whitewashed as usual.
Then again, that is quite a significant leap between Bayliss and Silverwood, too large to be mere coincidence. Could it really be the case that England batsmen are now more mentally prepared to deal with pressure from the bowling attack than they were before? Under four years of Bayliss, England scored five double centuries in Tests (three from Cook, one from Root and one from Stokes). We've had less than a year under Silverwood and England have already scored two double centuries (Root and Crawley being the batsmen responsible).
Under Flower, we had twenty-one daddy centuries in around four years and nine months at a strike rate of 58.50. Under Bayliss, we had nine daddy centuries in four years and five months at a strike rate of 67.96. Under Silverwood, we have had four daddy centuries in around ten months (that includes a global pandemic) at a strike rate of 54.70. Under Flower, positions #1 to #6 had a balls per dismissal rate of 83.63. Under Bayliss, that figure was 66.29 and under Silverwood, that figure is 89.24.
...
You know, under Silverwood, England batsmen haven't been the best at rotating strike. However, based on what has occurred so far, it seems as if we're doing alright as it is, and if we can improve our strike rotation to what it was previously, there's no reason why the Silverwood era can't be better than the Flower era.
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Giannis: Protesting shooting bigger than game
Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo said Saturday he'll remember how he felt after talking to the family of Jacob Blake, who was shot seven times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Sunday, for the rest of his life.
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Interception spurs Lamar in Ravens' scrimmage
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson struggled in Saturday night's intrasquad scrimmage but finished on a hot streak.
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Murray: Skin color shouldn't decide life or death
In order to make his point that "my skin color should not determine whether I live or die," Denver's Jamal Murray placed a pair of shoes with Breonna Taylor's and George Floyd's likenesses on them in front of the camera before speaking Saturday.
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The Bucks' playoff run now has a larger purpose
The Bucks' postseason journey has evolved into something bigger than the quest for 16 wins and a trophy.
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CDL Championship Weekend Day 1: Fond farewells and picks for grand finals
In some of the best Call of Duty we've seen all year, we say goodbye to the London Royal Ravens and Chicago Huntsmen, and look forward to the $1.5 million finals matchup of Dallas Empire vs. Atlanta FaZe.
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Carroll implores coaches, white people to listen
Pete Carroll said white people need to educate themselves on the issues facing Black people in America and called on coaches to lead the charge for change.
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Match Thread: 2nd Match - Luxembourg v Czech Republic
2nd Match, Luxembourg Twenty20 Tri-Series at Walferdange, Aug 29 2020
Cricinfo | Reddit-Stream | 🌤 ☀️ 🌤 🌧 🌧
Starts at 9:30 AM local time
Please upvote for visibility. Thanks for checking new
Send feedback | Schedule | Stat Help
Please don't post illegal streaming links in match threads
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IPL Breaking: One more Chennai player has tested positive. This time it’s Ruturaj Gaekwad
Friday, August 28, 2020
Just In: Suresh Raina has returned to India for personal reasons and will not take part in IPL 2020 (ESPNcricinfo)
Finally got my cricket book orders delivered, so this is what my TBR for September looks like!
Obama counseled 'a small group' of NBA players amid boycotts
Before NBA players decided to resume playing, National Basketball Players Association President Chris Paul reached out to Barack Obama, a person familiar with the call told CNN, and asked the former President if he would offer his counsel to a group of NBA players.
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'It's very important we stay together': WNBA, NBA figures promote strengthened bond
As the WNBA returned to the court Friday, its relationship with the NBA and its players around social justice issues took on a renewed strength.
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A-Rod pulls Mets bid; Cohen reportedly near deal
Alex Rodriguez, fiancee Jennifer Lopez and their group have withdrawn their offer to purchase the Mets amid a report that the Wilpon family is finalizing a deal with billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen.
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Boseman, who starred as Jackie Robinson, dies
Chadwick Boseman, whose starred as Black icon Jackie Robinson in "42," has died of cancer at age 43. His death came on the same day Major League Baseball celebrated Jackie Robinson Day.
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Sports world reacts to death of Chadwick Boseman
The Rock, Jayson Tatum and Marcus Stroman were among the many stars across sports to react on Twitter to the death of Chadwick Boseman.
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Saturday Sledge Thread
The weekly thread for banter and sledging related to recent cricket results and news. Normal sub-reddit rules apply, so keep it civil. Users can still submit separate sledge threads for big matches and series. AND DON'T FORGET TO SPEAK UP OR NO-ONE WILL BE ABLE TO HEAR YOU.
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Daily General Discussion and Match Links Thread - August 29, 2020
Follow this link to find current match threads and upcoming scheduled threads.
This a daily thread for general cricketing discussion/conversation about all topics that don't need to be posted in their own thread.
This provides a space for things like general team changes/opinions/conversation and other frequently-asked questions or commonly-posted subjects.
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If Australia puts Kane Richardson or Andrew Tye in their T20/ODI 11’s against England we are giving England a win
They continue to bowl expensively and rarely perform at an international level, I feel they only get repeatedly picked out of selection habit and no big name alternatives. Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood should be our 3 ODI quicks always, and maybe swap Hazlewood for Abbott for T20s. Shouldn’t be starting anyone else
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LeBron, CP3 talked with Obama during stalemate
After a contentious meeting among players left the NBA's postseason in the balance, LeBron James and Chris Paul led a subcommittee of players who reached out to former President Barack Obama for advice.
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Sources: Angels trade La Stella to A's for Barreto
The Angels traded Tommy La Stella to the Athletics for utilityman Franklin Barreto, sources confirmed to ESPN.
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Athletics, Astros exit, won't play Friday's game
The Oakland Athletics and Houston Astros decided not to play Friday night's game, following the example of other teams protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
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McCutchen: Robinson Day has extra meaning
Major League Baseball's celebration of Jackie Robinson and his legacy comes on the heels of teams deciding this week to not play their games in protest of the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
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Another method of rating batsmen across formats since 2015
Today I got this in my inbox:
Suggest a different method Harsha Bhogle
In reference to this previous thread.
Now, keep in mind, I personally feel that Root is an excellent cross format batsman, who gets vastly underrated due to his faltering test form. Even with that, he is still an excellent test batsman, up there with the best. What is interesting though is the question of whether there are any reasonable ways of making an 'across format' rating for batsmen.
This problem has two key components:
- Rating players in the three formats.
- Combining these ratings.
The OP of the other post made the following statement about point 2:
Do a weighted average, if you wanna, he'll still be in the top 3. P×Test+ Q×Odi+ R×T20is/(P+Q+R). Now test,odi and t20is are absolute runs scored in the respective formats. However choosing the parameters 0< P,Q,R<1 is a subjective choice, depending on what importance you assign to each format. You almost cannot generalise that, so I'd say this combined stats is a pretty good approximation from the mathematical and practical pov. 🤷
Now, I disagree with the method of averaging noted. I would suggest, and will use, a geometric mean, as it does the scaling of the different metrics for us naturally, and doesn't lead to the problem that arithmetic averages have in that sense.
The point about arbitrary choices is also important, but ultimately, if we're during a true 'cross format' rating, to me at least, it must be equally weighted.
I also disagree with their 'well, that has arbitrariness, so we can just do anything 🤷' point of view, but that's a different point.
Anyhow, we can proceed knowing that once we have the three different ratings for the three different formats, we can take a straight geometric mean to get our results. Now the question is how to make those ratings.
Also note, for the sake of comparison we'll be doing 2015 to now, as they did the last 5 years. For me this means the 2015 season to now, so the totals will be slightly different. I only thought about the direct comparability after already doing the analysis, but ultimately it's just about the same thing, and the point is more about the process anyhow. I'll also be using a 20 matches and 20 dismissals cutoff for all three formats; there's got to be a cutoff somewhere.
Now, *tests are easy. It's just the batting average. There's a point to raise about this later, which will be discussed then, but for the moment we'll run with this. The top 15 from this method over that period are below.
Tests
| Player | Mat | Inns | Runs | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPD Smith (AUS) | 47 | 81 | 4923 | 69.34 |
| AC Voges (AUS) | 20 | 31 | 1485 | 61.88 |
| V Kohli (INDIA) | 53 | 86 | 4693 | 58.66 |
| KS Williamson (NZ) | 41 | 69 | 3442 | 56.43 |
| CA Pujara (INDIA) | 50 | 80 | 3767 | 49.57 |
| DA Warner (AUS) | 48 | 87 | 4111 | 49.53 |
| RG Sharma (INDIA) | 22 | 35 | 1479 | 49.30 |
| LRPL Taylor (NZ) | 39 | 65 | 2607 | 47.40 |
| JE Root (ENG) | 75 | 137 | 6091 | 47.22 |
| Younis Khan (PAK) | 22 | 41 | 1772 | 46.63 |
| Babar Azam (PAK) | 29 | 53 | 2045 | 45.44 |
| UT Khawaja (AUS) | 35 | 60 | 2510 | 44.82 |
| Azhar Ali (PAK) | 42 | 78 | 3278 | 44.30 |
| AN Cook (ENG) | 52 | 97 | 4049 | 44.01 |
| S Dhawan (INDIA) | 21 | 35 | 1492 | 43.88 |
For ODIs and T20Is this is a bit more complicated. We need to deal with both average and SR to effectively capture their contribution to batting, particularly in T20Is. A straight geometric mean would be one method for both, but this doesn't capture the actual balance of things. Think about the two ways that an innings can go:
- Team is all out
- Innings ends with batsmen still at the crease
In the 2nd case, you always want higher SRs to maximise your score. In the first case, you need higher averages to maximise your score. On this basis, a weighted geometric mean, which can be done averaging two numbers A and B as AnBm where n+m=1, would make sense. This weighted will be between the batting average and SR, where batting average will be done to the power of the fraction of innings that the team is all out, and SR will be done to the fraction of innings that there are still batsmen at the crease.
The period chosen will be the same as the data for the players of course. All will be treated the same, even though different teams will have different fractions involved, and this arguably would impact how they play. For those curious, teams are all out 34.5% of the time in ODIs and 16.0% of the time in T20Is over the same. This means, naturally, that SR will be weighted higher in T20Is, as would be expected.
I'd also note the same logic could, to an extent, be applied to Tests, which see teams all out in 71.6% of innings. The issue here, however, is that it's not always a case of teams wanting to maximise runs in uncompleted innings, ie teams wanting draws, the impact of English, weather, etc, all plays a role. So I've decided against including such, as I can't find a self consistent manner to find the innings that this would be valid for. Just going to declarations could work, but even then there's questions about how innings are composed.
Anyhow, below are the top 15 for ODIs and T20Is for the above method:
ODIs
| Player | Mat | Inns | Runs | Ave | SR | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JC Buttler (ENG) | 87 | 70 | 2563 | 47.46 | 124.60 | 89.30 |
| V Kohli (INDIA) | 90 | 89 | 5330 | 73.01 | 97.96 | 88.51 |
| AB de Villiers (SA) | 41 | 39 | 1636 | 52.77 | 111.90 | 86.33 |
| DA Warner (AUS) | 61 | 61 | 3220 | 57.50 | 100.16 | 82.70 |
| RG Sharma (INDIA) | 89 | 88 | 4895 | 62.76 | 95.61 | 82.68 |
| JM Bairstow (ENG) | 73 | 67 | 2892 | 48.20 | 107.23 | 81.37 |
| F du Plessis (SA) | 69 | 65 | 3164 | 60.85 | 92.00 | 79.77 |
| LRPL Taylor (NZ) | 73 | 69 | 3440 | 64.91 | 86.69 | 78.45 |
| Imad Wasim (PAK) | 53 | 39 | 952 | 41.39 | 109.68 | 78.35 |
| JE Root (ENG) | 92 | 87 | 4120 | 58.03 | 90.83 | 77.81 |
| CH Gayle (WI) | 32 | 30 | 1259 | 41.97 | 106.24 | 77.10 |
| JJ Roy (ENG) | 90 | 86 | 3459 | 41.18 | 107.09 | 77.00 |
| BA Stokes (ENG) | 71 | 62 | 2400 | 50.00 | 96.66 | 76.99 |
| Q de Kock (SA) | 77 | 77 | 3504 | 48.00 | 98.54 | 76.87 |
| Haris Sohail (PAK) | 24 | 24 | 1128 | 56.40 | 89.59 | 76.37 |
T20Is
| Player | Mat | Inns | Runs | Ave | SR | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GJ Maxwell (AUS) | 37 | 34 | 1233 | 45.67 | 159.10 | 130.35 |
| AJ Finch (AUS) | 39 | 39 | 1233 | 37.36 | 158.08 | 125.56 |
| C Munro (NZ) | 51 | 50 | 1530 | 33.26 | 160.55 | 124.87 |
| V Kohli (INDIA) | 54 | 50 | 1822 | 53.59 | 142.01 | 121.55 |
| KL Rahul (INDIA) | 42 | 38 | 1461 | 45.66 | 146.10 | 121.34 |
| E Lewis (WI) | 32 | 31 | 934 | 32.21 | 155.41 | 120.88 |
| HG Munsey (SCOT) | 38 | 36 | 987 | 29.91 | 154.22 | 118.69 |
| MJ Guptill (NZ) | 40 | 39 | 1263 | 33.24 | 150.90 | 118.52 |
| Q de Kock (SA) | 24 | 24 | 769 | 33.43 | 148.46 | 117.02 |
| Shoaib Malik (ICC/PAK) | 55 | 50 | 1362 | 42.56 | 140.70 | 116.25 |
| Najibullah Zadran (AFG) | 52 | 45 | 872 | 34.88 | 145.33 | 115.72 |
| DA Warner (AUS) | 27 | 27 | 763 | 36.33 | 143.69 | 115.37 |
| Mohammad Nabi (AFG) | 53 | 49 | 1079 | 26.98 | 151.54 | 115.05 |
| RG Sharma (INDIA) | 66 | 65 | 2034 | 33.34 | 144.05 | 114.04 |
| EJG Morgan (ENG) | 40 | 39 | 1005 | 32.42 | 144.40 | 113.76 |
Finally, we can do the actual comparison. To be eligible, players must be eligible for all three sports in the first place, though no necessarily in the top 15 for each.
Cross Format
| Player | Tests | ODI | T20I | Cross |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| V Kohli (INDIA) | 58.66 | 88.51 | 121.55 | 85.78 |
| DA Warner (AUS) | 49.53 | 82.70 | 115.37 | 77.89 |
| RG Sharma (INDIA) | 49.30 | 82.68 | 114.04 | 77.46 |
| KS Williamson (NZ) | 56.43 | 68.65 | 103.71 | 73.79 |
| LRPL Taylor (NZ) | 47.40 | 78.45 | 102.42 | 72.49 |
| JE Root (ENG) | 47.22 | 77.81 | 103.16 | 72.37 |
| Babar Azam (PAK) | 45.44 | 73.93 | 110.52 | 71.87 |
| Q de Kock (SA) | 39.26 | 76.87 | 117.02 | 70.69 |
| S Dhawan (INDIA) | 43.88 | 75.30 | 102.79 | 69.77 |
| JC Buttler (ENG) | 32.54 | 89.30 | 113.64 | 69.12 |
| KL Rahul (INDIA) | 34.74 | 70.72 | 121.34 | 66.80 |
| Mushfiqur Rahim (BDESH) | 42.27 | 72.17 | 91.71 | 65.40 |
| C de Grandhomme (NZ) | 37.03 | 68.52 | 105.85 | 64.52 |
| Sarfaraz Ahmed (PAK) | 33.80 | 65.30 | 100.06 | 60.44 |
| N Dickwella (SL) | 32.31 | 65.68 | 101.49 | 59.94 |
| BKG Mendis (SL) | 36.98 | 59.54 | 96.26 | 59.62 |
| Mahmudullah (BDESH) | 32.87 | 58.56 | 104.75 | 58.64 |
| LD Chandimal (SL) | 39.76 | 57.58 | 86.56 | 58.30 |
| Liton Das (BDESH) | 26.03 | 65.85 | 101.59 | 55.84 |
| MJ Santner (NZ) | 25.55 | 58.81 | 87.77 | 50.90 |
This is the full list of all eligible players. Anyone not on this list did not reach the minimum requirements to be included. This includes Steve Smith, who has only played 18 T20Is in that time.
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