In two previous posts, we characterized in statistical terms an “average” T20 player. In this new series, we look at what an average ODI player looks like. This time, we will start with batsmen first and then in the next post in this series we will look at the bowlers.
In the post on an average T20 batsman, we saw that a batsman can be characterized in terms of two numbers: his batting average (number of runs scored per outs), and strike rate (average number of runs scored per 100 balls). We look at these two numbers again for ODI players. The analysis that follows is based on 146 ODI games that were played in 2011.
Overall, in 2011 the batsmen scored a total of 60186 runs in 76090 balls, making a total of 2126 outs. This gives the batting average of an “average” ODI batsman as 28.31, and his strike rate as 79.10. Three players came close to matching these numbers in 2011, and hence are representative of the average ODI batsman: Ian Bell, Brad Haddin and Tatenda Taibu. Their statistics are given in the table below.
| Player | Inns | Not outs | Runs | Balls | Average | Strike Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ian Bell | 24 | 1 | 612 | 786 | 26.60 | 77.86 |
| Brad Haddin | 23 | 1 | 634 | 836 | 28.81 | 75.83 |
| Tatenda Taibu | 17 | 1 | 485 | 610 | 30.31 | 79.50 |
The scatter plot below shows some of the top run scorers in 2011 along the Strike Rate versus Average dimension. The red lines correspond to those of the “average” player.
Strike Rate versus Average for top run scorers in 2011
This is a fantastic illustration in many ways. The best part is that you show the mean and how far each person is away from the mean. By the way, how about mentioning the standard deviation, so that we can also find out how many standard deviations each batsman is from the mean?
Also, it would be cool, if you could add a list of most important batsmen which shows which percentile they are in (and what the median is).
Overall, an awesome analysis!
Comments are closed.