Has anyone else noticed that Nicholas Pooran is having a pretty good tournament in CPL 2016?
Not yet 21 years of age Pooran, a wicket keeper batsman for the Barbados Tridents, is playing in his third CPL having debuted in 2013 for Trinidad and Tobago at the tender age of 17.
And if what we are seeing now as a 20 year old is any indication of what we might witness when he really matures, then cricket fans of the world and maybe even more importantly, West Indies Cricket, have got exciting times ahead!
So how good a tournament is Pooran having? Let’s take a look at some numbers.
Best Strike Rate in CPL 2016
The chart below plots the total runs scored against the rate at which the runs have been scored (expressed in terms of runs per over) for players who have made at least 100 runs so far in the 2016 CPL. Pooran’s 205 runs at 12.4 runs per overs ranks him 9th in terms of total runs scored and 1st (by a clear margin) in terms of strike rate.
The average strike rate line in the chart (at 7.8 runs per over) reflects the average strike rate of players who have scored at least 100 runs in a single T20 tournament since April 2012. Pooran’s strike rate so far in the 2016 CPL is almost 60% higher than this average.
The next chart is similar to the one above but this time plots the average runs scored per innings (unadjusted for not outs) against the rate at which the runs have been scored. Again the chart only includes players who have made at least 100 runs to date in the 2016 CPL. Pooran’s average runs per inning of 34.2 is the 6th highest for players who have scored at least 100 runs.
Best Strike Rate since at least April 2012
We can see that Pooran’s run tally and runs per innings are impressive, however it is his strike rate that really stands out. So how does Pooran’s strike rate compare against all other players who have scored at least 100 runs and played at least 5 innings in a major domestic T20 tournament since April 2012?
I’m glad you asked. See the chart below. It shows the top 10 performances in terms of strike rate for players that meet the above criteria.
Pooran’s strike rate so far in the 2016 CPL is the highest strike rate for a major domestic T20 tournament among batsmen who have scored at least 100 runs and played 5 or more innings in that tournament since April 2012.
It is interesting to see that West Indians hold the top 3 positions in the chart with Andre Russell filling the second and third positions. Incredibly, Russell has three performances in the top 10 and Glen Maxwell two.
Contribution Scores
So what is more important, strike rate or runs? How do we combine them in the right way to truly measure the best performances in T20 tournaments over the past 4-5 years? Contribution Scores (CS) allow us to do this by measuring each player’s actual innings against the average performance of past T20 players who have contributed in a similar match situation in terms of runs scored, wickets lost, batting first or second etc. Positive CS indicates better than average performances while negative CS indicates worse than average performance.
The chart below shows the top 20 performances in terms of CS per Innings across major domestic T20 tournaments played since April 2012 for players scoring at least 100 runs and playing at least 5 innings.
Pooran’s performance to date in the 2016 CPL is the 6th best performance over the past 4-5 years in terms of average CS per innings, and the best in the CPL. Note that since a player’s CS already takes into account whether he has been dismissed or is not out, then the average is not skewed in any way by not out performances.
Chris Gayle amazingly, but not surprisingly, appears four times in the above list, including the top spot for his performance in the 2013 IPL. De Villiers has three appearances while Chris Lynn, CPL 2016’s leading run scorer to date, appears twice.
As a measure of consistency, it is interesting to look at the rate at which a player makes high CS relative to the number of innings played. Pooran so far in the 2016 CPL has played four separate innings each with a CS of at least 15. I.e. In these innings Pooran has contributed at least 15 more runs than average to his team given the state of the match at which he batted. Prior to CPL 2016 Pooran played two other innings with CS at least 15, giving him a total tally of six such innings. Given that Pooran has played 23 major domestic T20 tournament innings in total, then he has achieved a CS of at least 15 in 26% of the innings he has played.
How does that stack up against other players? See the chart below.
Although early in his career, Pooran’s incidence of innings with CS of at least 15 of 26% ranks him 5th out of players since April 2012. Gayle ranks first playing making a CS of 15+ on average once every three innings. The top 12 list also includes Warner (30%), Finch (27%), de Villiers (26%) and Kohli (24%).
No Batting Weakness Emerging (Yet)
Finally we will take a look to see if Pooran has any obvious weaknesses against a specific type of bowling. Refer to the chart below which shows Pooran’s CS per ball against each bowling type over his young T20 career to date. Recall that a positive CS indicates he plays that type of bowling better than average, a negative CS indicates he plays that type of bowling worse than average while a neutral CS of zero means he plays that type of bowling in line with average (baseline).
The only weakness showing from the above chart is against LAB Wrist Spin, however this result is inconclusive since he has only faced seven deliveries from LAB WS. Similarly the strong performances against RAB WS and LAB FM are also based on a small samples of just seven and 12 deliveries respectively. For all other bowling types he has faced at least 23 deliveries which is bordering on significant. We will continue to monitor this as Pooran’s career grows.
It is early days in Pooran’s career and we have all seen seemingly bright stars burn out very quickly before. However let’s collectively hope that what we are seeing in CPL 2016 is the start of a bright future for Pooran and for West Indies cricket.