As we are in fourth month of COVID19 – there has been few changes made by cricket authorities to renew the game. They have decided to postpone T20WC indefinitely till they find suitable protection for players.
Keeping that in mind let us first look at few trends in T20I.
I believe cricket’s each format is adaptive and top teams blend well. They are able to switch their roles effortlessly. So keeping that in mind let us look at how teams performed post World Cup 2019. The World Cup was a huge success for both batting and bowling. I believe cricket teams adapted to various situation and condition given to them.
Since WC2019 65 T20Is were played featuring 14 teams – however for this analysis I have omitted U.A.E and Netherlands.
I have used only 3 primary indicators to measure their performance, viz Runs/wkt, Run rate and strike rate.
Teams like Afghanistan, Ireland and Zimbabwe have not played regularly against top teams but along with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka they have a chance to qualify in top 12 teams that will participate in forthcoming World Cup.
Based on their success against quality teams I have divided teams into two tables.
India is leading the table with most success (77%) followed by Australia(77%) who had same amount of success in less games!.
It is surprising that only these two teams who have performed consistently home and away.
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Teams like England found it difficult to win in New Zealand and couldn’t dominate a new South African side.
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New Zealand on the other hand lost few games they could have won easily.
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South Africa is building a new T20 side
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Pakistan shockingly is going through the worst phase in this format.
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West Indies the reigning champions love playing this format. However they need to win regularly especially against weaker teams.
In this table below
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Bangladesh success is based on matches played against weaker teams, and had only one win(India) against top team
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Sri Lanka like South Africa are assembling a new team for this format and so far they have done well with that squad.
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Afghanistan is one of the two giant killers in this format. Post WC 2019 they have defeated they stronger teams (Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and West Indies)
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Ireland is another giant killer!. They might have won only two games but have been very impressive with the bat. There needs to be a balance between bat and bowl and Ireland need to do more with the ball!.
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Zimbabwe’s only win in last 12 months has been against Afghanistan. Since this format was first played in 2005, Zimbabwe have won only 18 matches. Their success is based on their bowling.
The overall run-rate in T20I has been climbing every year – and recently it has ascended from 8.06(post WC2016) 8.59 this year. There is also increase in other two indicators (runs/wkt and strike rate) suggesting bowlers are taking more overs/balls to pick wickets.
However, post WC2019 has been difficult for teams to score 180 plus regularly while batting first 17/65 = 26.15%
On the other hand teams are able to restrict their opponents for 150 or less in more matches when bowling first – 24/65 =36.92%
Let us look at these indicators against various teams.
Now if we consider overall run-rate of 8.59 as our par score, then let us see how many batting teams were at par or more, and on other end let us look at how bowling teams conceding less than the par score.
Out of 12 teams only four teams were at level or more than 8.59
Australia (9.30)
England (9.93)
India (8.72)
New Zealand (8.60)
However there were 7 teams that conceded less than par score
Afghanistan (7.47)
Australia (6.95)
Bangladesh (7.73)
India (7.94)
Pakistan (7.56)
Sri Lanka (8.48)
West Indies (8.44)
However one was surprised to see teams like New Zealand(8.85), South Africa(8.78) and England(9.63) exceeding the par score!. Traditionally these teams have solid defensive bowling attack.
South Africa in particular have been very expensive while bowling first. Since 2016 WC while bowling first in 11 matches 6 had scores of 180 plus runs.
England too have been conceding lot of runs while bowling first, although not as regularly as South Africa but since 2016 WC – 18 matches(1st bowl) 4 times they conceded 180 plus scores and only twice captured all 10 wkts, and only 7 times restricted teams to equal/less than 150 runs
New Zealand too have been very expensive – since 2016 WC – 17 matches(1st bowl) 6 times they conceded 180 plus, and only 5times restricted teams to 150 or less…..and yet to capture all 10 wkts!.
Below is run rate of 12 teams along with gap factor.
A gap factor is batting run rate minus bowling run-rate. Post WC2019 overall run-rate has been 8.59 – hence those who were equal or above has been highlighted in blue(bat/bowl).
Next up we will find how performance influence indicators for teams.
