IPL 2020: Shane Warne, Kumar Sangakkara want a re-look at ...

Chennai Super Kings' lackluster showing in IPL 2020 has concurred with chief MS Dhoni's helpless structure also. Dhoni has in the past removed his group from issue with his batting yet this season has been extraordinary. Sanga belives MSD will play a key role in IPL 2021 Schedule and might lead his franchise to become CHAMPIONS of IPL 2021.
A contributor to the issue has been Dhoni's long nonattendance from global cricket, which in the end finished with the previous India commander reporting his retirement on August 15, 2020.
The absence of match practice has unmistakably left its blemish on Dhoni's structure, who has looked sketchy all through the season. With the following period of IPL expected to occur in around a half year's time, Dhoni needs to get back in structure to change the fortunes of his group.
Previous Sri Lanka chief Kumar Sangakkara, who is commentating in the IPL feels this could simply be one of those years for Dhoni when things didn't go right.
In any case, he also feels that Dhoni needs to play serious cricket to be in structure for a competition as extreme as the IPL, where the best parts on the planet contend.
".... you will consistently have a season or arrangement where you're off the bubble, and this is MS'. It has pondered the group's fortunes also. Also, it's something you will anticipate. You can over examine it, you break down it whichever way, it simply occurs. Furthermore, it's occurred at the back finish of MSD's vocation.
"Yet, that doesn't make him a lesser player or less significant for CSK by any means. It's only one of those stages that he must arrangement with and he must emerge from it," Kumar Sangakkara revealed to Star Sports on Thursday.
"I am certain he is ravenous to continue playing, hungry to perform. Knowing MSD, he would much preferably take a group prevail upon 50 years for himself. That is the manner in which he has been manufactured, that is the manner in which he has consistently thought. On the off chance that he can add to it in any capacity, even by scoring 10 runs he'd be upbeat.
"He will obviously be baffled with his own structure yet with just 2 games to go, I don't think there is any point in attempting to rescue that. It's tied in with dominating matches. He can address it after he proceeds to return one year from now.
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"Be that as it may, what he needs to do is to play some more super-serious cricket in the middle. You can't have long holes between your IPL seasons, not playing worldwide cricket or not playing territorial or top notch cricket. He must be too serious and play serious cricket to be in structure."
It will be intriguing to check whether Dhoni plays any homegrown cricket or takes the T20 course by taking an interest in associations around the globe. In any case, for that he would require an authorization from the BCCI.

Often any kind of discussion or comparison in sport automatically devolves into the "you can't compare different eras!" conclusion, which in limited overs cricket is probably even more prominent than elsewhere - the climate for a batsman today post-IPL, post-white ball swing, with huge bats and ramp shots and general pandemonium, would be impossible for a batsman in the 70s, 80s, or even the early part of this century to imagine. And the area where these differences are most highlighted is in strike rates, which simply put have risen exponentially. A cursory look at the stats will make you think all batsmen of the past were glorified Boycotts, nudging and prodding without any real flair or power. But that would be stupid. A possible workaround is instead of looking at the raw strike rates, to look at a batsman's strike rate in the context of their contemporaries.
Doing that is easy - You take the batsman's strike rate, you take the overall strike rate over the course of this batsman's career, and you divide the first number by the second. A figure greater than 1 implies they scored more freely than "expected", while a figure less than 1 implies they scored more restrictively than expected. The further away from 1 the more remarkable the strike rate, either positively or negatively.
For convenience and to make things a bit cleaner and slightly less nitpicky, I define a batsman's career as follows:
1 January "first year batting" - 31 December "final year batting"
Furthermore, since the primary motivation of this is for comparisons in all time XIs and such, I've decided to break things up into 3 roles: Openers, 3-4, 5-7. The basis of these designations came from glancing at the overall strike rate trends per individual batting position, but I admit they're crude and maybe even arbitrary. I'll also only consider a batsman's stats in their primary role, eg Tendulkar played all over the place initially but played the best and most significant part of his career as an opener, so only those stats are counted when comparing openers. A batsman can still be considered in more than one role, but the numbers will be accurately divided. The strike rates are of course also calculated according to each role, which helpfully excludes useless tailender data and allows us to see how a batsman plays in relation to the general demands of their position. To filter more, only those who've scored at least 1000 runs in their role are looked at.
To get an intuitive feel for a batsman's overall "effectiveness", I've taken a geometric mean of their batting average (A) and their relative strike rate (RS), ie sqrt(A*RS). Essentially with this metric, below 6 represents a fairly ineffective batsman, 6-7 a good to great batsman, 7-8 a world class batsman, and 8+ a truly special batsman.
The batsmen I've done this for are a mix of the top run scorers, and people who for some reason I thought this would be interesting. Sorting is done in order of the relative strike rate, but not everyone is included so expect to see some big gaps. I've looked at more people in the openers category to show a broad range of numbers representing different eras, and because it's what I looked at first and I got lazier afterwards.
Openers

Player	Runs	Average	Strike Rate	Era Strike Rate	Relative Strike Rate	Rating
Virender Sehwag	7518	36.49	104.72	77.42	1.3526	7.0255
Shahid Afridi	3543	24.6	101.66	75.46	1.3472	5.7568
Adam Gilchrist	9200	36.5	98.02	74.91	1.3085	6.9109
Brendon McCullum	3363	32.97	102.74	79.13	1.2984	6.5427
Jonny Bairstow	2214	51.48	109.06	85.94	1.269	8.0827
Sanath Jayasuriya	12740	34.61	92.48	74.62	1.2393	6.5493
Jason Roy	3381	42.79	107.4	86.73	1.2383	7.2793
Sachin Tendulkar	15310	48.29	88.05	75.41	1.1676	7.5089
Shane Watson	3882	45.13	91.68	78.78	1.1637	7.2471
Saeed Anwar	8156	39.98	79.93	69.74	1.1461	6.7692
Marcus Trescothick	4335	37.37	85.21	74.47	1.1442	6.5391
David Warner	4969	45.58	95.26	83.3	1.1436	7.2197
Quinton de Kock	4823	45.5	95.61	84.59	1.1303	7.1713
Shikhar Dhawan	5518	44.5	94.01	83.4	1.1272	7.0825
Romesh Kaluwitharana	2798	26.14	78.72	70.66	1.1141	5.3965
Chris Gayle	10179	39.45	88.02	79.58	1.1061	6.6056
Rohit Sharma	6977	58.14	92.28	83.68	1.1028	8.0072
Gordon Greenidge	4993	45.39	64.65	58.8	1.0995	7.0644
Herschelle Gibbs	6103	35.69	82.86	75.82	1.0929	6.2453
Tillakaratne Dilshan	7367	46.04	89.08	82.1	1.085	7.0678
Matthew Hayden	5892	44.3	78.7	73.22	1.0748	6.9004
Mark Waugh	5729	44.06	76.74	71.8	1.0688	6.8623
Hashim Amla	8083	49.89	88.65	83.12	1.0665	7.2945
Sunil Gavaskar	2651	35.34	61.5	58	1.0603	6.1215
Martin Guptill	6001	43.8	88.25	83.3	1.0594	6.812
Desmond Haynes	8648	41.37	63.09	59.61	1.0584	6.617
Aaron Finch	4539	40.89	89.52	84.59	1.0583	6.5782
Graeme Smith	6974	38.1	80.94	77.73	1.0413	6.2987
Gary Kirsten	6647	41.8	72.25	71.88	1.0051	6.4819
Sourav Ganguly	9146	41.57	73.59	74.45	0.9884	6.4101
Alastair Cook	3204	36.4	77.13	78.94	0.9771	5.9637
Shai Hope	1349	96.35	82.3	85.75	0.9598	9.6163
Tamim Iqbal	6892	35.52	77.74	82.42	0.9432	5.7882
Michael Atherton	1572	38.34	59.68	67.28	0.887	5.8317
Roshan Mahanama	3283	30.97	57.47	66.14	0.8689	5.1875

Conclusions:

• To no real surprise, players 'ahead of their time' are Sehwag, Afridi, Gilchrist, McCullum, Jayasuriya.
  
  • Aaron Finch is far, far less impressive than I thought he was. Both in terms of scoring rate and size, so many of his peers totally eclipse him: Bairstow, Roy, Watson, Warner, de Kock, Amla, Rohit, Dhawan, Guptill, Dilshan... And the same goes for players before his time, Desmond Haynes for instance.
  • Bairstow may have sacrificed his test technique, but he didn't just do it to become a good or even a great white ball player, he did to become possibly the best one day opener we've ever seen. And no you're not clever for saying Trescothick would actually walk into this England team.
  • Tendulkar stands out as the model of longevity, consistent scoring, and fluent scoring.
  • Shane Watson probably doesn't get enough credit, and is arguably the best one day opener Australia have had.
  • Swashbuckling Ganguly is somewhat of a myth, he actually scores at a slower rate than his peers. Similarly stodgy Gavaskar is also somewhat of a myth, he actually scores at a faster rate than his peers, by a decent distance too.
  • Gary Kirsten was the player most in line with the scoring trends of his era.
  • Among 'older' players, Gordon Greenidge is certainly the standout.
  • Mahanama worst ODI opener to have played this much?

3-4

Player	Runs	Average	Strike Rate	Era Strike Rate	Relative Strike Rate	Rating
Viv Richards	5791	52.17	91.19	68.94	1.3227	8.3071
AB de Villiers	6457	53.8	100.98	78.19	1.2915	8.3355
Eoin Morgan	3780	45.54	94.42	78.9	1.1967	7.3823
Virat Kohli	11260	62.2	93.8	80	1.1725	8.5399
Aravinda de Silva	7801	36.45	81.62	70.12	1.164	6.5137
Brian Lara	6962	40.47	81.69	71.54	1.1419	6.7979
Kevin Pietersen	3131	35.57	83.78	75.92	1.1035	6.2652
Ricky Ponting	13308	42.51	80.49	73.29	1.0982	6.8327
Faf du Plessis	4761	52.9	88.44	81.67	1.0829	7.5687
Steve Smith	3384	47.66	85.88	80.91	1.0614	7.1125
Kumar Sangakkara	12234	44	79.97	75.86	1.0542	6.8106
Joe Root	5633	50.29	86.52	82.16	1.0531	7.2773
Ross Taylor	8213	48.59	82.79	78.9	1.0493	7.1404
Babar Azam	3271	54.51	87.01	83.07	1.0474	7.5562
Mahela Jayawardene	8325	34.97	77.98	74.88	1.0414	6.0347
Kane Williamson	5601	48.7	81.5	80.21	1.0161	7.0344
Jonathan Trott	2611	49.26	77.77	76.64	1.0147	7.0701
Allan Border	3781	31.77	69.5	68.67	1.0121	5.6704
Jacques Kallis	10484	45.78	73.35	73.97	0.9916	6.7377
Michael Clarke	5073	45.29	75.42	76.84	0.9815	6.6673
Younis Khan	4871	31.22	73.34	75.43	0.9723	5.5095
Rahul Dravid	7301	37.63	70.18	73.18	0.959	6.0073
Sanjay Manjrekar	1165	34.26	61.25	69.55	0.8807	5.4929

Conclusions:

• Before doing this, I expected AB, Viv, and Kohli to come out most impressively, and that's pretty much exactly what's happened. Viv's numbers are just astounding, the way he scored so much more prolifically and so much more freely than his peers borders on incomprehensible.
  
• I'm realising I've really romanticised Jayawardene as a one day player in my head, despite his numbers being really unremarkable. Might not even qualify for an all time Sri Lanka ODI team.
  
• Kallis looks like the most 'of his time' player as far as scoring rate is concerned.
  
• I've got my issues with Faf as a test player, but we shouldn't forget just how incredible he is in white ball cricket, the numbers make him one of the absolute best ODI batsman of all time. Eoin Morgan similarly seems to get pigeonholed as some kind of specialist captain recently, but his batting is up there amongst the greats.
  

5-7

Player	Runs	Average	Strike Rate	Era Strike Rate	Relative Strike Rate	Rating
Shahid Afridi	3141	23.26	129.63	78.23	1.657	6.2083
Glenn Maxwell	2443	33.01	118.07	87.05	1.3563	6.6913
Jos Buttler	3396	39.95	116.26	87.05	1.3356	7.3045
AB de Villiers	2075	79.8	109.15	82.6	1.3214	10.2689
Lance Klusener	1068	35.6	94.42	73.43	1.2859	6.7658
Andrew Symonds	4315	40.7	92.83	76.47	1.2139	7.029
Jonty Rhodes	4744	35.66	82.26	72.94	1.1278	6.3416
Michael Hussey	4211	47.31	88.95	79.43	1.1199	7.2788
Suresh Raina	4355	34.56	92.43	82.57	1.1194	6.2199
Ben Stokes	2400	43.63	95.16	86.35	1.102	6.934
Yuvraj Singh	4870	38.34	86.73	80.31	1.0799	6.4347
Steve Waugh	5797	34.3	77.39	73.37	1.0548	6.0149
Michael Bevan	4510	51.25	77.3	73.4	1.0531	7.3466
Arjuna Ranatunga	6041	35.12	76.88	73.02	1.0529	6.0808
MS Dhoni	8273	48.09	85.73	82.75	1.036	7.0585
Angelo Mathews	5367	42.25	83.33	84.2	0.9897	6.4663
Shivnarine Chanderpaul	2845	40.64	73.4	76.08	0.9648	6.2617

Conclusions:

• Afridi stands out here with by far the highest relative strike rate of any player in any role. Maybe if he were a few years younger, and subsequently his pretend age also a few years younger, while also not being as much of a prick, he could have been a more appreciated cricketer.
  
• For current players, no surprise to see Buttler and Maxwell so high.
  
• Not a huge sample size, but AB's numbers here are insane.
  
• Andrew Symonds was too good a cricketer in all formats to have faded out the way he did.
  

So with that in mind, and also using some personal judgement, here's my rough attempt at an all time ODI top 7, not considering bowling and the balance of the side:
Jonny Bairstow (Tendulkar if you have a sample size issue)
Rohit Sharma
Virat Kohli
Viv Richards
AB de Villiers
Jos Buttler (wk)
Michael Bevan (Ben Stokes/Andrew Symonds if you want a more enthusiastic allrounder)
Problems:

• The central assumption of relative strike rate is that scoring faster is desirable for all batsmen of all eras, which is a simplistic way of looking at things. With ODI sides for a long time just being copies of test sides, there wasn't necessarily that onus to play more aggressively, it's an issue of capability but also an issue of intention. So even with this adjustment older players are disadvantaged.
  
• I've also not made any adjustments to averages over time, I've assumed that any batsman goes out with the intention of scoring as much as possible. However as we all know team scores have risen and so obviously individual scores have risen, batsmen now score more than their predecessors. So perhaps an adjustment is needed there.
  
• The geometric mean method is very basic, unsophisticated. It's good for basic intuition, but still I think it's heavily biased towards bigger averages, so it depends in part on how each of us value one day batsmen. Would you rather have a Shai Hope or a Virender Sehwag? A Chanderpaul or a Maxwell?
  
• My system also disadvantages players who are systematically promoted up the order in certain match situations, which is quite a frequent occurrence these days. Jos Buttler for instance has some of his best, most destructive numbers when playing in the top 4, yet those aren't counted.
  
• The usual "big game" issue - none of this tells us about performances in world cup knockouts, home and away, against the biggest rivals, in front of the biggest crowds...
  
• The ODI landscape has changed a lot through time, does the emergence of associate and other weaker nations distort things? Or is a hungry Afghanistan side in 2019 a bigger challenge than a bored test leftover England side in 1980? And not necessarily just when these weaker teams are opponents, more in how their results against each other would impact the era strike rates.
  
• As I said before the 1-2/3-4/5-7 designations are far from perfect. In fact looking at the numbers, I found that while openers, 3-4, and 6-7 can be pretty much grouped together at least in the modern era, 5 stands out. But talking about a specialist number 5 still feels very odd to me, and I thought grouping it made more sense.
  
• Another unaccounted for issue is the strength of a batsman's team. For instance it's easy to look at Tamim Iqbal's numbers and call him a poor opener, but he's required to put a higher price on his wicket than say Jason Roy is.
  
• Players with stop-start career paths are given an unfair advantage. For instance someone who plays a random one off ODI in 2005 as a teenager, but then returns to play consistently from 2015-2020 will have their career calculated as 2005-2020 instead of 2015-2020, which will artificially inflate their relative strike rate.