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We are using Smart Stats to analyze various aspects of cricket. In this article, we look at two wristbands that have had a phenomenal career in T20 in the past year.
Since the start of the IPL last year, the two bowlers who have played the most matches and the most deliveries in all T20s are Rashid Khan and Imran Tahir. The two are at opposite ends of their careers: Khan is 21 years old, remarkable considering all he has already accomplished in T20 cricket, while Tahir, 41, is at the end of his career, but remains a T20 globetrotter specialist. Both have been outstanding in T20, and by virtue of being dolls, the demand for them in leagues is very high. While the common perception may be that Khan is the best bowler among them, the numbers provide a slightly different picture.
What do traditional numbers tell us?
The Wristspinners have been dominating the T20 for a while, and their main strength is collecting wickets at regular intervals without worrying too much about the races awarded. Khan has been so dominant in recent years that some hitters may play the bowler instead of the ball against him. Over the past year, many teams have tried to get past him instead of trying to attack. As a result, he has collected a wicket only once every 21 balls and has an economy rate of 6.9.
Tahir, on the other hand, could have gone unnoticed, but his numbers show that he has been very effective. He has hit once every 14 balls and has conceded 6.7 runs over. In the same period, the average economy rate for all wristbands has been 7.5 runs per envelope, and the average attack rate 19.
How and where do they get their wickets?
Now let’s dig a little deeper. Who makes the most difficult? Since IPL 2019, Khan and Tahir have thrown 14% and 18% of their overs respectively in the power play. Tahir has been impressive in this game period, taking 12 wickets at an economy rate of 7.46, while Khan has just four wickets and has awarded 8.15 runs for more. Both have defeated most of their overs in the middle phase, conceding 6.24 and 6.34 respectively, although Tahir has the best attack rate: 13.6 to 20.6 for Khan.
Although Tahir throws only 13% of his overs in death to 20% of Rashid, his performance has also been quite good in that phase. One reason why Tahir is more successful than Khan could be that hitters have now found a method of attacking Khan by not attacking too much and therefore not losing their wickets. It could also be too dependent on your googly: 37% of his wickets have come out of that installment, while the corresponding figure for Tahir is only 20%. That suggests Khan may need to add more variations in the coming year to get more wickets.
How are you doing in smart stats?
Tahir has also taken the top wickets, as seen through the Smart Wickets lens: 1.57 per game to Khan 1.17. The Smart Wickets metric takes into account the quality of the batter fired, the score at which a batter was fired, and the status of the match at the time of dismissal. Tahir has fired players like Tom Banton in the Blast, Babar Azam twice, Andre Russell, Rishabh Pant, Colin Ingram and Alex Hales at crucial moments in various games over the past year. He broke key associations or fired major opposition hitters early.
If we look at the impact created by the two bowlers on the teams they’ve played, Tahir again has a higher impact score: 50.6 per game, at 43.6 from Khan. This impact score for bowlers considers the phase of the game in which they played, their economy rate (taking into account current and required execution rates), the quality of the hitters fired, and the context of the game when they were taken. the wickets.
Tahir has been instrumental in winning games for the teams he has played for, and has created more impact with the ball than Khan. Firing Andre Russell At a crucial stage, Pant in Chepauk, and taking the wickets of the treadmill duo, Tom Banton and Babar Azam for Somerset are some examples of the impact created by Tahir.
On the Smart Economy Rate (SER) metric, too, Tahir is doing better. His SER is 5.97 while Khan is 6.04. SER takes into account not only overs thrown and runs awarded, but also the situation of the match, in terms of how much pressure there was on the bowler at the time; the general party execution rate; how other bowlers fared; and the quality of hitters the bowler played with.
For the past year, Tahir has been the better and more impressive bowler of the two. Although he might be at the end of his career, his skills in the T20 format are still worth a lot. There may be a lot more focus and attention on Khan, but Tahir has been constantly putting on performances that may not have been noticed as much.
Also read: How good has Andre Russell been at the IPL in recent years?
Smart Stats is part of Superstats, a new set of metrics used by ESPNcricinfo to tell more enriching and insightful stories based on numbers. More here.
