Jump to content

Defensive Batting Rankings Since 2014


Recommended Posts

Most of the stats in this post can be read here:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/29075630/which-current-test-batsmen-best-defences

 

Cricinfo did a analysis of balls per dismissal of Test batsmen as a measure of their defensive batting ability. I collated the data and ran a simple linear regression as will be seen below. 

Quote

First, the ground rules:

  • All numbers are from Tests starting April 1, 2014

  • For the purpose of this exercise, the term "defensive shot" includes all deliveries when a batsman either attempted to defend or leave the ball alone

Quote

The defensive shot is clearly redundant in T20 cricket, and not that useful in the 50-over format either, but it remains arguably the most important stroke in Test cricket. Over the last six years in this format, batsmen have attempted a defensive response - which is either a defensive shot or leaving the ball alone - to 55.2% of the total deliveries bowled. While the shot is unglamorous and usually doesn't fetch runs, it ensures that the batsman survives long enough to utilise the attacking options in his arsenal. Without a reasonably sound defence, getting huge scores consistently in Test cricket is virtually impossible.

 

 Based on the data, 55.2 % of all shots played in Test cricket are defensive shots. FYI, Cricinfo defines a defensive shot as both a block and as a leave. 

 

Here is a table I made of all the players whose stats were shared by the cricinfo article. Cricinfo analyzed 52 players, but only listed the stats and rankings of about 24. I thought it was interesting regardless. 

 

The table shows a player's rank(if available), balls per dismissal, overall average, the average of the player since April 1st, 2014(the period the data includes), the false shots a player plays per dismissal, the control percentage for a player when playing a shot, and the percent of times a player is dismissed when playing a defensive shot. 

 

Table 1: Overall Data

Defense.png 

 

Interesting things to note on this list:

Steve Smith is far and away the best defensive batsman in Test cricket. His balls/dismissal is 193.1. The 2nd ranked batsman is Latham who plays almost 26 less ball per dismissal than Smith!

 

Kohli is also a top 5 player in terms of defense in Test cricket, 5th best at 144 balls per dismissal. I think most people agree that Smith and Kohli are the two best Test batsmen in the world right now, and it shows the important of a great defense that they are both top 5 batsmen when playing defensively.

 

On the other hand, the other two members of the so-called "Big 4" Root and Williamson are ranked 18th and 21st out of the 52 players analyzed. 

 

Both South Africa and the Padosis have 3 batsmen each in the top 10, although 2 of the 3 Padosi batsmen are now retired. 

 

Rahane is our 2nd highest ranked batsmen in terms of defense. Cricinfo didn't share his ranking but it is between 10 and 14.

 

Rahul is the 5th lowest ranked batsmen in terms of defense. He plays an average of 69.2 balls before being dismissed. 

 

Shai Hope and QDK are the two worst on the list, with both playing less than 60 balls per dismissal. 

 

I ran a linear regression of the data in the table, and am sharing it for those who are interested:

R2.png

An R-squared of .3554 is pretty strong for a multi-factorial discipline such as batting, so it shows that defense is really a key component of being a great Test batsman. 

 

They then did a limited analysis of players in terms of spin vs pace. They analyzed how players performed vs Spin bowling in Asia and Pace bowling in SENA. 

 

Table 2: Pace in SENA

In-SENA.png

 

Smith is far and away the best batsman player of pace, over 50 balls better than the number two batsman.

 

Kohli comes in at 6 best defensive batsman vs pace.

 

3 of the top 5 players of pace are Kiwis. Surprisingly, Williamson isn't on of those three. He only plays 91.4 balls/dismissal. 

 

Table 3: Spin in Asia

In-Asia.png

 

Smith really comes tumbling down in this ranking. He plays only 81 deliveries before getting dismissed. 

 

 Kohli is the undisputed best player of spin in Asia, playing 318.6 deliveries(53 overs!) before getting dismissed by spinners in Asia. 

 

4 non-Asian batsmen: Latham, Watling, Bairstow, and M. Ali make up the top 5 in this list. 

 

Root has an atrocious record playing spin in Asia, playing on 67 balls before being dismissed. 

 

 

Some Further Thoughts on Indian and other key players

 

Rahane

As mentioned earlier. Rahane is overall our second best batsman when it comes to playing defense, ranking either 11th, 12th, or 13th in the world overall. I supposed this is a testament to his technique and why he was so successful early on in his career while playing overseas in SENA. 

 

What's more surprising is that Rahane is also our second best batsman playing spin in Asia, averaging 124.4 balls per dismissal. This somewhat flies in the face of our general consensus as Indian fans that Rahane is a poor/terrible player of spin. In my opinion, these stats imply that he has a weakness of scoring against spin, rather than being overall poor versus spin. If that is the case, it is absolutely bizarre that an Indian batsman struggles to score against what should be our player's bread and butter.

 

Another stat to note is that Rahane actually has the 2nd highest control percent among all batsmen in Asia.

control-asia.png   

 

I am not sure what to make of Rahane. He clearly has a good defense vs spin, and he has great control when playing shots against spin, yet he averages so low in India (below 40 average currently).

 

What are your thoughts? Is he living up to his name "Jinks" in that he is unluckly, or is there some other factor which explains why he seems so sound against spin, yet averages so little in India? 

 

Pujara

Pujara comes in at number 27 overall, playing an average of 97.9 balls before dismissal. His spin vs pace split isn't very different:

vs pace in SENA: 98.9

vs spin in Asia: 105.1

 

This shows that it isn't necessarily true that he is a spin bully, in fact, according to the data, he is even better than Williamson in SENA in terms of defense. 

 

The most interesting stat for Pujara however, comes from Table 1 above: Pujara is dismissed 67.4% of the time when defending!

 

This is an absurd statistic. The only other player in that stratosphere is Hope, who is dismissed 69.1 percent of the time defending, and is ranked dead last of all 52 players analyzed. 

 

In my opinion this lends credence to the view that many people I think share that Pujara blocks too much. He likely lets opposing bowlers set up on him by refusing to play shots to get off of strike.  In my opinion, if he took a more proactive approach and tried to take more singles and rotate strike, he would statistically improve much more than a typical batsman. He will never play in the style of an aggressive batsman like Sehwag, but he definitely needs to be more proactive.  

 

Rohit

Rohit strangely comes in at number 28 on the overall rankings, just .1 behind Pujara. This is very strange considering most people don't consider Rohit much of a Test batsman, specifically when he steps out of India. 

 

Cricinfo didn't breakdown his pace vs spin, so the explanation could simply be that he has a great performance vs spin and poor vs pace, but we don't know for sure. 

  

Rahul 

Rahul is arguably the biggest story for India fans from these data. He is the 5th worst performing batsman in the world overall in terms of defense. Again, Cricinfo doesn't show his pace vs spin splits, but they likely won't show him in a good light.  Rahul has played his entire test career, all 36 Tests, in the timeframe that cricinfo analyzed, so he is one of the players whose peaks and valleys are included in the data. 

 

What is jarring is that Rahul has played opener for India in 54 of the 60 innings he has played for India, yet the data show that he has one of the 5 worst defensive techniques in the world. It is no wonder our batting was struggling so much overseas with a player not suited at all to batting at a position where defense is arguably the most important.   

 

One other interesting stat regarding Rahul from Cricinfo is this:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/27433342/williamson-karunaratne-two-ends-control-spectrum

control-percentage.png 

 Since 2017, KL Rahul has one of the 5 lowest control percentages, so even when playing offensive shots, he doesn't seem to do all that well (at least since 2017). 

 

The question is: Is Rahul and his technique overrated or is he simply not cut-out to be an opener? 

 

Latham and Watling

These two kiwis are the only players in the top 5 of all three lists: Overall,  Pace in SENA and Spin in Asia lists. It's safe to say these two are the most consistent defensive batsmen overall.

 

Kohli, SmithWilliamson

Finally, as I already wrote about these 3 batsmen earlier above, I won't repeat them again down here.  However here is an interesting stat  regarding these 3 batsmen(refer to Table 1):

 

Kane  gets out once for every 9.6 false shots played

Kohli gets out once for every 16.2 false shots played

Smith gets out once for every 17.6 false shots played

 

That difference is profound. It is even moreso when one looks at this stat from Wisden-Cricviz

https://wisden.com/stories/stats-analysis/cricviz-analysis-35-false-shots-in-94-balls-how-warner-exploited-good-fortune

Quote

Typically in Test cricket a batsman is dismissed once for every 12 false shots.
 

Kohli and Smith both play significantly more false shots than 12 before getting out, implying both have been incredibily lucky so far in their careers. On the other hand, Williamson gets out much earlier than a typical batsmen 9.6 vs 12 false shots per dismissal. He is arguably the most unlucky player currently. Even-still, he averages almost 51. 

 

It will be interesting to see how these three's averages look at the end of their careers. If Kohli, Smith, and/or Kane approach 12 false shots per dismissal at the end of their careers, one may end up rating the three more similarly than one currently does. 

 

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...