Tag: 2010s

Chart & Chat: A review of the 2010s

The 2010s end today. I’ve no team of the decade for you, just a chart and its implications.

Fig 1 – Batting and Bowling performances in Tests and T20Is this decade. Ratings are based on averages in Tests and Strike/Economy Rates in T20Is. Higher numbers are good – eg. India averaged 5% less with the ball in Tests than the average team. Ireland excluded as played too few games.
  1. The Big Three does not include England in Test Cricket. It’s South Africa / Australia / India based on the last ten years (and the last week).
  2. West Indies were not good at Test Cricket in the 2010s. Their record against the top three teams was W0 L21 D9. Problematic for the sport, if number eight can’t win in 30 attempts against the top three.
  3. T20Is will be closer than the average Test – As well as the obvious (one short innings rather than two long ones) the teams are far more evenly matched in 20-20 than Tests. Australia were one of the strongest teams this decade. Their W/L ratio was 1.5 in Tests but only 1.35 in T20Is.
  4. Bowling is not the differentiating factor in T20Is. This is odd, because weaker bowling should be punished by the six hitting machines out there in 20-20. Look at the distribution of the two colours of dots: the Orange ones for Tests form a line from the bottom left to top right. If you are strong in one discipline you will be strong in the other. It doesn’t work that way for 20-20: batting makes the difference.
  5. Two clusters of T20I performance: the top tier is Australia, India, England, New Zealand, South Africa. The next level down is West Indies, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Pakistan.
  6. What happened to New Zealand’s Test bowling this decade? Were they weak for a few years and I didn’t notice?

Please note that apart from points three and four, this chart is backwards looking: it does not have predictive power. Still, sometimes nice to take stock and see the wood not the trees. There’s a lot of noise out there, don’t miss the longer term trends.

Happy new year.