With the completion of the top five, now we move onto the all-rounder of the side. With only one genuine all-rounder position available, the fight for the slot is a fierce one between world-class names such as Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Nabi and Jason Holder to name but a few. It must also be noted that as Ben Stokes was selected for our number five position, he is not eligible for selection here. However, he remains in the group in order to compare against the rest of the field and see how he would fare if he was available to be picked.
As always, there is a criterion to make the shortlist for selection. As this is looking at a player’s ability to impact the game with both bat and ball, the players in the spotlight have had to make a minimum of 800 runs and take at least 30 wickets in any batting position – unlike the previous articles, where statistics have been gathered based on form in specific positions – since January 1 2016.
15 men have done so, and they are: Stokes (2138 runs and 38 wickets), Shakib (1925 and 54), Holder (1449 and 88), Sikandar Raza (1409 and 39), Nabi (1350 and 78), Kevin O’Brien (1206 and 36), Thisara Perera (1153 and 50), Sean Williams (1086 and 34), Jimmy Neesham (1048 and 41), Marcus Stoinis (1046 and 33), Moeen Ali (986 and 52), Hardik Pandya (957 and 54), Gulbadin Naib (889 and 50), Imad Wasim (876 and 35) and Rashid Khan (869 and 128).
The selection of the all-rounder will be done over the course of two articles: one focused on their batting, and one on their bowling. Here, we analyse their batting credentials.
Boundary Hitting
Starting with their ability to find the boundary, the first conclusion that can be drawn is that the majority of players within this dataset show a propensity at clearing the ropes on a fairly regular basis. With only three players averaging a six more than every 50 balls faced, the powerful nature of the modern-day all-rounder can clearly be witnessed.
Within that trio, Williams and Shakib are the pair who display the most obvious flaw when it comes to hitting maximums, with balls-per-six (Bp6) of 142.78 and 216.5 respectively. On the flip side of this, it is Nabi who has the biggest discrepancy between four to six ratio, the powerful Afghani averaging a four every 18.93 balls faced – the highest figure of the dataset, ahead of his fellow countryman Gulbadin at 17.44.
When looking at the most explosive, it is those toward the bottom-left corner of the graph who are vying for that title. It is actually Pandya who averages the lowest overall balls-per-boundary, with a four or six every 7.6 deliveries faced, marginally ahead of Perera and Imad both at 7.9.
Average and Strike-rate
As alluded to above, the more dynamic nature of these players when compared against the genuine batsmen we have analysed in previous articles is illustrated by the number of players striking at a strike-rate greater than 100 – so scoring more runs than balls they face, with a strike-rate being how many runs they are expected to score if they faced 100 deliveries.
Six players with strike-rates greater than 100 is the most we have seen within one group of batsmen and shows the increased risks those in the middle-to-lower order take in search of quick runs.
Perera is the man who boasts the highest strike-rate with 116.81, fractionally ahead of Pandya with 115.57 and Imad at 110.88 – so it is no surprise that they were the top three boundary-finders that we looked at above. The rest of those in the 100+ group are Rashid Khan, Moeen Ali and O’Brien, and it is telling that of the six, only one averages above 30 (albeit Pandya is a fraction away at 29.9), and three below 25. This is another revealing fact when looking at the tactics employed by players, and their focusing on innings’ where they sacrifice run weight for run-scoring speed.
Stokes and Shakib are the two players with the highest average score; no surprise given that they have been contenders (and a winner in the Englishman’s case) for out-and-out batting roles in the top five in our previous pieces, showing that they are the two players within the group who can claim to be genuine world-class batsmen. Conversely, Gulbadin is the one man within the group who scores neither quickly nor heavily.
Combining these two metrics gives a clearer indication of a player’s overall ability, as it takes into account both run volume and tempo.
When doing so, Imad is the man to come out on top with a score of 152.59, climbing ahead of Stokes’ 150.95 and Pandya’s 140.83. Unsurprisingly given his aforementioned inability at scoring heavily or quickly, it is Gulbadin who sits bottom, the only player with a sub-100 cumulative total.
Pace or spin?
Moving on, here we look at each player’s ability at playing pace and spin and how they compare against each other.
As mentioned previously, the batting abilities of Shakib and Stokes make them shine against the rest, their respective averages head-and-shoulders above the rest of the field and convey just how good they are as batsmen.
Elsewhere, Pandya, Moeen, Imad and Rashid show a slight inclination at facing slower bowling, but they are very much the exception given that the other 11 all score higher against pace than they do spin. However, with three of the four hailing from sub-continental conditions and the other being a spinner himself, it is perhaps no surprise that they have a penchant for facing the turning ball.
Just like in the previous section of averages and strike-rates, if we combine the two metrics together, it gives a clearer picture of the batsman’s all-round ability.
When we do so, unsurprisingly, Shakib and Stokes are once again the pair with the most impressive cumulative score. On the graph below, the red area indicates a player’s average against spin and the green against pace.
Not only does Shakib possess the highest average against pace, but he does so against spin too – no real surprise for a man who was a contender for both numbers three and five in our side.
Taking this one step further, a batsman’s overall average is calculated by subtracting their individual difference between averages versus pace and spin away from their cumulative total, thereby giving an even more accurate representation of who is the most complete overall batter. It does so by rewarding those who have averages closer together and punishing those who have a greater lean towards a clear preference against one or the other. The graph is displayed below.
Even when doing so, Shakib is still by far-and-away the leading scorer, his average of 71.1 is 8.68 runs higher than Stokes’ 62.42 in second. Although there is no change in the leader, there is an alteration of personnel towards the bottom.
Although Moeen holds a cumulative average of 33.63 to sit third-bottom, he is hampered by his average difference of 8.97 moving him down to an overall average of 24.66 – meaning that he falls below Rashid Khan (24.7) to the final spot. Other significant movers include: Nabi (eighth to fourth), Raza (fourth to seventh), Imad (12th to eighth), Gulbadin (14th to 11th) and Neesham (ninth to 13th).
Length of innings against run-rate
Now we come to our final constituent metric before we find out who is the best batting all-rounder. Here, we analyse a player’s runs scored per ball (RpB) against their average innings length in terms of balls-per-dismissal (BpD). This allows us to see their overall impact but on a ball-by-ball scale, and therefore see who has the greatest impact for the greatest amount of time with the bat in hand.
As RpB is a scaled-down version of the strike-rates we viewed earlier, the placement of players in the y-axis is identical to that of their strike-rate position. However, their horizontal placement is an indicator as to how long they occupy the crease for – as can be seen below.
When looking at this, Stokes is the player who has the longest mean innings at 57.03 BpD, followed by Shakib at 51.55. Zimbabwean duo Raza and Williams also show an ability to bat for a decent amount of time, albeit not scoring at the same rate as the top two, whilst Australian Stoinis bats for almost exactly the same length as Pakistani Imad but without the same scoring pace.
Elsewhere, big-hitting duo Perera and Pandya typically do not hang about, getting on with their game straight away to play explosive, short innings’. At the wrong end of the graph, it is Gulbadin who, although he occupies the crease for a decent amount of time, is fairly conservative in his approach.
Selection
When taking all of these areas of their batting in account, our unique Batting Index has selected the best batsman of the group – and that man is Ben Stokes.
Boasting an Index of 213.37, the hero of 2019 Stokes just squeezes past Shakib’s score of 205.84 to sit atop the pile. He has proved his worth with the bat in many games, and so given his all-round ability to adapt to various situations, it is no surprise he is the highest-rated batting all-rounder.
However, this is only half the story. Stay tuned in the coming days as we take a look at the bowling aspect of these players and choose who will be our overall selection for the all-rounder position in our star-studded side.