Indian fans are vocal, they support their team during the highs and are critical of them when they don’t perform well. After the ODI series whitewash against South Africa, a few of the cricket experts and a lot of fans thought that India should change its batting style, and they are not as attacking as required in the modern ODI format. In this piece, we look at the stats to analyze their batting template across ODIs and compare them with the other teams.
Changes in ODI scoring rate
It’s important to understand the change in the ODI batting template in the last 10-20 years. A lot of factors like change in powerplay rules, two new balls, and the spread of the T20 format have changed the batters’ approach. Three eras have been compared, first is from the beginning of 2001 leading up to the final of the 2011 World Cup. It was at this time that T20 took centre stage in cricket and impacts were seen in the ODI game. The second is the period between the 2011 and 2015 World Cup. Last but the most important is post the 2015 World Cup, as England completely changed their approach and ended up winning the 2019 World Cup.
The average score was 248 in the first era, which increased to 262.7 in the second period – an increase of 14 runs. Australia, India, and England were on the same lines, but New Zealand had an average increase of 32 runs to their score. It was Brendon Mcculum who brought this change with his attacking instinct.
The average score has increased to 276.8 after the 2015 WC, again an increase of 14 runs. Australia and India were in line with the average increase. Pakistan increased its scoring rate considerably. England completely changed their batting template, which is seen in an increase of nearly 50 runs – an extra run every over.
It can be interpreted that on average, the scoring rate has picked up due to various reasons, and some teams have changed their template completely, like New Zealand in the 2011-15 period and England post-2015 WC.
Partnerships
Partnerships are the foundation of big scores and define the batting templates for teams. A look at the stats of the semi-finalists of the 2019 WC, India’s opening pair had the lowest run rate. Their run rate gradually increases for every wicket partnership, except the third wicket, which can be an effect of the team not being able to find a solid number four for some years.
Australia also have the same batting template, with the run rate increasing with each partnership, but the Australian opening pair score at a slightly higher rate than the Indians. But the Indians manage to score six-plus runs per over from the fourth wicket stand itself, whereas Australia reaches that only at the sixth wicket stand. Both the teams end up with almost the same total (288-290). New Zealand also have the same batting template. While their openers score nearly at six runs per over, their average is only 37, as compared to India’s 49.70 and England’s 54.39.
England’s average score of 312 is achieved by most of their partnerships scoring at more than a run-a-ball except for the third wicket, where it was 5.86. England have the depth in batting to carry that approach. The average of their batters (8-11) is 21 with a strike rate of 96.04. Whereas the Indian batters at that position only have an average of 14.75 with a low strike rate of 79.49. The same is the case with Australia.
Conclusion
In short, apart from England, no other team constantly scored at more than six runs an over, and India have the highest average score after them. Australia almost follows the same template as India, and New Zealand, despite an attacking opening pair, fall behind India’s score by 10 runs. India do not need to change their batting template. Once they sort out their middle-order issues and find a decent all-rounder, it will give the openers and the other top-order batters the freedom to be more attacking, hence, scoring 300 on average rather than 290.