Where is Dhoni Standing?

There's been a lot of talk on MS Dhoni's place in the team. In the recently concluded T20 between India and West Indies, India played 3 wicketkeepers (+1 can be wk in Kedhar Jadhav) MS Dhoni, Dinesh Kartick & Pant. It was MSD, who stood behind the stumps. There is no doubt in anybody's mind who is the best in India with the keeping gloves on. But can the same be told when it comes to his batting?

MS Dhoni's overall stats:

The stats look very great!
The average looks even better!
28% of his time at crease he has remained not out.

If not outs are not considered then this average drops to 37.24.
This makes his just an average batsman and also not fair on his to not consider his not outs.

MSD Strike rate

Overall the strike rate looks good. The above picture does not give in much information and his average SR over time looks stable

In the initial two years of MSD's career he was striking above run a ball. Off late the difference between run balls faced and runs scored are on the high. Since 2010 MSD's overall strike rate has come below 90.

Dropped from the team 

It is well known that Dhoni wanted to drop 3 senior players from the team but we can never be sure who were those three. Dravid, Sehwag and Gambhir were among the greats who where dropped from the team under Dhoni s captaincy.

*Dravid scored 527 runs in last 20 innings in 2007 before he was dropped from the team. Dravid has later played in 2009 and 2011 as well.

Comparing last 20 innings of MSD with other players who were dropped along with Tendulkar and Kohli's last 20 innings. Only Dravid has performed slightly bad compared to Dhoni and the rest have better numbers.

Each of the have played in different time span where the team has been performing differently, then we should have to compare the team performance as well.

The same set of players when compared with the Team's batting average, Dhoni has the worse difference. This above table clearly shows the Tendulkar and Kohli have taken responsibility for the team's average as well. 

The big question is what does MSD think, where is he Standing?

Rohit Sharma - Mr Talent on Indian Soil

Rohit Sharma started his career way back in 2007. He was part of the 2007 t-20 world cup winning team. Virat Kohli in 2007 was just an under 19 player and only in 2008, he captained India in U-19 world cup. Ajinkya Rahane had not even made his ranji trophy debut until 2007 (He made his Ranji Trophy debut for his first-class side Mumbai in the 2007/2008 season).

Today, both Kohli and Rahane are part of Indian test team and Rohit Sharma is the most talented batsman in making.

Rohit Sharma’s Test and ODI records seems to be good at one glance with both average around 40 as a batsman.

Test Matches

Out of the 9 matches he has played 2 has been in India. If those 2 are not considered then his batting average outside India is just 20 with a highest score of 72.

Outside India

9 is just a sample size. Let us consider his ODI records.  He has played 126 ODI matches with a batting average of 37.89 which is decent.

He has decent record against most of the countries except South Africa (Ignoring Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Ireland and Hong Kong). He averages 39.24

In India, he has scored 2 double centuries and therefore his records in India are amazing. He has scored 1443 runs in 28 matches at an average of 65.59

Outside India he has done well in West Indies & Zimbabwe with over 50 + averages along with 2 centuries in West Indies

Outside India he has scored 2309 runs at an average of 29.98. If West Indies and Zimbabwe are not considered this averages dip below 24

These numbers just indicate that Mr. Talent is awesome on Indian Pitches, but outside India he lacks the talent!

Batting average comparison with Suresh Raina & Yuvraj Singh

Virat Kohli - On a long way

Virat Kohli has had a great start to his career. In the 140 ODI matches that he has played, he has scored over 5700 runs at an average of 51.24. Especially while chasing a target he’s been exceptional and consistent. But his test statistics doesn’t seem to project the same level of greatness as his ODI records.

In the 29 test matches (before India vs Australia series 2014) he has played so far he has scored 1855 runs at an average of 39.46. This really looks bad when compared to his ODI average of 51.24. How does it look when it is compared with the greats after playing 29 test matches?

As of today (12th Dec, 2014) the following are top six players based on runs scored over their career

Based on the number of runs scored in first 29 matches, Virat Kohli is better than Kallis & Ponting. He has scored more centuries than them and also more than Dravid, Sangakkara, & Lara. But Virat fails miserably in the average sections

India batsmen are generally compared on how they fare outside India. Kohli has played 31 innings outside India, and when comparing that with first 31 innings of other great India players, he is some way below the rest.

Kohli’s has scored century on his captaincy debut and in good hope he should be able to keep his records along or above the rest of the greats.

Analysis on Indian squad for World T20 2014

The Team

1. MS Dhoni (c/wk)
2. Ravichandran Ashwin
3. Shikhar Dhawan
4. Virat Kohli
5. Amit Mishra
6. Ajinkya Rahane
7. Mohit Sharma
8. Yuvraj Singh
9. Varun Aaron
10. Stuart Binny
11. Ravindra Jadeja
12. Bhuvneshwar Kumar
13. Mohammed Shami
14. Suresh Raina
15. Rohit Sharma

 

India has won 55.3% of T20 matches played.

The current squad has a winning percentage of 55.9%

Performance

India if batting first the have score atleast 173 runs

If chasing they can chase between 164 to 206

Note: The above graph is based on the current teams individual's average and strike rate, not based on the team performance.

Probability of a player scoring 50+ in World cup T20 match

A player is more likely to score 50+ while batting first than chasing

Average No of 4's in a match

Average No of 6's in a match

Impact Players

Yuvraj Singh

India definitely depends on Yuvraj Singh Whenever he preforms well, India has won; be it setting target or chasing.

SK Raina

Raina has the most consistent strike rate.

MS Dhoni

Like Yuvraj, Dhoni has impact on team chances. He is more likely have an impact on setting targets.

Virat Kohli

 Clearly Kohli is second innings player.