Bowlers that Dominated Cricket
Following analysis has been done with Naman Jain
Exploratory data analysis on bowlers has been done after 2005 across all formats. As T20i was introduced after 2005. Bowlers who have played at least 20 matches in each format and in each condition (home and away) have been considered in the following analysis. Factors such as home and away have also been considered.
Following features have been considered to analyze the bowlers-
- Average (Number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken).
- Strike Rate (Average number of balls bowled per wicket taken).
- Wickets Taken
- Economy (Average number of runs they have conceded per over)
Analysis of different formats has been done considering all the bowlers played after 2005 separately for home and away. Bowlers have been analyzed on the basis of points that they get according to the following method-
For example, let's take Wickets as the feature to be considered for now and the format to be Test.
Firstly we take all the bowlers who have played at least 20 matches in the test(away or home). Then we will take the mean of the total wickets taken by the bowlers and also calculate the standard deviation.
Then secondly we will assign the points to the bowlers according to the category they belong to. Categories are as follows-
x-1.5y — > 4
x-y — > 5
x-0.5y — >6
x — >7
x+0.5y — > 8
x+y — >9
x+1.5y — > 10
x is mean and y is the standard deviation. Now if the total wickets taken by the bowlers is greater than (x+1.5y) then we assign 10(Points) to it and similarly for the other categories as well. As you can see minimum points to be given is 4.
Now when we will consider Strike Rate, the Average and Economy point assign will be reversed as less Strike Rate, Average and Economy should be given more points.
Now as we have discussed how we are assigning the points let's move into some analysis part. Starting with Test(Home then Away) then ODIs and lastly T20i.
Test
Bowlers with a minimum of 20 home and 20 away matches have been considered. Following the above rule to assign the points, we get the top 10 bowlers in every feature as follows-
Test Home
Data of 46 bowlers were analyzed who have played a minimum of 20 home test matches after 2005. Including only the top 9 test playing countries.
As you can see in pic 1 Muralitharan with the least average in-home condition has been given 10 points. And for pic 2 Anderson with the most wickets in the home condition has been given 10 points. A similar trend follows for pic 3 and pic 4.So every bowler gets a different no. of points in every feature.
Now if we add all the points of all the features for a particular bowler. The top 10 bowlers in home condition for the test are-
So from the above pic, we can say that Muralitharan, Ashwin, and Herath have secured the highest points and hence dominate in their home test conditions (sub-continent), and similarly, Philander, Steyn, and Anderson dominate in their Seaming condition.
Test Away
Data of 59 bowlers were analyzed who have played a minimum of 20 away test matches after 2005. Including only the top 9 test playing countries.
If we look into the average of bowlers in away condition Abbas(Pak) secure the first position whereas in strike rate he is in 5th position. Now if we look at Anderson's (Eng) stats he has taken the most away wickets but was not able to secure a position in the top 10 in average or strike rate. That might be because of more avg. runs conceded in an over per wicket in away conditions.
Now if we add all the points of all the features. The top 10 bowlers in away test conditions are-
We can see Ajmal(Pak) has gained the most points when we talk about away condition but he was not able to gain more points in home condition, as a result, he was not in the top 10 home bowlers.
Now adding the points of home and away condition. The top 10 bowlers we get are -
Steyn performed exceptionally well in both home and away conditions and as a result, secured the top rank among all the test bowlers.
Now moving to the ODIs.
ODIs
A similar analysis has been done in ODIs with bowlers with a minimum of 20 home and 20 away matches.
ODIs Home
Data of 108 bowlers were analyzed who have played a minimum of 20 home ODI matches after 2005. Including only the top 9 ODI playing countries.
As you can see all the Top 10 bowlers in a particular feature have 10 points, this is because of the large sample space and high standard deviation. Now when we add all the points from all the features we get top 10 bowlers in their home condition-
We can see there are 4 Bangladesh Bowlers in the top 10 this might be because of the kind of opposition Bangladesh plays like Afganistan, Zimbabwe, etc.
ODIs Away
Data of 161 bowlers were analyzed who have played a minimum of 20 away ODI matches after 2005. Including only the top 9 ODI playing countries.
As you can see all the Top 10 bowlers in a particular feature have 10 points, this is because of the large sample space and high standard deviation. But when we add their points considering all the features we get the following chart-
Now adding the points of home and away condition. The top 10 bowlers we get are -
T20i
Bowlers who have played at least 20 home and 20 away T20i matches have been considered-
T20i Home
Data of 21 bowlers were analyzed who have played a minimum of 20 home T20i matches after 2005. Including only the top 9 T20i playing countries.
As you can see we have a 6 point bowler among the top 10 bowlers in chart 4 because of the small sample space.
Now we add all the points in all the features to get the best 10 t20i bowlers in home condition-
T20i Away
Data of 66 bowlers were analyzed who have played a minimum of 20 away T20i matches after 2005. Including only the top 9 T20i playing countries.
All the top 10 bowlers in chart 2 have 10 points because we have a very close economy for all the bowlers and hence a very small standard deviation.
Now adding all the points to get the top 10 bowlers in T20i away-
We can observe that there are 7 spinners in the top 10 because spinners usually bowl in middle overs where batsmen look to build a partnership.
Now we have the top 10 bowlers in-home and top 10 bowlers in away condition. Adding the points to get top 10 bowlers in T20i-
Now we have found out the top 10 Bowlers in all the formats in both home and away condition.
Now to find the top 10 bowlers across all the formats we add their respective points in each format to get the final points. After adding and sorting on the basis of points we get-
After analyzing all the formats considering the condition of the home and away and taking features such as Strike Rate, Average, Economy, and Wickets.
We hereby can see the bowlers who dominated cricket in all the formats.
We can observe that Steyn has performed equally well in each format whereas other bowlers have performed well in one or two formats only.
Cheers!!!!!
Stats have been taken from Source: Statsguru.
