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Friday, June 05, 2009

Is team India in good form?

Team India is all set to defend their crown as the World Twenty20 kicks off this Friday. The players have seen plenty of cricket action over the last few weeks, which give us a fair sense of who’s in good form and who isn’t. How exactly do we measure this form? Simple, we look at the Castrol Index which quantifies each player’s performance.
Here’s a look at the Castrol Index for the players in the current Indian squad. The index scores are based on performances in the IPL 2009.

*Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma are officially classified as batsmen, while they played the role of all-rounders at the IPL 09. Hence their index scores have been recalculated considering them as all-rounders, which reflects the true value of their performances.

The average Castrol Index score of the top 100 players in the IPL 2009 was about 33, and the stars of the tournament had scores in excess of 40. This tells us Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and the Pathan brothers are in really good nick which bodes well for the Men in Blue. The concern areas are the guys at the bottom of the table- the opening batsmen and opening bowlers. But players of the class of Sehwag, Gambhir, Ishant and Zaheer are bound to come good sometime- a billion Indians will hope that happens at the World T20.

There were others who excelled in the IPL, but aren’t in the Indian squad.

Delhi Daredevils Ashish Nehra and Dinesh Karthik can consider themselves unlucky to miss out- Nehra was in spectacular form with more wickets per match than RP Singh, Kumble or Malinga while Karthik played some crucial knocks in crunch situations. 
And then there’s this chap called Anil Kumble- he picked up 21 wickets at 5.86 runs per over. Unfortunately he’s retired.
Will India miss the likes of an in-form Nehra or a wily Kumble at the World T20? Did the selectors miss a trick by not picking a back-up keeper or an in-form Nehra? Probably not, given the recent success the current squad has had at the international level. Only time will tell though. Keep an eye out on those Castrol Index scores to see which players are justifying their place in the Indian eleven and which ones should be warming the benches.

Arvind Iyengar - View Profile

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Monday, May 25, 2009

The Dream Team

Picking the best XI of the tournament is kind of like the Oscars- you pick the best performer for a particular role. For instance, you pick the best batsman in an opening role or the best bowler in a miserly role. And what you end up with is the “Dream Team” of the tournament.

One caveat before we begin our selection- we are looking at players who have participated in at least six matches, long enough for them to have shown consistency over a number of matches. As a result, one-hit wonders like Manish Pandey, Charl Langeveldt and R Ashwin are not considered. Here is the IPL 2009 Dream Team.

77 Matthew Hayden Batsman BASE 75 BONUS 2	Runs: 546 Strike Rate: 145.2 No debate here. Read this if you have any doubts about this man’s selection.
48 Adam Gilchrist Wicketkeeper BASE 47 BONUS 1	Runs: 410 Strike Rate: 142.9 The dynamic Aussie duo reunites at the top! Gilchrist was the fourth highest run-scorer of the season and the best opener after Hayden. Add to that, he fills in the wicket keeper slot. And he’s your team captain. Of course, that means Delhi keeper Dinesh Karthik, who was fantastic in crunch situations, misses out.
47 Suresh Raina Batsman BASE 44 BONUS 3	Runs: 414 Strike Rate: 143.3 Raina was challenging Hayden for the orange cap at one point. He’s been in terrific form, was almost the first Indian to score a century in the IPL (and a scoring error made him think he was), and he’s been more than handy with the ball..
55 Ab De Villiers Wicketkeeper BASE 51 BONUS 4	Runs: 439 Strike Rate: 131.4 It’s been a terrific year for de Villiers in all forms of the game and at the IPL he proved himself to be a premier T20 player. He’s won a ton of awards this year; add a place in the IPL Dream Team to the award list.
27 Rohit Sharma Batsman BASE 24 BONUS 3	Runs: 333 Strike Rate: 118.5 Wickets: 11 Economy rate: 6.6 This is a crucial spot, where you need someone who can consolidate in case three quick wickets fall or smack it around if there are a handful of overs to go. It was also the hardest spot to call, with a number of worthy contenders. Rohit Sharma won out because of his match winning performances in big matches and his ability to contribute with the ball. His Index score may seem a little low, but that has to do with his “official” classification as a batman and not an all-rounder. That means bowling is not considered his core skill and his bowling performances are not as heavily rewarded. If Rohit continues to bowl regularly at the international level and his official classification changed to that of an all-rounder, his effective index score would increase to about 50! The IPL could well be the start of Rohit Sharma’s all-round career! Tillakaratne Dilshan almost made it here, but he lacked Sharma’s versatility and didn’t fire in his last few games. Honourable mentions to Yuvraj Singh, JP Duminy, Dwayne Smith and Ross Taylor- they too narrowly missed out on this spot.
66 Andrew Symonds Allrounder BASE 65 BONUS 1	Runs: 192 Strike Rate: 147.7 Wickets: 4 Economy rate: 6.8 Roy, you didn’t make the Ashes squad. But cheer up- you are in the IPL Dream Team! And with that strike-rate and Castrol Index score, it’s not hard to see why.
50 Dwayne Bravo Allrounder BASE 47 BONUS 3	Runs: 218 Strike Rate: 107.4 Wickets: 11 Economy rate: 7.8 People might overlook Bravo because his side didn’t do to well, but he strung in some consistent performances with bat and ball. His Castrol Index rating of 50 is right up there amongst all-rounders
46 Irfan Pathan Allrounder BASE 49 BONUS -3	Runs: 196 Strike Rate: 124.1 Wickets: 17 Economy rate: 7.7 Irfan Pathan is the bowling all-rounder in the squad. His brother Yusuf Pathan and Jacques Kallis were unlucky to miss out. The South African lost out because of his scratchy start to the tournament and his poor strike-rate, while the older Pathan lacked consistency. That reflected in lower Castrol Index scores (40 and 41) than Bravo and Irfan.
39 Muttiah Muralitharan Bowler BASE 41 BONUS -2	Wickets: 13 Economy rate: 5.3 Murali won the spinners battle, edging out Kumble and Ojha thanks to his better economy rate. That’s why Murali was marginally ahead on the Castrol Index and that’s why he is in the XI.
43 Ashish Nehra Bowler BASE 43 BONUS 0	Wickets: 18 Economy rate: 6.6 Nehra’s picked ahead of purple cap holder RP Singh (Index score 33), because the Delhi man has a better economy rate and a better average. The reason he is trailing RP Singh- he has played two fewer matches.
45 Lasith Malinga Bowler BASE 44 BONUS 1	Wickets: 18 Economy rate: 6.3 Malinga looked like the bowler of tournament for the most part till he lost steam at the end. Still, Slinga was the hardest to get away at the death and seemed unplayable at his best. He rounds up out IPL Dream Team.

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