Reviews, Opinions, Analyses, Stats and Numbers

India’s anti-Pakistan Policy to gift Pakistan Women direct WC qualification

January 3, 2020
BCCI failed to invite Pakistan Women for the scheduled ODI series. Subsequent forfeiture of 6 ICC Women ODI Championship, by India, guarantees Pakistan Women’s direct qualification for ICC Women’s ODI World Cup to be held in New Zealand in 2021.

Picture Courtesy: PCB
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Coaches in Numbers

Misbah ul Haq becomes 6th person to takeover as Head Coach of Pakistan team in this decade. Probably a perfect time to see what results different coaches, in Pakistan's recent history, have left for Misbah to be bench-marked with.

So, here's a look at what results Pakistan has produced under different coaches in different formats in the recent past. The recent past, for this discussion, includes all performances in the current decade – 2010s – from Pakistan’s tour to Australia in 2009/10 onwards.

Results breakup across formats:

Pakistan’s Win/Loss Ratios in all three formats have remained lower in 2010s than what Pakistan’s overall Win/Loss Ratios were in periods prior to it.




In Tests, Pakistan won Test matches with much higher frequency in 2010s than as compared to earlier. Pakistan won 42% of all Tests played in this period as compared to winning 30% of all Tests played earlier.
However, Pakistan lost Test matches also with higher frequency than the period before. Pakistan lost 43% of the Tests played in this period as compared to losing only 27% of all Tests played earlier.






The rise in frequency on both sides of the spectrum highlights the recent trend of more Tests producing results than earlier.

Pakistan’s Win/Loss Ratio dropped, however. In 2010s, Pakistan won 32 and lost 33, whereas, Pakistan had won 104 and lost 95 till 2010.




In ODIs, Pakistan’s frequency of winning dropped from 53% to 49% while the frequency of losing rose from 44% to 48%. Subsequently, Pakistan’s Win/Loss Ratio also dropped from 1.22 to 1.01.
In 2010s, Pakistan won 102 ODIs and lost 101 as compared to winning 382 and losing 312 ODIs in the earlier period.



The most considerable variance in Pakistan’s results occurred in T20I format where Pakistan’s staggering Win/Loss Ratio of 4.2 dropped to 1.5 – even after a splendid spell of 30 wins compared to 7 losses in last three years.
However, that looks so because of lesser number of T20I Cricket played till the beginning of the current decade.






At the turn of the decade, Pakistan had won 21 T20Is and had lost only 5, yielding an astounding Win Percentage of 78%. From then on, Pakistan managed to win 69 and lost 45 T20Is – a win percentage of 59%, still a pretty satisfactory frequency of winning.



Coaches in 2010s


Moving on to our primary topic of discussion, let us have a look at what results Pakistan produced under different coaches across the formats in the current decade.

Twenty20 Internationals:

Pakistan’s decade of 2010, in T20Is, is punctuated with the worst and the best performances at the beginning and at the end of the decade, respectively.



In a period of 18 months, during the first tenure of Waqar Younis as the Head Coach, Pakistan won only 6 out of 19 T20Is. To put into perspective, till the beginning of that tenure, Pakistan had won 21 out of 27 T20Is played in between 2006 to 2009. 13 losses in T20Is during that period is the most for Pakistan under any coach.

Mohsin Khan’s tenure lasted for only 5 T20Is; winning 3 and losing 2.

Under Whatmore, Pakistan started to rebuild, somewhat. During Whatmore’s coaching tenure of almost 2 years, Pakistan won 15 out of 25 T20Is, yielding a win percentage of 60% and a Win/Loss ratio of 1.67 (winning 3 out of every 5 matches).






Moin Khan supervised Pakistan’s T20I unit for only 4 T20Is; winning 2 and losing 2.

Waqar Younis returned to office in June 2014 and so did, to an extent, Pakistan’s performance in T20Is. During this tenure, Pakistan lost 12 out of 24 T20Is (1 resulted in a tie). Pakistan’s Win/Loss Ratio dropped, again, to under 1.

In May 2016, Mickey Arthur took over and that coincided with Pakistan’s golden period in T20I format. During the next three years, Pakistan won 30 and lost only 7 T20Is, that was as good as Pakistan’s first three years in this format that saw Pakistan losing only 5 T20Is and winning 21, including WT20 Tournament in 2009.



One Day Internationals:

Pakistan decade of 2010, in ODIs, has remained pretty consistent – consistently average, to be exact.



Pakistan entered the decade ranked 7th in ICC ODI Ranking and its holding 6th spot, as of today, that has also remained the mean ICC Ranking of Pakistan throughout this decade.

Pakistan produced reasonably good results during the first tenure of Waqar Younis. Pakistan won 19 out of 34 and lost 14 ODIs, maintaining a win percentage of 56% and Win/Loss Ratio of 1.4






Pakistan played 15 and won 10 ODIs during the brief stint of Mohsin Khan. That produced a healthy win percentage of 67%

Dav Whatmore’s tenure saw Pakistan winning 22 and losing 22 ODIs out of 47 played, yielding a Win/Loss Ratio of perfectly 1.

Pakistan, then played 5 ODIs, during Moin’s tenure, winning 3 and losing 2.






Then came the second tenure of Waqar Younis as Head Coach of Pakistan; that’s exactly where Pakistan registered their worst results in ODIs during any period of considerable length. During this period, Pakistan lost 24 out of 40 ODIs, yielding a massive Loss Percentage of 60%. In contrast, Pakistan won only 15 ODIs, yielding a Win/Loss Ratio of only 0.6 – easily one of the worst periods for Pakistan in ODI format.

Mickey Arthur replaced Waqar in 2016. Although the numbers improved a bit but only in comparison to dismal numbers during Waqar’s second tenure. Under Mickey, Pakistan lost 34 out of 64 ODIs and won only 32. Although an improvement, yet Pakistan’s Win/Loss Ratio during his tenure remained under 1.


Tests:

Pakistan won 4 and loss 5 out of 12 Tests played during the first tenure of Waqar Younis. Win percentage of 33% as compared to loss percentage of 42% and Win/Loss Ratio of 0.8 – considerably lower than Pakistan’s Win/Loss Ratio of 1.09 before this period.



Mohsin Khan’s tenure as coach was a rare golden period in Tests for Pakistan. During this period, Pakistan played 8 Tests, won 6 and lost none. This is as rare as it can get – a win percentage of 75%.

Pakistan’s Test performance, however, dipped right after. During Dav Whatmore’s tenure, Pakistan won only 3 out of 13 Tests and lost 7 – a Win/Loss Ratio of only 0.4; Pakistan’s lowest in any format for any span of considerable duration.

Pakistan didn’t play any Tests during Moin Khan’s tenure.






Waqar’s second tenure saw much better results. Pakistan won 8 out of 15 Tests and lost only 4; a Win/Loss Ratio of 2 (winning 2 Tests to every Test lost).

Then came Mickey Arthur. During his tenure, Pakistan won 10 out of 28 and lost 17 Tests. Pakistan’s loss percentage of 61%, during this period, is by far the worst frequency of losing Tests.

In a nut shell, this is how Pakistan’s Coaches fared in numbers during this decade




ICC Rankings:

Numbers do provide quantitative measure of proceedings to quite an extent. However, it often does not reflect the quality of, say, a win or a loss that are counted equally in numbers.

Let’s resort to ICC Rankings as the standard to evaluate the quality of results Pakistan produced under different coaches during the recent past. Here’s the quick view of :

a) What was Pakistan’s ICC Ranking in the format when a coach took over 
b) What was Pakistan’s ICC Ranking in the format when that coach left and 
c) What was the Net gain between the start and end of tenure of a particular coach:




To sum it all up:

Waqar's first tenure was not that bad. The second, however, was as horrendous as it can get. Although, Pakistan did do well numerically in Tests during his second tenure but in terms of quality, it was still below par - as reflected by net drop of 1 spot in Pakistan's ICC Test ranking between the start and end of his second tenure.

Mohsin Khan had a reasonably good short stint.
Moin Khan's tenure wasn't long enough to talk about much. Dav Whatmore produced average results. Although, Pakistan's ranking did improve in Tests and T20I formats but performance in ODIs remained pretty ordinary.






Mickey Arthur revolutionized Pakistan in the shortest format but in the longest format, Pakistan remained an inconsistent, undecided and under-performing unit that lost many more than what they should have. In the medium length format as well, it was far from satisfactorily consistent.

Under Mickey, although Pakistan did manage to win the accolades of rising to the Number 1 in ICC Test Ranking and winning ICC Champions Trophy but even with such achievements, Pakistan's results in the formats remained highly inconsistent that was a disappointment in itself. Yet, in T20Is, it left Pakistan with a kind of consistency that World of Cricket only dream about Pakistan.











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WORLD CUP 2019 TEAMS REVIEW - PART 3 : The Momentum Look

May 28, 2019
Summarizing how 2019 Cricket World Cup participants have performed against each other in last 4 years versus in the last 2 years












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WORLD CUP 2019 TEAMS REVIEW - PART 2 : Since ICC Champions Trophy 2017

May 28, 2019
Narrowing down the period for our Review of 2019 World Cup participants – on the basis of their Win-Loss Ratio – to last 2 years, more specifically since the last ICC event, here is a look at how teams have scored during this period.


and here’s how each team has done against other opponents since ICC Champions Trophy 2017

























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WORLD CUP 2019 TEAMS REVIEW - PART 1 : World Cup Runners Against Each Other Since 2015 World Cup

May 23, 2019
Right, so we are into the final week before ICC Cricket World Cup and the customary World Cup fever has just kicked in.

There’s no more Cricket to talk about for the next one week, leaving the fans around the world with nothing but ample time to take out their microscopes and analyze the teams participating in the contest through various statistical views, angles and dimensions.

Is there any right statistical view that could provide definitive evaluation of the teams participating in the World Cup 2019? The simple answer is, no – unless resorting to such methods and algorithms that become too complicated for a common fan to comprehend. Instead, there are quite a few popular views to benchmark the contestants of the World Cup.

One of such scenario is analysis of teams since the last World Cup. To make it even more relevant, let’s take look at the teams, specifically, against each other since the last World Cup, held in 2015.




That pretty much reflects the form of participating teams amongst each other in the last 4 years.





Moving on, let’s take a quick look at how teams have fared against the other 9 teams in this period, starting with Pakistan













































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England vs Pakistan ODI Series 2019 - Bowling Analysis

May 20, 2019
The series termed as the full-dress rehearsal of ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 is over. It provided 4 days of run fest with 7 out of 8 completed innings going well above the 300 runs mark.

In such a high scoring series, bowling looked the harder of the traits and – to an extent – eventually deciding the fate of the series as well. Here’s a quick recap of bowling performance from both the teams


Leading bowlers in the series by STRIKE RATE:


Leading bowlers in the series by BOWLING AVERAGE:


Leading bowlers in the series by ECONOMY:


Leading bowlers in the series by DOT BALL PERCENTAGE:


Leading bowlers in the series by BOUNDARY PERCENTAGE:








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Graphical Recap of England vs Pakistan - 2nd ODI - 11 May 2019

It was battle of the bats at Southampton that saw over 700 runs scored in a day. Here's a graphical recap of the match:

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Curious Case of Amir’s Selection for World Cup



The announcement of Pakistan’s squad for ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 is only days away. The scope of speculations, rumors and debates has narrowed out to selection of only a couple of players and Mohammad Amir is one of them.

There was a time when not selecting Mohammad Amir for any Pakistan squad was not considered as an option. Upon his return from 5-year ban, even, he literally walked into Pakistan side and resumed the lead role of Pakistan’s bowling unit. His talent trumped all selection criteria and practices, to the extent that shadows of favoritism started to dampen his bright aura of raw talent.

Amir's Bowling Economy since ICC Champions Trophy 2017 has been:
  • as good as from his debut till 2010
  • better than his career economy
  • better than all other Pakistan pacers combined in matches he played. 
  • a run better than all other bowlers combined in opening spells

He has been part of Pakistan team in all formats since then – his return to International Cricket in 2016. Apart from missing a few games here and there due to injuries or under the doctrine of ‘rotation policy’, he has remained an automatic choice in the team. At times, his berth in the team has remained more assured than even the captain of the side. Cometh the World Cup and his guaranteed berth has started to look shaky, however.

He has taken only 5 wickets in 14 matches since that magical spell on June 18, 2017 against India during the Final of ICC Champions Trophy. More specifically, he has taken only 3 wickets in his last 12 matches – a wicket every 4th match by a bowler who carries the expectation of taking 4 wickets in every match. This has been the most common argument against his case for selection – and that is not factually incorrect, by any means.





What missing with these stats is probably the context. Taking wickets is definitely the basic expectation from an ace bowler, especially someone who opens the bowling with regularity. But is that the only dimension to assess (potential) value of a bowler in a squad?

Is he just not getting the wickets or getting thrashed around the park as well? If he is leaking runs as well then he is definitely out of form and deserves rest more than the selection but if he is not giving away runs, is he really in a bad form? How is he doing in terms of runs – bowling economy?

More specifically, how has he performed in terms of economy, especially at the beginning of the innings – the opening spells where only two outfileders are allowed? And what about his own standards? How does his recent performance stands in comparison to his own performance standards earlier in his career?





All these are the questions that can help in seeing the complete picture of Amir’s form and potential than concluding it just from the wickets column. So let’s start putting each of these questions under the scanner.


Mohammad Amir's Bowling Summary by Career Phase


For the sake of comparison, Amir’s career can be divided into four phases:
1) Debut till ban
2) Return to International Cricket till Champions Trophy 2017
3) Champions Trophy 2017
4) Post Champions Trophy

His economy in the last phase is almost identical to first phase in his career. Its slightly better than his career economy and it is distinctively better than the amount of runs he used to concede on the average since his Return to International Cricket till Champions Trophy.

So in comparison to his own performance in different phases of his career, has his performance deteriorated in Post-CT phase? In terms of bowling economy, definitely not.

How about comparison with other bowlers in the same period? Comparing him with spinners would be more an apple to orange comparison, so let’s restrict the comparison to with other pacers only. For the sake of eliminating the pitch, innings in the match, result and other factors, let’s restrict the comparison also to only the matches where Amir played.


Mohammad Amir vs Other Pacers of Pakistan since ICC Champions Trophy 2017

Amir’s Bowling Average is awful in this period – no surprises there. However, in terms of runs conceded, Amir’s Bowling Economy is better than all other pacers combined in this period.

Bowling Economy - Mohammad Amir vs other Pakistan pacers since ICC Champions Trophy 2017



In match to match comparison, except for only a couple of matches, his bowling economy has remained either better or around the same as other Pacers who represented Pakistan in the same period.

OK, but he generally opens the bowling for Pakistan; how has he performed at the beginning of the innings. Let’s refine the scope of comparison even further, specifically to opening spells.


Opening Spells by Mohammad Amir and all other Pakistan bowlers since ICC Champions Trophy 2017


For the sake of maintaining the uniformity of data, bowling figures of equal number of overs bowled by OTHER bowlers have been included here as the number of overs bowled by Amir in his opening spell in that particular match. For the sake of simplicity, figures of all bowlers other than Amir have been included under OTHERS that also includes overs bowled by spinners from the opposite end during the opening spell of Amir.

Amir’s bowling economy in the opening spells have been more than 1 run better on the average than the economy of all other bowlers combined.

Bowling Economy in Opening Spells by Mohammad Amir and all other Pakistan bowlers since ICC Champions Trophy 2017

In match to match comparison, Amir’s economy in opening spells have remained better or similar to other bowlers on most occasions. The only really bad opening spell he had in this period was against India in Dubai but that lasted for only 2 overs. That was the only time he conceded more than 5 Runs Per Over in an opening spell since Champions Trophy 2017.


In other instances where his economy in the opening spell went higher than the bowlers at the other end, it was more a case of bowlers at the other end bowling exceptionally well rather than Amir bowling bad and going for plenty of runs. Even in those instances, his economy remained under 5 Runs Per Over that is considered pretty much acceptable performance from a bowler in modern day Cricket.






So what can we take away from all this number crunching?
Amir is not picking up wickets with a consistency of painful order but he is economical with similar consistency. A bowler in bad form generally goes for runs as well. To Amir’s credit, even with his struggle for wickets, he has managed to keep one end pretty dry. If seen in the backdrop of ‘bowlers hunt in pairs’, this might have also contributed to all the wickets bowlers took from the other end.

In a team game like Cricket, you need players to perform different roles in the strategic plan. Yes, there was a time when Amir used to be Pakistan’s strike bowler. In recent times, Pakistan has unearthed some fresh faces to play that assassin’s role, like, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Usman Shinwari and Junaid Khan. Apart from Shaheen Afridi, all of them love to go after wickets and in the process, sometimes go for plenty of runs as well.

With names of  Mohammad Hasnain and Wahab Riaz circulating for selection, it would make up a pretty mercurial pace attack of Pakistan – with no one there specifically to dry up the runs, if needed, and who has a bit of experience of it as well.





ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 is going to be a longer than usual campaign where excellence of experience may overcome the exuberance of youth, at the end. Any volatility in any side is going to be exposed pretty soon, and then going to be exploited to the fullest by the opponents in later half of the tournament.

Pakistan is going to play 5 match ODI series in England right before the World Cup and the whole world will watch it as curtain raiser of the World Cup. On one hand, the series is going to provide Pakistan the best arrangement to prepare for the World Cup. On the other hand, if any of Pakistan’s weaknesses or volatilities get exposed in this period, Pakistan will not have any time to recover from it, and may eventually start the tournament with a handicap.

World Cup tournaments are not supposed to be experimentation labs, they are supposed to be the show case, the expo, the exhibition of your best. The time for experimentation falls between the two World Cups not during one of it.

As Pakistan has invested 3 years since the last World Cup in Amir, its time to trust the investment and see it through. It may not be inappropriate to dump him for good after the World Cup but there’s no point resting him in the World Cup only to bring him back after a while. Its time to put the rainy-day investment under the rain.





Based on recent stats, he may not be able to give Pakistan the wickets but based on same stats, he is expected to keep it tight from one end help the more mercurial strike bowlers to knock out the opponents from the other end. Cricket is a team game, after all, where not everyone is expected to perform the same job. Might be better not to evaluate Amir for the role he performed in the past but to give him a different role, instead, that he is performing well any ways.

And, who knows, on his day, he might produce another spell like the Champions Trophy Final that could take the sting out of opponent’s threat. Even before that historic spell, Amir had an ordinary tournament; had taken only 2 wickets in the whole tournament, didn’t bowl his full quota in the opening encounter against India and yes, he did miss the Semi Final due to fitness. After all that, he came back to produce a spell for the history books especially the two back to back deliveries to Kohli.

Who knows, all this has been nothing but nature’s conspiracy to set up his yet another fairytale comeback. Among all available options, he deserves  a ticket to England and he should get it.








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Analysis: ODI Hundreds for Pakistan


Pakistan’s 5-0 loss to Australia was the 1st time a team scored 5 100s in an ODI series and still got whitewashed. In terms of 100s scored, the series was a rare one in ODI history from various angles, such as:

Summary of Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series in context of 100s scored

These are some staggering numbers to highlight the rarity of what happened during the series.

On the other hand, common belief says that whenever Pakistan batting manages to put even a half-decent score, Pakistan bowling has always been good enough not to let the opponents walk away with the game.

How good that belief stood in this series? Narrowing down the numbers specifically to Pakistan, points us in the direction of answer to this question.
Pakistan records created during Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE

Most of the 100s in the series were scored by Pakistan; a team whose ability to score big – or to convert frequently scored average scores into big hundreds – is what has been believed, for a long time, to be its most critical success factor in Limited Overs Cricket.





Stats of this kind makes one question those common beliefs and dig deeper into this topic of 100s and success in Pakistan’s case.

Do all 100s contribute towards team victory?
The general consensus answers to this question in negative. Not all 100s mean team victory. In fact, some 100s influence negatively on team progress – the team total in that particular innings. The history of Cricket, especially ODI history, enlists quite a few instances where players were blamed for team loss even after scoring a century – in fact, some of them got dropped right after scoring a hundred.

What is a good 100, then?
Just like there cannot be a one-size-fit-for-all kind of answer for questions like ‘what makes a team win?’, it is impractical to formulate a definition that could be applied on centuries scored in all seasons, conditions, regions and formats to adjudge a 100 to be a good or a bad 100.
For this reason, this analysis will not indulge in declaring – or even painting – any ODI 100 as good or bad.





What am I going to get out of reading on, then?
We can work with a definition, however, that applies to most not all the conditions. A definition that is generally used to identify if a 100 eventually propelled the progress of the team or the team progress got stalled because of one of the batsmen approaching their personal milestone.

Staying away from judging a 100 to be a good or a bad 100, this analysis remains confined only to one dimension: that is, if the strike rate of an individual innings of 100 or more was higher than the overall strike rate the team scored its runs during the same innings.

To calculate strike rate of a team innings, the total number of runs is divided by the total number of runs scored in the innings – exactly the same how batsman strike rate is calculated.

For ease of understanding, this part of the analysis will focus on 100s scored specifically by Pakistan batsmen in ODIs. Comparison with 100s scored by batsmen from other countries will be covered in a separate part, later.

ODI 100s by Pakistanis:
Let’s start with quick summary of all 100s scored by Pakistani batsmen in ODIs. A total of 197 centuries has been scored in 912 team innings by 42 Pakistani batsmen in ODI Cricket.
List of Centurions for Pakistan in ODI Cricket with 100s scored, Innings Played and Innings to 100 ratio - updated till Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE
Fastest Individual 100+ innings:
Here’s a Top-20 list of fastest 100+ innings played by Pakistan batsmen in ODIs. 

Top 20 100s for Pakistan in ODIs by Strike Rate - Updated till Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE

Please note, the list denotes Strike Rates at the end of individual innings not when the 100-runs milestone was achieved in that particular innings. Same classification is applied throughout this analysis.





Slowest Individual 100+ innings:
Similarly, here’s a list of all 100+ innings played by Pakistan batsmen in ODIs with worst Strike Rates.
20 Slowest 100s for Pakistan by Strike Rate - Updated till Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE


Top 100+ Innings with Positive Impact on Team Strike Rate:
If all 197 centuries scored by Pakistan batsmen in ODIs are ordered by the difference in Strike Rate of that complete individual innings and the overall Strike Rate of the team at the end of that particular team innings, here’s what we get as the Top-20 list:
Top 20 ODI 100s for Pakistan by Strike Rate Impact - Updated till Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE

Top 100+ Innings with Negative Impact on Team Strike Rate:
Similarly, here’s a list of 100+ innings by Pakistan batsmen in ODIs with highest negative impact on Team:

Worst 20 ODI 100s for Pakistan by Strike Rate Impact - Updated till Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE


Timeline of 100s scored by Pakistanis in ODIs:
If all the 100s scored by Pakistan batsmen in ODIs are mapped onto a timeline in the context of its impact on Team Run Rate, it yields this view:
Timeline of all ODI 100s for Pakistan with Strike Rate Impact - Update till Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE

The view also provides brief details about the innings with highest impact – either positive or negative – on Team Run Rate.





Most impactful centurions for Pakistan in ODIs:
After analyzing individual innings in the context of its impact on team output, the next interesting thing would be to analyze the tendency of all centurions for Pakistan in ODIs throughout their careers in the same context.

Most Impactful centurions for Pakistan with respect to Strike Rate Impact of their ODI 100s - Updated till Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE

Not surprisingly, not all the names in this list rose to undisputed legend of the game status, and those who did, their names are right there on the top. Many other similar inferences can be drawn from this list.

Whenever Javed Miandad, Zaheer Abbas or Shaid Afridi scored a hundred, they made sure their innings propelled the team towards a higher total. There’s a reason they are regarded as the most impactful players the game has seen and the same is evident here. Inzamam ul Haq, Kamran Akmal and Ijaz Ahmed also played with similar intent (and impact).





The Recent Past:
All the aforementioned details spanned from the beginning of ODI Cricket, which has changed drastically over the years. One may argue that the team scores used to be pretty low at the beginning of ODI Cricket, therefore, it would have been easier to score quick runs once the batsman reached his hundred. The counter argument would be that ODI Cricket in early days was played either with no field restrictions or with field restrictions that allowed more open field placement than today, hence, it was comparatively easier to accumulate runs rather than scoring boundaries. It’s a never ending debate, however.

What could be more beneficial, would be to fast forward to recent past and analyze the recent past in the same context. The next stop for ODIs is the World Cup, so let’s take the last World Cup as cut-off for the recent past. By doing so, here is the quick summary that we get of all hundreds scored by Pakistan batsmen in ODIs.

Summary of ODI 100s scored by Pakistan since 2015 Cricket World Cup - Updated till Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE


It opens up the avenue for many interesting inferences. For instance, out of 30 hundreds scored by Pakistan batsmen in ODIs since 2015 World Cup, only 2 have been faster than innings run rate against a team ranked higher than Pakistan at the time. [Bangladesh, Ireland, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe were ranked lower than Pakistan on the day the particular 100 was scored.]




It does reveal interesting patterns but only at the team level. We can delve further to look for the same at individual players level:

ODI 100s scored by Pakistan batsmen since 2015 Cricket World Cup - Updated till Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE


To sum it up, here’s a look at how all centurions for Pakistan in ODIs since 2015 World Cup have fared:

Summary of all ODI 100s scored by Pakistan batsmen since 2015 Cricket World Cup - Updated till Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE


To round-off this part of the analysis, here are the list of 100s, in the same context, by some prominent and current players for Pakistan in ODIs:




Retired Players:

All ODI 100s scored by Javed Miandad in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings

All ODI 100s scored by Zaheer Abbas in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings

All ODI 100s scored by Shahid Afridi in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings




All ODI 100s scored by Inzamam ul Haq in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings

All ODI 100s scored by Ijaz Ahmed in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings

All ODI 100s scored by Saeed Anwar in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings






All ODI 100s scored by Ramiz Raja in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings


Current Players:

All ODI 100s scored by Ahmed Shehzad in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings

All ODI 100s scored by Babar Azam in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings




All ODI 100s scored by Fakhar Zaman in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings

All ODI 100s scored by Imam ul Haq in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings




All ODI 100s scored by Kamran Akmal in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings

All ODI 100s scored by Mohammad Hafeez in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings




All ODI 100s scored by Mohammad Rizwan in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings

All ODI 100s scored by Salman Butt in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings




All ODI 100s scored by Sarfaraz Ahmed in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings

All ODI 100s scored by Shoaib Malik in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings




All ODI 100s scored by Umar Akmal in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings






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