Who Are the Best and Worst Batters Against Rashid Khan in the IPL?
Numbers don’t lie, and some of the names may surprise you.
Rashid Khan is one of the best spinners in world cricket right now. The Afghan cricketer, who plays for Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League (IPL), gives most batters a tough time while facing him on the field. In the IPL he has a miserly economy rate of 6.39, where most batters look to play him out without giving him a wicket and then attack the other bowlers.
But, who are the best and worst batters against Rashid in the IPL based on data? What do the numbers tell us?
Well, I decided to find out using ESPN CricInfo’s Statsguru data. A simple slicing of Rashid Khan’s data against all batters who faced a minimum of 30 balls against him gave me some insights. I plotted a chart showing these batters’ strike rates and the runs scored by them while facing Rashid. Thank you, David Gladson, for showing me the technique.
Before I show you the results from the chart, can you guess which batters have the best combination of strike rate and runs scored? And which batters have the worst combination?
The numbers tell a story
Shane Watson leads the race by a distance, scoring 82 runs off 47 balls at a strike rate of 174.5 against Rashid. Apparently, Watson has won this matchup. Robin Uthappa comes second when you consider the upper-right area of the quadrant, with a healthy combination of runs and strike rate.
Chris Gayle has a terrific strike rate but did not score as many runs as Watson and Uthappa. Rishabh Pant and Nitish Rana have scored many runs against Rashid but their strike rates, even though higher than the average strike rate of all batters against Rashid, are not high enough for a T20 game. This indicates that they have preferred to accumulate against the spinner without taking too many risks.
Watson and Gayle have retired now, so there aren’t many who have the upper hand in facing Rashid and hitting him for boundaries.
As for the worst performers against Rashid, the names are KL Rahul and Kieron Pollard as you can see in the lower-left area of the quadrant, with a combination of low strike rates and runs scored. M. S. Dhoni, Steve Smith and Hardik Pandya have also struggled while playing him.
Well, Hardik is lucky that Rashid is in his team right now. And, seems like it wouldn’t be a bad idea to bowl Rashid in the powerplay when Rahul is batting!
In conclusion, for batters, it is definitely not easy to take on Rashid’s bowling. That’s why they just look to get to the non-striker's end.
