Technics 1210
Test Debutant
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2019
- Runs
- 15,440
Fantastic article on how international cricket exposes IPL's top performers. Completely destroys the hypothesis that the IPL is the best way to prepare for major tournaments, including the WC.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/...ket-exposes-the-ipls-top-performers-wn0jp5c36
At this year’s IPL, Rashid Khan, the Afghanistan legspinner, furthered his reputation as one of the most dangerous bowlers in the world with 17 wickets at an economy rate of less than seven.
That reputation, however, was trashed by England last week when Khan was utterly dismantled, recording the worst bowling figures in World Cup history: nine overs for 110 runs. Afghanistan didn’t dare risk giving him a tenth over.
There are, of course, different demands on players in a domestic T20 match and an international one-day game. But on the evidence of the past few years, the quality of performances in the IPL is being consistently called into question by the international tournaments that immediately follow.
Five of the 12 editions of the IPL have been followed less than a month later by a big ICC tournament (either the World T20, the Champions Trophy or the World Cup). In those two-tournament seasons, only five times have bowlers who finished among the IPL’s top ten wicket-takers gone on to claim a spot in the top ten wicket-takers of the international tournament that followed.
The year 2017 is a typical example, as the chart below shows. (The column on the right shows the top five performers from the IPL, the middle column shows their relative positions in the ICC tournament that followed, and the final column shows at a glance whether they were successful in both).
A similar thing appears to affect batsmen. For evidence, look at KL Rahul, the India batsman, who scored 593 runs in this year’s IPL (putting him second in the batting stats) but is struggling a little at the World Cup with only 124 runs in four innings.
Clearly for bowlers and batsmen alike, the IPL is not necessarily a good indicator of their likelihood to succeed at the next major international tournament.
Dig a little deeper into the stats and you find that the top run-scorer in an IPL season has never even finished in the top ten run-scorers at the big ICC competition immediately afterwards.
The most clear example of this phenomenon comes in the form of David Warner in 2017 (see the chart above). The Australian finished that year’s IPL as the leading run scorer, but managed only 79 runs and 34th place in the batting rankings at the 2017 ICC Champions trophy a month later.
Admittedly it looks like it may be Warner who bucks the statistical trend this year: he was the leading run-scorer at the 2019 IPL and is currently second in the run-scoring charts at the World Cup.
Warner’s current form excepted, one possible explanation for the drop off in performance at international level includes the suitability of different players to particular formats. A specialist T20 power hitter may not be able to maintain the controlled level of aggression required to prolong an innings in the ODI format of the World Cup. Likewise among the bowlers, a player seeking to control his economy in the IPL may be seeking wickets instead in ODIs.
However, when the 2009 and 2010 IPLs were followed soon after by the ICC’s own 20-over tournament, the two charts below show that the drop-off in performance level was still evident despite there being no change in format.
Mental and physical fatigue may also be a factor when ICC tournaments follow so closely on the heels of an IPL season. Although by contrast, it could be argued that form carried from a successful IPL season should outweigh the impact of tiredness.
It is also true that individuals cannot always control the fate of their international teams, meaning if their country does not reach the knockout stages of a tournament, their chances of racking up impressive personal statistics are severely diminished.
Khan, for example, has become visibly exasperated at the standard of fielding in the Afghanistan side this World Cup, culminating in a wicket-less showing on Monday in their 62-run defeat to Bangladesh.
But for supporters of the IPL — those cheerleaders who regard the Indian tournament as being at the cutting edge of the sport — there is a more uncomfortable explanation: that the standard is not always as hot as they like to imagine.
So far at this World Cup, Khan is among the players who have had a rude awakening, having taken only four wickets so far at the World Cup, despite his hugely successful IPL season. Khan will be unlucky to be on the end of another Eoin Morgan-style thrashing at this tournament, but the stats tell us not to be surprised if he is.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/...ket-exposes-the-ipls-top-performers-wn0jp5c36
