Consistency
The analysis of consistency was made from a dataset including data for all IPL matches between ~2011 to 2021. Only data for batsmen who had atleast 5 innings was used. Every player’s performance with a team was calculated for (a) Batting Average and (b) Consistency. The Gini coefficient was used to calculate consistency. Here are the results.
You can hover over each dot to see the player’s name and team.
Players such as Rahul and Warner have high batting averages but average consistencies with their performances. On the contrary, Jadeja and al Hassan’s stints with their respective teams has resulted in a lower average but a very high consistency.
Outliers
Consistency
- RA Jadeja’s performance with CSK the most consistent in IPL. Other notable mentions are SPD Smith with Pune, and STR Binny with RCB.
- DL Chahar’s performance with CSK was the least consistent.
Batting Average
- KL Rahul with PBKS has had the highest batting average. Other notable mentions are DA Warner with SRH, RD Gaikwad with CSK.
- R Bhatia with DC holds the lowest batting average. Most players in this range are bowlers who’ve played for a long time with one team.
Rating
Using the batting average and consistency, the overall performance of
the player with a team was calculated with the formula
Rating = (1 - Gini) * Batting Average. The results were as
follows.
| Name | Team | Average | AConsistency | NumberInnings | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| V Kohli | Royal Challengers Bangalore | 81.1 | 2.923977 | 16 | 53.364 |
| MS Dhoni | Chennai Super Kings | 74.2 | 3.134796 | 15 | 50.530 |
| MS Dhoni | Chennai Super Kings | 83.2 | 2.421308 | 12 | 48.838 |
| KL Rahul | Punjab Kings | 69.6 | 2.673797 | 13 | 43.570 |
| DA Warner | Sunrisers Hyderabad | 57.7 | 3.968254 | 12 | 43.160 |
| KD Karthik | Kolkata Knight Riders | 55.3 | 3.968254 | 16 | 41.364 |
| DA Warner | Sunrisers Hyderabad | 60.6 | 2.994012 | 17 | 40.360 |
| MS Dhoni | Chennai Super Kings | 65.0 | 2.631579 | 15 | 40.300 |
| DA Warner | Sunrisers Hyderabad | 58.3 | 2.717391 | 14 | 36.846 |
| KL Rahul | Punjab Kings | 54.9 | 2.985075 | 14 | 36.508 |
What follows is also an interesting scatter plot that shows the number of innings against the player’s rating. This shows that players such as Maxwell and KL Rahul, despite not having played as many innings over the past decade, have had a much higher rating than players such as Kohli and Raina who have played upwards of 150 innings.
Team Performances
In addition to the performances of individual players, the performances of a hypothetical average player in a team can also be taken. This is calculated by simply finding the mean of consistency, average, and number of innings of all significant batsmen of a team. Find the figures below.
| Team | MeanAvg | MeanConsistency | MeanInnings | MeanRating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chennai Super Kings | 33.15873 | 2.236422 | 27.95238 | 18.62449 |
| Rising Pune Supergiants | 33.20714 | 2.255518 | 16.21429 | 18.56564 |
| Royal Challengers Bangalore | 30.67206 | 2.174747 | 22.69118 | 16.89234 |
| Kochi Tuskers Kerala | 27.40000 | 2.441406 | 13.00000 | 16.40560 |
| Sunrisers Hyderabad | 27.59322 | 2.238410 | 21.28814 | 15.78075 |
| Kolkata Knight Riders | 28.53750 | 2.111821 | 24.71250 | 15.40527 |
| Mumbai Indians | 27.70714 | 2.187842 | 24.82143 | 15.33676 |
| Punjab Kings | 28.00130 | 2.125956 | 22.29870 | 15.09225 |
| Delhi Capitals | 26.88987 | 2.110268 | 22.12658 | 14.38447 |
| Rajasthan Royals | 26.92059 | 2.114034 | 21.29412 | 14.38256 |
| Pune Warriors | 24.28947 | 2.345969 | 18.36842 | 14.29416 |
| Gujarat Lions | 27.08571 | 2.104630 | 17.04762 | 14.22395 |
| Deccan Chargers | 25.86957 | 2.127660 | 20.95652 | 14.10257 |
This table quite clearly shows who has performed the best. Teams which have lasted only for a few years clearly have an advantage, with the best large team coming out to be CSK.
Note: The black lines represent the Median values for average and consistency respectively.
Here is the same data represented in a scatter plot. This reveals an interesting trend; despite the consistency of an average player tending to be almost the same for all major teams, there is a large difference in the batting averages. CSK again stands out, with an average of almost 27 runs, a full 2 runs ahead of the next major team (KKR). SRH appears to be the worst performing team with an average of just over 22.
Notes
The consistency value in all places refers to the 1/Gini or 1-Gini. It’s always better to have a high consistency.
The data (Gini coefficient, average) has been calculated in JavaScript, while the analysis has been done in R.
Data obtained from CricSheet. Click to open