Do India need the Shaw-stopper in T20 cricket?
India’s quest for dominance in the shortest format of the game shall be their foremost objective in the lead up to the 2022 T20 World Cup. While there remain several issues in the team’s adaptation to an ever-evolving format, one aspect that seems to be sorted is the opening combination between captain Rohit Sharma and his deputy KL Rahul. As India grapple with leadership quandaries across formats, the two openers are likely to be sure starters for the sake of stability. But should such a crucial batting role in T20 cricket be sealed without even exploring other options with potentially greater value?
Let us take a look at the immediate alternatives at India’s disposal. For starters, the most recent edition of the IPL is a reference point that definitely resides in the memories of selectors and fans alike:
Among the top 20 run scorers, Prithvi Shaw’s strike rate of 159 is head and shoulders above the rest- the list includes AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell. He amassed 479 runs, only four Indians tallied more than him and the next best strike rate among them is 138 held by KL Rahul. This is a significant difference in aggression by Shaw and despite the disparity in risk taken by him, he ended as one of the leading run getters.
There were three other Indians who scored sufficient runs at a clip greater than 140- Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Tripathi, and Suryakumar Yadav, of whom only Agarwal played as an opener. His name is an unsurprising one as he has consistently proven his prowess in the IPL in the recent years without it translating into T20I appearances. Perhaps his run in the Test team has led to his exclusion from shorter formats and given his age, Agarwal probably hasn’t fit into the futuristic vision, if any, of the selectors to blood youngsters in T20 cricket.
Shaw’s case is intriguing. He made his international debut in Test cricket and has played sporadically in ODIs as well over the last three years but only has a solitary T20I cap to his name where he recorded a golden duck.
On watching him bat, he seems made for T20 cricket given his range of shots and fearless approach. Yet he broke into the national side through Tests and ODIs mainly on the back of outstanding seasons in the Ranji Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy respectively even as his performances took a while to arrive in T20s.
As things stand, he is out of the reckoning in both limited-overs formats and is possibly the fifth choice opener in Tests. Shaw’s talent has been a talking point since him playing age-group cricket, but numbers too back the argument that he deserves greater opportunities at the international level, and more specifically, in T20 cricket.
The following chart shows opening batters in all T20 cricket across the world since 23 April 2018, the day Shaw made his T20 debut:
Shaw finds himself in the top bracket of batters with a strike rate above 146 and who score a boundary in less than every 4.5 balls. The 5 other batters in this group are Phil Salt, Alex Hales, Hamish Rutherford, Sunil Narine, and Cameron Delport. Not only do these batters maximize runs while they’re at the crease, they also strike frequent boundaries to provide a blazing start to their team.
Let’s now delve into the all-time list of opening batters in the IPL:
Shaw is in elite company with the legendary Chris Gayle and Virender Sehwag being the only two batters to possess a higher Strike Rate and lower Balls per Boundary in IPL history.
Extending the grouping to batters with a strike rate above 135 and balls per boundary less than 5.5 would include the greats Adam Gilchrist and David Warner along with fellow Indian batters KL Rahul and Agarwal. It still remains an elusive list and the fact that young Shaw is already ahead of such stalwarts is noteworthy.
How well does Shaw fare against his Indian counterparts since his debut? Let’s find out:
Once again, Shaw is clear of most of his contemporaries by a fair margin. The flamboyant Ishan Kishan is the only exception with a strike rate of 150 and a boundary every 4.21 balls and deservedly finds himself in India’s limited overs squads.
It must seem amiss that despite such superior numbers witnessed above, Shaw is not even in India’s scheme of things in T20Is. Well, the answer lies within one of the most popular cricket metrics: Average. Having overlooked it thus far, let us take a glance at his standing as compared to other Indian opening batters:
Clearly, Shaw loses out significantly when it comes to average having the second worst figure among Indian opening batters in the last four years. Seven batters have opened for India in T20Is since Shaw’s T20 debut of whom six make it to the cutoff of 20 innings as opener above. All of them- Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, and Mayank Agarwal hold an average above 32.
But is batting average a fair estimation of the value a batter adds to a T20 lineup? While it cannot be disregarded completely, it is a severely flawed metric for the breakneck format that T20 is. India have for too long preferred batters who churn out truckloads of runs in domestic T20 and IPL without much consideration given to the true value those batters would add to the side. In an Indian team that already has the likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma as its mainstays in the top order, India haven’t been brave enough to build a dynamic pool of hitters around the solidity they already have.
Most of the established batters India currently play in their first XI have a tendency to bide their time before exploding. But the ever-changing demands of T20 cricket imply that the powerplay must be maximized a lot more than India tend to. Employing a high strike rate batter at the top of the order who has the ability to generate an early streak of boundaries can prove to be an invaluable momentum boost for any T20 side.
Not to forget that Shaw’s average of 25 is a mean figure- his high risk approach means often he will be dismissed within single digits but there are plenty of days where he comes off and all he needs to do is face over 20 balls to potentially create a match-winning impact; in a low-scoring game, even fewer deliveries could be sufficient.
India’s outlook has shown signs of improvement over the past 12 months, the selection of Ishan Kishan being a case in point. But even that selection has so far been largely relegated him to carrying drinks whenever India field a full-strength XI.
So how does Shaw get in when even Kishan is struggling to break into the side? That’s a pressing question which is beyond the scope of this piece. What can be said with conviction is that India’s approach towards building a formidable T20 top order will be well served with a holistic analysis that transcends averages and incorporates the whirlwind nature of the format.
While there is no correct answer to the ‘how’, it is worth wondering the preferred situation for the middle-order to bat in: 60/2 in 8 overs, or 40/2 in 4 overs; if anything, the latter provides a better platform for an anchor batter to settle in and build their innings.
Such progressive selections may not materialize in the immediate future, but the Shaw-stopper is a lethal weapon in India’s arsenal. Hopefully, India don’t regret extending the wait for it to be unleashed.
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