ODI Batting Stats against Major Teams

[TheWatcher]

I know I am doing an S Rajesh here, but I find it very confusing when we mix up players stats against teams ranked above us and teams ranked below us. During last couple of years, we have idolized many players while villified others based on matches against weaker teams, but later we find out that the story is not the same when we play stronger ones. So, I took this initiative to filter out batting stats against ODI teams ranked 1-8, and decided to share them with you guys. I will try to update stats here after, at least, every 3-5 ODIs.

Note that I only included stats for specialist batsmen that are currently in the national team or have decent chances to come back to the national team. Also, I did not include any player with less then ten qualifying matches, I think that should be the least number of matches a batsman should play against elite teams before we start forming our opinions about him.

All of you are welcome to verify and correct stats here within the conditions described above.

Batsman	#Inn	N.O.	Runs	Avg	H.S.	100	50
Sakib Al Hasan	11	3	295	36.88	67*	0	4
Javed Omar	45	2	916	21.30	85*	0	6
Alok Kapali	41	3	797	20.97	89*	0	4
Mohammad Ashraful	59	3	1164	20.79	100	1	9
Aftab Ahmed	33	2	604	19.48	67	0	3
Rajin Saleh	28	0	542	19.36	82	0	1
Mehrab Opee	12	0	225	18.75	64	0	3
Shahriar Nafees	19	0	355	18.68	75	0	2
Habibul Bashar	70	1	1191	17.26	70	0	7
Hannan Sarkar	17	0	285	16.76	61	0	2
Tushar Imran	32	0	491	15.34	65	0	2
Nafees Iqbal	11	0	150	13.64	40	0	0
Al Sahariar	21	1	249	12.45	62*	0	1

The above table gives a very depressing picture about Bangladesh team batting line up and does not reflect how much some of the batsmen have improved in last two years. So, I decided (with recommendation from Miraz) to give a separate table for stats from 2005 June and onwards(since the NatWest series where Bangladesh had beaten Australia). For this table to, I included players with nine or more qualifying matches (lowered the bar to include Tamim).

(My fellow staff member Mahir took his time out to calculate strike rates and %runs scored from boundaries in this period.)

Batsman	#Inn	N.O.	Runs	Avg	H.S.	100	50	S.R.	%Runs from Boundaries
Sakib Al Hasan	11	3	295	36.88	67*	0	4	59.48	37.29 (4s : 23 ; 6s : 3)
Mohammad Ashraful	25	2	644	28.00	100	1	5	81.52	49.07 (4s : 70 ; 6s : 6)
Javed Omar	17	0	469	27.59	81	0	3	52.76	51.17 (4s : 57 ; 6s : 2)
Tamim Iqbal	9	0	194	21.56	51	0	1	69.53	63.92 (4s : 28 ; 6s : 2)
Habibul Bashar	26	1	514	20.56	70	0	2	57.05	31.13 (4s : 34 ; 6s : 4)
Aftab Ahmed	25	2	461	20.04	59	0	2	85.85	54.66 (4s : 45 ; 6s : 12)
Shahriar Nafees	19	0	355	18.68	75	0	2	59.76	46.20 (4s : 41 ; 6s : 0)
Tushar Imran	11	0	142	12.91	32	0	0	56.80	38.41 (4s : 10 ; 6s : 3)

Our wicketkeepers (Mushfiq and Pilot) bat most of the time at 7th/8th batting positions which, imo, do not qualify as positions for a specialist batsman. Their percentage of not out innings are higher comparing to those of specialist batsmen because they come to bat late, and thus they enjoy higher batting averages than many specialist batsmen do .So, I decided to give a separate table for them.

Batsman	#Inn	N.O.	Runs	Avg	H.S.	50	S.R.	%Runs from Boundaries
Khaled Mashud (overall)	78	21	1371	24.05	71*	6
Khaled Mashud (2005-)	16	7	298	33.11	71*	1	56.44	25.50 (4s : 19 ; 6s : 0)
Mushfiqur Rahim	9	4	151	30.20	56*	1	51.89	38.41 (4s : 10 ; 6s : 3)

[Mridul]

Excellent work TheWatcher...I have also done similar kind of stats but for last two years only. Shahriar Nafees did not even score a half century since 2005 October against a better bowling attack in ODIs.

Personally, I think Bangladesh has long way to go, we still need to find a grammatically correct batsman for our team. Its true our batsmen have talents but it seems to me they just have too many weaknesses. What surprised me most that our U-19 team beat Srilanka U-19 several times in last one and half year but our A team is struggling big time against their A team. There is something wrong in the system.

[stuge]

Gud Work The Watcher .
These stats are disappointing .If you ask me avg of abt 20 is not good at all in International cricket .They can win one or two matches against big guns ,but to win consistently they still need to improve a lot .

[tanvir_nus]

Very well done The Watcher for bring out the "real stats", it is interesting to note that alok who wasn't even considered as a middle order batsmen is right up there. This brings back the minnow basher tag on to nafees and kudos to the others in the forum and also Ashraful for pointing it out, while Javed's average is lower to Kapali I would like to point out that he is an opening batsman while Kapali used to come either 5/6 down and the job would have been lot easier in a way. However I would also like to see and compare the strike rates.

[Miraz]

With all respect to TheWatcher, these are not representative stats (or real stats as someone is pointing) to judge our batsmen, these are skewed stats even worse than S. Rajesh.

We have not played top teams during the best part of our improvement. These stats mostly represent the periods when we were struggling against every other opposition's before and after World Cup 2003 to mid 2005.

Now, to judge our boys against the big guns either we need to sit with the stats after the world cup is over or we have to look at the last one and half years stats against the top teams (doesn't matter if there are only few matches).

Otherwise, these stats will create a complete misconception about our team quality and ability against top teams.

[TheWatcher]

Good suggestion Miraz and I just added a separate table for stats since 2005 NatWest series. It turned out that Ashraful, Javed, and Bashar have averaged lot better during this period.

[Miraz]

TheWatcher, thanks, now can you please remove the qualifying filter to give us the complete picture?

Please take 1 single innings if it is there, let members decide whether that single innings is fluke or not.

[TheWatcher]

Not sure what you are looking for Miraz. If you want unfiltered stats, cricinfo is just a click away.

[Miraz]

Originally Posted by TheWatcher
Not sure what you are looking for Miraz. If you want unfiltered stats, cricinfo is just a click away.

Well, I know the stats. I want to see the brighter side of young Bangladesh team in last few ODI's against top teams. I am sure if you remove the qualifying filter, it will look much better.

Chances of statistical errors will definitely increase.

[TheWatcher]

OK Miraz, here is the stats for rookies against big 8:

Batsman	#Inn	N.O.	Runs	Avg	H.S.	50
Mushfiqur Rahim	3	2	64	64.00	56*	1
Sakib Al Hasan	5	2	149	49.67	67*	2
Farhad Reza	2	0	41	20.50	34	0
Tamim Iqbal	3	0	60	20.00	51	1

Hopefully some of them will join the tables in the first post by the end of the India series. Until then, it is unfair (from statistical point of view) to compare those boys with seniors based on so few matches.

[TheWatcher]

Updated the tables in the first post.

[Dhakablues]

One thing thats very encouraging is that the stats are improving for most of the players. Especially, its a delight to see Ashraful getting back his runs. What a game today,, mervelous.

[Yasin]

Yeh Ashraful...even cricinfo says: This is the Ashraful that we know... To me...this is the Ashraful we would always want to know...become consistent bro

[Ishtylish cricketer]

Ok... to me going with JO in opening made sense today in hindsight... but why don't we ever back our match winners? Even if Shariar Nafees hasn't played well against the major teams but I just think on his day he would make more runs than JO at a faster pace. That really stuns me. JO fielded well today but SN isn't that bad of a fielder either. Makes no sense to me.

[TheWatcher]

Updated the tables in the first post.

[TheWatcher]

Added a table for the rookies.

[TheWatcher]

Tables in the first post are updated.

[Protic]

GO MUSHY GO!! ( just dont let pilot sneak into the team..never )

[Tigers_eye]

Looks like Mushfiq the #2 in the rookie table would almost lead the bura gadha's dol. Therefore, Sakib is the man.

[BangladeshCricket]

"Bangladesh, like some of the other subcontinental sides, were done in by the extra bounce on offer. The horizontal strokes were not visible and the ball collided with the outer edges of the vertical pushes and they went down. One by one. Rahim, who has a very compact technique, moves back and across, rises with the ball, remained unbeaten. Mortaza learnt quickly after being beaten a few times by the bounce and started to cut well. But their efforts were not enough."

[TheWatcher]

Updated tables in the first post. Sakib joined the senior rank.

[Zunaid]

Originally Posted by TheWatcher
Updated tables in the first post. Sakib joined the senior rank.

Not only that. He tops it.

[zahid]

Mehrab Opee na!

Mehrab Hossain Jr.

Both r different players. Opee scored BD's 1st ODI century in his debut match!

[TheWatcher]

Originally Posted by zahid
Mehrab Opee na!

Mehrab Hossain Jr.

Both r different players. Opee scored BD's 1st ODI century in his debut match!

The Mehrab that I have listed in my first post is Mehrab Hossain Opee. Mehrab Hossain Jr has not yet played an ODI against any team ranked 1-8.

Also, Opee's century making innings against Zimbabwe was not his debut ODI innings.

[DJ Sahastra]

I'll be watching Sakib and (hopefully improved) Ashraful.

And i'll be watching out for R P Singh and VRV Singh. My gut feel is, if VRV gets going, he has the making of a menacing bowler. And R P Singh has already shown glimpses of why he was rated so highly.

I am gonna miss Pathan. He had a immense liking for Bangla Tigers and still think he would've made a huge difference .