Facing spin in T20’s can be challenging for batters, with less gaps in the field and spinners bowling quicker it can be tough for players who in tests succeed by sweeping them for fun or nudge for one. For me it is the biggest barrier for being an all-format player as in the longer formats survival vs spin is more important.
And so I decided to look at the most successful batters in T20 cricket, all of the batters with 5000 runs, and look at how they perform vs pace and spin. Before we start there are a few points to make.
The data is not 100% complete, most affected are NZ domestic batters and older English batters. However most are missing only 20% of balls faced at most which is enough to get a good general look.
An important part of modern T20 analysis is the longer you bat per dismissal, the faster you should score in general. However if you mainly bat at 5-7, then the majority of spin you will face will be in your first 10-15 balls. Therefore a slow SR and high balls per dismissal will be allowed if you bat low. However this will not be so for top order batters.
Spin Batting
Fig 1: T20 Batters vs spin, BpD vs SR
While many T20 graphs show Average vs Strike rate, I prefer Balls Per Dismissal for this graph. As those two combine to make average. For example Rizwan and Warner have nearly identical averages however they go about facing spin in very different ways.
First we have bottom left for the worst batter vs spin and while Mahmudullah or Fletcher have arguments for being among the worst. Bopara for me struggled the most, while he batted low he clearly couldn’t anchor well vs spin. Which means in a lot of his innings you’d expect him to struggle to 20 of 20. Another interesting player is Rohit Sharma who averaged just 28 balls per dismissal and didn’t even manage to score at over 120. This goes a long way of explaining his IPL issues where you face a lot more spin than in T20I’s especially top quality spin.
Bottom right is where we find the anchors, Dhoni showing his role as a “finisher”, he rarely attacked spin and instead rarely got out to it, spin making up 27% of the outs I had data for from bowlers. As long as he has a few aggressive batters vs spin it’s a decent plan. Just above him we have 4 of the more controversial current T20 batters. All four of Kohli, Williamson, Rizwan and Babar are often attacked for their acceleration issues and here we see why. The middle overs is where batters face the most spin and clearly all these batters try to survive it and get to the more pace heavy death overs.
Next we have top left where we see another controversial set of players. Depending on who you ask Moeen and Maxwell are either two of the best players of spin in the world or batters who will always get out with a stupid shot when you need them to bat long. For me however these two are unique. No one is close to the sheer hitting of Spin that Moeen brings. It allows the team to keep scoring quickly during the middle overs while perhaps allowing other batters to take less risks.
Finally we have the batters who have mastered scoring quickly while being consistent vs spin. Batters like Buttler, de Villiers and SKY do this well, However Gayle, Marsh and Warner truly perform the best. For me the 5 best players of spin are:
Gayle
Warner
S Marsh
Moeen
Maxwell/K Akmal
Pace Batting
Fig 2, T20 batters vs pace, BpD vs SR
First we have the elephant in the room, Russell’s SR is nearly 20 more than the next best. Moeen’s SR for example would have had to be 169 vs spin to have the same dominance.
In the bottom left we have the weakest vs pace, where Lendl Simmons and Rahane stick out. Also Denly is another notable player who really struggles vs pace.
Next we have the anchors, KL, Rizwan and Babar. All 3 have very high averages in T20 cricket and this along with their spin really helps them. KL showing why he is a slightly better T20 batter than the other two with a SR above 140.
Finally we have the 3 who combine strike rate with balls faced the most effectively. SKY, Lynn and de Villiers all score at over 160 vs pace.
For me the 5 best players of pace are
De Villiers
Russell
Lynn
SKY
Buttler
Comparison
Fig 3, T20 batters changes in SR and BpD compared to spin
This graph shows how the batters SR and Balls per dismissal change in comparison of pace to spin.
In the top left we have those who anchor more vs pace, and score quicker but get out more frequently to spin. Moeen and Kamran Akmal the 2 most notable players.
Then we have those who scored quicker and faced more balls vs spin, Gayle is interesting but makes sense. A batter who sometimes has slow PP starts before exploding in the middle overs. Shaun Marsh clearly had a slight issues vs pace.
Then in the bottom left we have the batters who scored slower and got out more frequently vs spin. McCullum, Pietersen and Hales are here. All 3 aggressive top 3 batters whose issues vs spin probably stops them from becoming all time great players.
Then we have the batters who scored a lot slower vs spin, but got out at similar rates. A lot of death batters which makes sense. But then we have Lynn and Rohit who as openers really shouldn’t struggle this much vs spin as they should be set.
And then we have Williamson and Kohli who anchor the most vs spin, showing why I don’t rate them as much in T20’s. Both should be scoring quicker vs spin if they took more risks.
In Conclusion
Warner and Gayle are the best hitters of spin in T20 cricket
Russell and De Villiers are the best hitters of pace
Maxwell is the only batter to score at 145 vs both types of bowling
I hope you enjoyed this piece and any shares are always appreciated