India swept Group A of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup after beating Sri Lanka by seven wickets on February 29. This was India's fourth successive win, with the team already having entered the semi-final of the competition following a narrow four-run win against New Zealand on February 27. Earlier India had defeated Bangladesh and stunned hosts Australia in the tournament opener .
Going into the competition, India was ranked fourth behind Australia, England and New Zealand in the ICC rankings. Among the batters, Smriti Mandhana was the highest-ranked Indian player at the fourth position followed by Jemimah Rodriques (seventh) and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (ninth). Among the bowlers, Radha Yadav and Deepti Sharma were both ranked fourth.
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Occupying the top-spot among the batters and the bowlers were Suzie Bates of New Zealand and Megan Schutt of Australia respectively. Both the batters and bowlers rankings featured two New Zealanders and three Australians in the top-10.
With a bunch of players in the top-10, Australia and New Zealand were strong favourites to reach the semi-final.
India and other contenders in 2019
To compare India’s squad with its rivals’, we used player records from the end of the 2018 T20 World Cup to the last T20I before the start of the 2020 edition. As metrics in this period, we used batting averages (runs per innings) and strike-rates (runs per 100 balls) for batters, and strike-rate (balls per wicket) and average (runs conceded per wicket) for bowlers.
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The scatter-charts have four sections. The section with the darkest shade in both charts features the elite players at this World Cup. The section which is not highlighted has players whose form has been below-average in this period.
Who were the best batters going into the competition?
Only two Indians, Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Varma, are in the elite section. The section is dominated by the Australians and the English with four players from each team among the elites. Three New Zealand players too are in this section.
Australia wicket-keeper batter Alyssa Healy has the best strike-rate while New Zealand skipper Sophie Devine has the best average.
Who were the best bowlers going into the competition?
Four Indians - Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Harleen Deol, Radha Yadav and Deepti Sharma - feature among the bowling elite in the tournament, the highest for any squad. Three bowlers each from Australia, England, New Zealand and Bangladesh are among the elite as well.
Nahida Akter of Bangladesh has the best strike-rate and the best average. However, it must be noted that between the end of the 2018 world cup and start of this event, Bangladesh has played over half of its matches against teams such as Papua New Guinea, U.S., Maldives among others, which are ranked lower than itself.
Which teams performed the best between the two world cups?
To assess the performance of teams at a broad level, we used win percentage (wins per matches) for games each team played between the end of the 2018 world cup and the start of this event.
The best win records
While New Zealand had a near perfect record coming into the competition (losing just one match out of the seven it played), it had played the least number of matches among all teams. Australia had a win percentage of 79%, the second-best. India had a 50% win record and shared the fifth position with South Africa.
Last word
It is evident from the numbers that Australia and New Zealand were the two best sides ahead of the tournament. While India has one of the best bowling units in the competition, its batting is not as strong as Australia’s or New Zealand’s. India’s strong bowling has been instrumental in the team’s victories against better teams, in the group stage.
Having beat New Zealand by four runs on March 2, Australia joined India, South Africa and England to seal the last semi-final spot. New Zealand's exit is significant, considering it started the tournament as one of the two favourites.
On the other hand, while India has remained unbeaten in the competition, its ride hasn’t been smooth. Chinks in the batting, particularly the middle order, have been exposed. The team wouldn’t want a repeat of the 2018 tournament, when it had topped its group undefeated, but was beaten by England in the semi-final.
Note: Thailand was not considered for the analysis since it did not play any match against teams which feature in the competition other than Bangladesh in the considered period.
