In this edition of the IPL, Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni had the highest average and strike rate among batsmen.
On Sunday, Dhoni emphasised after winning the trophy that age was just a number and fitness mattered more. This rang true for Dhoni and Watson, key players of the franchise, who will turn 37 in the coming weeks.
Ambati Rayudu (32 years), Sunil Narine (30), Andrew Tye (31) and AB de Villiers (34) are a few other players aged 30+ who acquitted themselves well in this tournament. Using the following charts, we we take a look at the best players of this season and which age bracket they fall into.
In the following visualisation, each circle represents a player and only batsmen who have scored 120 runs and above are considered in the batsman graph. In the bowler chart, only those who have bowled at least 20 overs are considered. In both charts, colour represents age. Check the legend for the age bracket.
(Note: Best viewed on desktop. If you are viewing on mobile, drag the chart in any direction to get a better picture of where the players are placed)
- For batsmen, we compare the strike rate (horizontal axis) and average (vertical axis)
- The elite batsmen with high strike rate and average can be found in the top right quadrant
- Size of the circle represents number of runs scored. Bigger the circle, more the runs scored
- For bowlers, we compare the strike rate (horizontal axis) and economy rate (vertical axis)
- The elite bowlers with low economy and strike rates can be found in the bottom left quadrant
- Size of the circle represents number of wickets scalped. Bigger the circle, higher is the number of wickets taken
Other than the age factor, both the batsmen and bowler charts throw up a couple of interesting patterns. In the batsmen chart, the players with the highest strike rates are not typically batsmen but all-rounders: K Gowtham, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell. The highest average is held by Dhoni. His average is pushed up by the fact that he was not out in nine out of 15 innings this season.
Unlike the batsmen chart, which has a few clear outliers, several elite bowlers are bunched together in the bowler graph-- for instance, Deepak Chahar, Ravindra Jadeja, Sandeep Sharma, Sunil Narine, K Gowtham and Rahul Tewatia have given comparable performances this season.
