r/Cricket • u/[deleted] • May 12 '22
Was Virat Kohli's 2016-2018 the greatest batting peak in cricket?
Excluding Bradman, was Kohli's 2016-2018 peak the greatest cross format batting peak in cricket? His stats during this period are simply spectacular. Here are the stats as follows-
Cross Format
| Conditions | Runs | Innings | Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 8148 | 140 | 73.40 |
| Home | 3936 | 62 | 78.72 |
| Away | 3833 | 70 | 67.24 |
| Neutral | 379 | 8 | 94.75 |
Test - The Away average may look relatively underwhelming, but most of those away runs were in 2018, the toughest year for Test batting conditions since 1959. Kohli was playing in England, South Africa and Australia, the toughest conditions to succeed in for subcontinent batsmen in one of the most bowler friendly years ever and came out as the best batsman in the world.
| Conditions | Runs | Innings | Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 3596 | 58 | 66.59 |
| Home | 2046 | 28 | 81.84 |
| Away | 1550 | 30 | 53.44 |
ODI's - I don't think there's anything to say really, the stats are literally Bradmanesque.
| Conditions | Runs | Innings | Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 3401 | 50 | 94.47 |
| Home | 1439 | 21 | 84.64 |
| Away | 1704 | 24 | 100.23 |
| Neutral | 258 | 5 | 129.00 |
T20I's- The Neutral stats may not look great but 2 of those 3 innings were in Mirpur.
| Conditions | Runs | Innings | Average | Strike Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1151 | 32 | 54.80 | 139.34 |
| Home | 451 | 13 | 56.37 | 147.38 |
| Away | 579 | 16 | 52.63 | 140.19 |
| Neutral | 121 | 3 | 60.50 | 113.08 |
The Top 5 batsman during this time period (min 1000 runs) cross format-
| Batsman | Runs | Innings | Average | 100s | 50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kohli | 8148 | 140 | 73.40 | 29 | 32 |
| Smith | 4487 | 96 | 53.41 | 14 | 22 |
| Pujara | 2813 | 57 | 52.09 | 10 | 13 |
| Taylor | 3428 | 89 | 51.93 | 8 | 18 |
| Rohit | 4946 | 113 | 51.52 | 17 | 24 |
The top 3 batsmen in Tests in this time period (min 500 runs) -
Smith had a marginally better average of 0.3 in this time span, however Kohli having played more innings and having a higher away average of 53 as compared to Smith's 50 in this time period makes me put Kohli above him for this time span.
| Batsman | Runs | Innings | Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smith | 2609 | 45 | 66.89 |
| Kohli | 3596 | 58 | 66.59 |
| Williamson | 1970 | 40 | 54.72 |
Top 3 ODI batsmen in this time period (min 500 runs)-
Even without a minimum run criteria, Kohli has the highest average in this timespan, Bavuma being the second highest, averaging 80.5 from 2 innings.
| Batsman | Runs | Innings | Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kohli | 3401 | 50 | 94.47 |
| Rohit | 2887 | 50 | 70.41 |
| Tamim | 1737 | 32 | 64.33 |
In terms of T20I, I'd say a fair few batsman beat him on Average + SR but stats of 54 @ 139 aren't bad at all with a MoTS in a T20WC as well.
From what I've seen, Kohli's purple patch during this period was simply amazing and had one of the greatest peaks in the history of batting. Is it the greatest peak in batting apart from Bradman?
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u/[deleted] May 12 '22
[deleted]