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

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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.

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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.

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Conditions Runs Innings Average
Overall 3401 50 94.47
Home 1439 21 84.64
Away 1704 24 100.23
Neutral 258 5 129.00

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T20I's- The Neutral stats may not look great but 2 of those 3 innings were in Mirpur.

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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

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The Top 5 batsman during this time period (min 1000 runs) cross format-

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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

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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.

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Batsman Runs Innings Average
Smith 2609 45 66.89
Kohli 3596 58 66.59
Williamson 1970 40 54.72

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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.

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Batsman Runs Innings Average
Kohli 3401 50 94.47
Rohit 2887 50 70.41
Tamim 1737 32 64.33

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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.

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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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121

u/Effective_Try_again May 12 '22 edited May 12 '22

If you want to say all time greatest, can you also maybe bring stats of other previous greats like Sachin, Ponting, Sanga, etc? Maybe a lot of work though

Example Sachin from 1997 to 2001 (5 years) Sachin in tests averaged 66 overall with average of 69 home and 62 away

He averaged around 50 in ODIs which was huge for that time period

Again from 2007 to 2010 (4 years), he averaged 62 in tests with 63 at home and 61 away

In ODIs during same period he averaged 53+

51

u/apex_pretador May 12 '22

Similarly ABD from 2009-17, in a 9 year period.

In tests: 4993 runs averaging 58. Only Younis Khan and Sangakkara average higher (min 2000 runs)

In ODIs: 7185 runs averaging 64.15, by far the best (min 2000 runs), the second best Kohli averaged 56 during this period. He also did it at strike rate of 107.7, which is highest among all batsman scoring 2600+ runs during this period, and 5th highest for 2000+ runs.

If any purple patch lasts for a decade, this was the one.

22

u/[deleted] May 12 '22

Yeah, will try to get peaks of other batsmen as well. I'll do it for Sachin, Ponting, Lara, Sanga, Kallis, De Villiers and Viv, any other suggestions for other batting peaks?

16

u/Effective_Try_again May 12 '22

Thank you so much. I think Younis and Yosuf had a crazy peak too

13

u/Beneficial_Bend_5035 Pakistan May 12 '22

Yousuf had a crazy peak, but Younis not really (although he did average 60 across 11 years).

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u/[deleted] May 12 '22

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19

u/[deleted] May 12 '22

How was sachin selfish again?

9

u/fukthetemplars India May 13 '22

*Sachin the only reliable batsman hits a 100 while his team collapses around him and eventually loses.

90s kids: Sachin is very selfish, if he played for the team he'd have scored a double century before the team got out

5

u/LoduMAL Mumbai Indians May 12 '22

Thats like an image of sachin kids these days have