Who has the best powerplay batsmen in IPL 2022?

The first 6 overs of any T20 match are crucial so recruiting the best powerplay batsmen for the 2022 season was a priority for the IPL teams at the recently completed auction.

In this blog we'll consider how each franchise's top 3 is likely to line-up and what approach we might expect from them in the powerplay itself.

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source shared under CC license

Just a quick note on the stats used in this blog, they are taken from my own database and include all T20 matches in major franchise leagues (IPL, PSL, BBL, CPL, The Blast and The Hundred) as well as T20i games since 2020. In other words, they are a pretty good indication of who the top performers are out of those who will be plying their trade in this year’s IPL.

Let’s start with the batsmen themselves, below are the individuals who have scored the most runs during the powerplay in the matches mentioned above over the last couple of years.

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best powerplay batsmen since 2020

Top of the pile is England’s forgotten man, Alex Hales, who since being ditched from the national team prior to the 2019 World Cup has made himself a T20 gun for hire and scored a truck load of top order runs in England, Pakistan and Australia.

Interestingly, in the same period he’s not played a single IPL match! He was part of the Sunrisers squad in 2018 and did ok without really setting the world on fire but it seems like the IPL franchises feel that his game is unsuited to the subcontinent and that he’s got a weakness against slower bowling.

As we’ll see later on, there’s not very much data to support that idea and if KKR choose to give him a game then he could prove to be the ideal partner for Venkatesh Iyer who is making a name for himself in the short format.

Ultimately Hales chances of playing will largely rest on who KKR choose as their 4th overseas player. Narine, Russell and Cummins would appear to be shoo-ins for the first 3 spots so Hales is probably in a head to head battle with fellow Englishman Sam Billings for the final one.

Elsewhere we see that new franchise Lucknow Super Giants have a lot of experience and quality to choose from at the top of the order with Quinton de Kock and KL Rahul being 2 of the best powerplay batsmen in the world at the moment. They also have Evan Lewis who delivered at times for Rajasthan last season but is likely to be back up for the aforementioned players this time around.

Liam Livingstone may be the 4th highest powerplay run getter in recent times but he is almost certain to play most of his cricket outside the first 6 overs this time around as he develops into a finisher.

With PBKS having the reliable Shikar Dhawan who averages just shy of 40 in the powerplay since 2020 and the dangerous Jonny Bairstow who has had similar success in the IPL to help them out in the powerplay not to mention captain Mayank Agarwal. A top 4 of Dhawan, Agarwal, Bairstow and Livingstone certainly suggests Punjab will be a dangerous proposition this season as they look to reverse their poor record in this tournament.

Moving on, we look at all the batsmen who have a strike rate of over 130 in the powerplay since 2020 and will be featuring in the IPL this year.

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highest powerplay strike rate by batsmen

Finn Allen and Rahmanullah Gurbaz are both young tearaways but might struggle to get game time at their franchises.

You’d assume that RCB’s first choice opening pair will be Kohli and du Plessis. Maxwell could bat at 3 and as the graph shows, his strike rate during the powerplay is impressive but RCB tend to save him for the middle overs on account of his excellent record against spin.

Gujarat Titans brought Gurbaz in to replace Jason Roy so they may need to reshuffled their first choice XI somewhat. They have Shubman Gill in their side who is a talented young batsmen but is still yet to find the right tempo for the short version of the game. In fact, having a player like Gurbaz who will swing from the off alongside Gill might be a good powerplay partnership.

Alternatively, they might decide to give Mathew Wade a go at the top of the order. For Australia, Wade has been used in a finishing role but in the BBL, he’s scored lots of powerplay runs for the Hobart Hurricanes and at a very good lick too.

Prithi Shaw’s ultra aggressive approach in the powerplay got Delhi Capitals off to many flying starts last season and he’s likely to find himself partnered with David Warner, a man with something to prove after he was stripped of the Sunrisers captaincy and dumped from the first XI last season.

The other big question for DC is where do they play new recruit Mitch Marsh whose heroics at number 3 helped Australia win the T20 World Cup late last year? I’d still be concerned that Marsh has a weakness early on in his innings against quality spin so we’ll see how he does this season as one of the big buys in the IPL.

After a disappointing season last year, Mumbai have rejigged their line-up with Ishan Kishan likely to partner Rohit Sharma at the top and Suryakumar Yadav at 3. There’s no doubting the ability of that triumvirate but the MI squad in general will be hoping to deliver on a more consistent basis this time around.

The make-up of Rajasthan Royals top order will be interesting. They’ve acquired Devdutt Padikkal and could opt to play him alongside another young Indian talent in Jaiswal. That would force Jos Buttler further down the order, potentially to number 4 if Sanju Samson occupies his preferred slot at 3.

It’s a risky move by the Royals given that Buttler has shown on plenty of occasions that he is capable of winning games himself from the top of the order.

The next table then shows the cumulative powerplay strike rate and average for all players in all the current IPL squads since 2020.

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CSK had du Plessis and Gaikwad at the top of the order last year and their runs (they finished 1st and 2nd in the race for the orange cap in 2021) was a major factor in Chennai’s title win. Devon Conway has come in for du Plessis and you’d imagine that he will be able to fill the void that du Plessis has left.

That being said, CSK don’t have a huge amount of firepower in the powerplay. Gaikwad for example has a strike rate of just 110 in the powerplay and while Conway’s career strike rate in the powerplay is upwards of 125, it fell to just 115 during the recent World Cup played in the UAE, conditions that are closer to those he’ll find in the IPL.

Finally, we come to last year’s bottom placed side in Sunrisers Hyderabad. In recent times, SRH have had an embarrassment of riches at the top of the order but that doesn’t appear to be the case anymore.

I’ve always maintained that I’m a big fan of Kane Williamson but he strikes at just a run a ball in the powerplay and that could be a real handicap to his side. Alongside him are the dependable Aiden Markram and Rahul Tripathi both whom are solid if not spectacular options in the powerplay.

My concern and one we’ll develop in a later blog is that SRH’s inability to get up with or ahead of the game in the powerplay will put pressure on their young middle order and you'd have to fear that it will be another long season for the men in orange.

The last 2 tables provide a brief look at batsmen who have a statistical bias towards a certain type of bowling in the powerplay.

BatsmanPowerplay S/R vs pacePowerplay S/R vs spinDifference
KR Mayers150.0100.0-50.0
E Lewis166.7121.6-45.1
I Kishan137.394.0-43.3
V Kohli133.595.2-38.3
MS Wade155.3122.2-33.1
SS Iyer107.275.0-32.2
F du Plessis142.9112.0-30.9

batsmen with a preference for pace over spin in the powerplay

We can see for example that if RCB opt to go for Kohli and du Plessis as an opening partnership that spin in the powerplay may be a good option to try and nullify them especially with Maxwell, their trump card against such a ploy, sitting with his pads on.

Unsurprisingly a couple of the West Indian openers in Mayers and Lewis as well as Australian Mathew Wade are far more at home with pace on the ball during the powerplay than they are against slower bowlers where their strike rate slips significantly.

BatsmanPowerplay S/R vs pacePowerplay S/R vs spinDifference
N Rana101.9160.0+58.1
RD Gaikwad98.5151.3+52.8
SV Samson109.4136.0+26.6
S Dhawan120.2145.9+25.7
DA Warner122.8141.6+24.8
DP Conway121.0141.3+20.3

batsmen with a preference for spin over pace in the powerplay

On the flip side CSK’s top order have a definite preference for hitting slower bowling in the powerplay and this perhaps hints at why they won’t miss du Plessis as much as you might think once they get back to home fixtures on the slow turning tracks in Chennai. Add to that, the fact that they have Moeen Ali at 3, a renowned hitter of spin, and they've got themselves a top order that looks well suited to dominating in spin friendly conditions but which might need a bit of a revamp on surfaces where pace will be the main weapon in the powerplay.

Elsewhere Dhawan and Warner have established long and successful careers scoring at a good rate against all bowling in the powerplay but they are particularly effective against spin.

Meanwhile the role of Nitesh Rana at KKR is always an interesting one to watch. Sometimes he's played as an opener or number 3 while at times he performers a floating role, no doubt waiting for spinners to be introduced so that he can go after them and in that sense is very much deployed in the same vein as Moeen Ali at CSK or Glenn Maxwell at RCB.

Unless stated otherwise, all images and stats used are my own work and can be used freely where they are attributed back to this blog.



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The people doing V2K with remote neural monitoring want me to believe this lady @battleaxe is an operator. She is involved deeply with her group and @fyrstikken . Her discord is Battleaxe#1003. I cant prove she is the one directly doing the V2K and RNM. Doing it requires more than one person at the least. It cant be done alone. She cant prove she is not one of the ones doing it. I was drugged in my home covertly, it ended badly. They have tried to kill me and are still trying to kill me. I bet nobody does anything at all. Ask @battleaxe to prove it. I bet she wont. They want me to believe the V2K and RNM in me is being broadcast from her location. And what the fuck is "HOMELAND SECURITY" doing about this shit? I think stumbling over their own dicks maybe? Just like they did and are doing with the Havana Syndrome https://ecency.com/fyrstikken/@fairandbalanced/i-am-the-only-motherfucker-on-the-internet-pointing-to-a-direct-source-for-voice-to-skull-electronic-terrorism

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If there's one game I struggle to understand, it's cricket 😂.

I understand that as a batsman, you have to hit the ball very far and high, such that the other team's player is unable to catch it until it lands (I guess 😂). I hope I'm right?

Then, if you get to catch the ball due to the batsman's poor hit, you try to hit the wickets with it, right?

Then I think you get to make runs while the ball is traveling? Not sure I really understand the "making runs and getting wickets" part.. I've always wondered how cricket fans enjoy the game. 😁

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Wow great analytics. I assume there is a cricket fantasy or some sort in the same way the NFL has it's fantasy league? These stats reminds me of just that!

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Yeah but I have to say the IPL fantasy game which is run by Dream11 isn’t great and a lot of the features are limited to Indian residents.

The best fantasy league in my opinion is the BBL SuperCoach. I always enter that one. Good game and good community around it too!

!BEER

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