CricViz analysis features in The Telegraph’s look at the transformation of Eoin Morgan who taken his white-ball game to even greater heights when many assumed England’s captain would gently wind down.
CricViz have an agreement in place to provide The Telegraph newspaper in the UK with advanced data analysis and visualizations, delivered to their team of award-winning journalists via our team of analysts.
This week, Tim Wigmore looked at how Eoin Morgan defied doubters and embraced risk to become one of the world’s best T20 batsmen.
Wigmore looked at how Morgan upgraded his T20 game in terms of both consistency and explosiveness since the start of May 2019 and has become even more dangerous to opponents, explaining that “Over 48 T20Is from 2013 until the start of last summer, Morgan averaged just 23 with a strike rate of 128. Since May 2019, Morgan is averaging 58 with a strike rate of 185.”
Wigmore goes on to use CricViz’s Impact model to illustrate just Morgan’s transformation in recent times. “Across all T20 cricket since the start of last year, he is ranked the second-best batsman in the world by CricViz’s metrics, worth 7.8 runs more than an average replacement player; from 2015-18, Morgan was only rated equal to an average replacement player.”
Wigmore also looked that how Morgan has started scoring a lot quicker at the start of the innings now, the additional element of risk something that was missing in his game earlier. He mentions “Between 2015-18 and 2019 onwards, Morgan’s strike rate in his first five balls of T20Is has risen from 88 to 128, and his strike rate in his first 10 balls from a modest 104 to an imperious 152”. He also looked at how Morgan is hitting sixes a lot frequently now, “Over his first 80 T20Is, Morgan hit 78 sixes – one every 17.5 balls. Since the start of last summer, Morgan has hit 32 of his 251 deliveries for six – more than a six every eight balls. He is now in rare terrain: a batsman hitting almost as many sixes as fours.”
Excelling against spin in recent times has been one of Morgan’s key improvements. Wigmore mentions “He has always been capable of pyrotechnics against pace at the death. Opportunely, with next year’s T20 World Cup in India in mind, his game against spin has soared new heights. In all T20s, he averaged 18 with a strike rate of 114 against spin from 2015-18, but 53 with a strike rate of 152 ever since.”
To read the Telegraph article in full, head to https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/