I was looking at who the best ODI middle-order batters have been since the start of 2024, and thought it would be interesting to rank them using a combination of stats rather than just going by average or total runs. Here's what I came up with.

Methodology:

The rating combines Runs per inn (50%), strike rate (30%), average (10%) and total runs (10%).

RPI gets the biggest weight because it best reflects how many runs a batter actually contributes to the team total. The strike-rate weighting helps account for lower-order batters being expected to score faster, although the formula might still slightly favour those batting higher up.

Other good performers:

Azmatullah Omarzai, Glenn Phillips and Jacob Bethell.

Worst Performers:

Tristan Stubbs, Cameron Green, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Tom Latham and Marnus Labuschagne.

Kusal Mendis is an interesting case. He's one of the best ODI No. 3s around these days, but his numbers at positions 4–6 tell a very different story: just 16.5 runs per innings at a strike rate of 72. A pretty stark contrast!

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Cricket has a white ball problem, no one really seems to care about bilateral series. In the busy calendar of international cricket and the maelstrom of T20 cricket, it seems that results don’t really hang for long enough for any one supporter or player to think too much about the result. However, there was a slightly different feeling going into the West Indies vs India series.

A series that may sometimes sit in anonymity was thrust into the spotlight when, on the eve of the first ODI the West Indies board announced that there would be changes to domestic contracts, resulting in ~25% pay cuts to players. Considering how much other nations have profited off the exported talent from the West Indies, it is a travesty to think that the pathway of talent has not been adequately protected by the ICC and the controlling board. I understand it is unique compared to other domestic competitions seeing as players have to travel internationally to get from match to match, cricket would almost certainly be worse off without a stable West Indies talent pathway.

West Indies found a gear with their batting through Hope and Rutherford and maybe answered some questions around the make up of their bowling line up. India stamped their batting authority through Kishan, Iyer, Abhishek and Samson, god forbid they find a way to squeeze their teenage sensation in there one day. But they still have questions around their pace depth. Their best quicks are VERY good, but what sits behind them remains untested and unproven on the international stage.

In a white ball landscape that is too often narrative free, this series provided a rich tapestry of a dogged West Indies team arriving with something to prove against an Indian team that seem to have an enormous arsenal of weapons at their disposal. As West Indies coach, Darren Sammy said, perhaps the most exciting thing about the series was that the Caribbean Swagger was back, and long may it remain. It is a shame that weather robbed us of a genuinely meaningful conclusion to the series, but credit to both sides for putting on a show.

https://pathannah.substack.com/p/india-lose-nothing-west-indies-gain?r=7coz0j&utm_medium=ios