We have analysed each of the eight teams using the standings of their squad members in the Player Performance Index - a new tool developed in collaboration with the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA)
Predicting the outcome of a T20 franchise tournament can be littered with difficulties - teams are torn apart and bolted back together on an annual basis, players’ form can be wildly different from tournament to tournament and the format does not lend itself much to trends.
There are no watertight theories when it comes to taking a stab at who will end up champions and who will finish bottom of the pile, so The Cricketer has taken a new approach.
We have analysed each of the eight teams using the standings of their squad members in the Player Performance Index - a new tool developed in collaboration with the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA).
The algorithm that produces the Index takes into account much more than runs and wicket aggregates and strike rates, bundling more progressive formula such as activity rate (the percentage of balls faced where at least one run is scored), boundary strike rate (the percentage of balls faced hit for four or six), 'indexed economy rate' (which measures economy rate vs others bowling at similar periods of the same match) and dot ball percentages into the calculation.
Rashid Khan is on Sunrisers Hyderabad's books
Players’ performances in domestic and international T20 over the course of the past three years are taken into account, with a top 1,500 names produced as a result.
By taking an mean average rating for each squad in this year’s IPL, we might not be able to tell which side is going to win but we can give an accurate reading of which has the strongest talent pool prior to the first ball being bowled on Saturday.
And that tells us that Kings XI Punjab and Royal Challengers Bangalore are the teams to beat in 2018.
Kings XI, who have yet to win the IPL, top our rankings chart with an average of 444.43, helped by the fact that all bar three of their 19-man squad currently sit in the top 1,000 T20 players globally, according to the Index.
They might not have the most stars in the world’s top 10 (one, Chris Gayle, compared to Delhi Daredevils’ two) and they don’t have the most number of players occupying places in the top 100 (Sunrisers Hyderabad have 10, while Kings XI boast just six) but they have a blend of experience and expertise that takes them to our leaderboard’s summit.
Just behind them - by a tiny margin of 2.23 places on average - is RCB and their flurry of familiar names - Kohli, De Villiers, McCullum, Woakes, De Kock, Southee.
Sunrisers, perhaps unsurprisingly given they have 10 per cent of the world’s top 100 T20 players on their books, come in third with an average ranking of 471.44.
At the other end of the scale, the inexperience of the Rajasthan Royals team has them languishing in last position.
Glenn Maxwell will be in action for Delhi Daredevils
Their overall score of 693.87 means their players are, on average, rated almost 250 places lower than their equivalents at Kings XI or RCB.
Ben Stokes is the Royals’ top-rated player, sitting 26th in the standings, while Rajasthan can only call on two others from the top 100 - Jos Buttler and captain Ajinkya Rahane. Furthermore, seven players have not achieved a top-1,500 spot in the most recent release of the Index database.
The Royals will be hoping that several of their stars move up the charts come the end of the competition.
So, here’s the IPL 2018 table according to the Player Performance Index...
Kings XI Punjab - 444.43
Royal Challengers Bangalore - 446.66
Sunrisers Hyderabad - 471.44
Kolkata Knight Riders - 511.89
Chennai Super Kings - 572.8
Delhi Daredevils - 592.96
Mumbai Indians - 676.44
Rajasthan Royals - 693.87
And here are those squads in full. In seven short weeks, we’ll find out if our formula works.
*Position in the Index shown in brackets
**Players not in Index top 1,500 are given rating of 1,501 for purposes of calculation
MS Dhoni (57), Ravindra Jadeja (56), Suresh Raina (16), Kedar Jadhav (147), Dwayne Bravo (12), Karn Sharma (206), Shane Watson (6), Shardul Thakur (256), Ambati Rayudu (199), Murali Vijay (467), Harbhajan Singh (103), Faf du Plessis (210), Mark Wood (558), Sam Billings (159), Imran Tahir (40), Deepak Chahar (947), Lungisani Ngidi (374), Asif KM (-), N Jagadeesan (-), Kanishk Seth (-), Monu Singh (-), Dhruv Shorey (-), Kshitiz Sharma (-), Chaitanya Bishnoi (-)
Top 10s: 1
Top 100s: 5
Highest rank: Shane Watson (6)
Average: 572.8
Rishabh Pant (119), Shreyas Iyer (167), Chris Morris (5), Glenn Maxwell (1), Kagiso Rabada (113), Amit Mishra (160), Shahbaz Nadeem (451), Vijar Shankar (360), Rahul Tewatia (836), Mohammad Shami (307), Gautam Gambhir (90), Trent Boult (114), Colin Munro (32), Dan Christian (25), Jason Roy (68), Naman Ojha (366), Prithvi Shaw (-), Gurkeerat Singh Mann (-), Avesh Khan (1,224), Abhishek Sharma (-), Jayant Yadav (757), Harshal Patel (623), Manjot Kalra (-), Sandeep Lamichhane (-), Sayan Ghosh (-)
Top 10s: 2
Top 100s: 6
Highest rank: Glenn Maxwell (1)
Average: 592.96
Axar Patel (30), KL Rahul (109), Ravichandran Ashwin (243), Andrew Tye (28), Aaron Finch (27), Marcus Stoinis (69), Karun Nair (178), Mujeeb Zadran (768), Ankit Singh Rajpoot (583), David Miller (67), Mohit Sharma (138), Barinder Singh Sran (505), Yuvraj Singh (118), Chris Gayle (10), Ben Dwarshuis (270), Akshdeep Nath (1,290), Manoj Tiwary (294), Mayank Agarwal (666), Manzoor Dar (-), Pardeep Sahu (938), Mayank Dagar (-)
Top 10s: 1
Top 100s: 6
Highest rank: Chris Gayle (10)
Average: 444.43
Sunil Narine (2), Andre Russell (89), Chris Lynn (24), Tom Curran (166), Dinesh Karthik (82), Robin Uthappa (72), Kuldeep Singh Yadav (189), Piyush Chawla (250), Nitish Rana (283), Kamlesh Nagarkoti (-), Shivam Mavi (-), Mitchell Johnson (75), Shubman Gill (-), Cameron Delport (49), Javon Searless (-), Apoorv Vijay Wankhade (-), Ishank Jaggi (940)
Top 10s: 1
Top 100s: 7
Highest rank: Sunil Narine (2)
Average: 511.89
Dwayne Bravo is back in Chennai Super Kings colours
Rohit Sharma (35), Hardik Pandya (22), Jasprit Bumrah (29), Krunal Pandya (88), Ishan Kishan (326), Kieron Pollard (4), Pat Cummins (141), Evin Lewis (44), Suryakumar Yadav (357), Ben Cutting (107), Mustafizur Rahman (64), Rahul Chahar (941), Pradeep Sangwan (652), Mitch McClenaghan (58), JP Duminy (39), Saurabh Tiwary (495), Tajinder Dhillon (-), Akila Dhananjaya (-), Nidheesh MD Dinesan (-), Aditya Tare (-), Siddhesh Dinesh Lad (-), Mayank Markande (-). Sharad Lumba (-), Anukul Roy (-), Mohsin Khan (-)
Top 10s: 1
Top 100s: 9
Highest rank: Kieron Pollard (4)
Average: 676.44
Ben Stokes (26), Heinrich Klaasen (356), Jaydev Unadkat (123), Sanju Samson (136), Jofra Archer (157), Krishnappa Gowtham (-), Jos Buttler (50), Ajinkya Rahane (81), Darcy Short (124), Rahul Tripathi (276), Dhawal Kulkarni (190), Zahir Khan Pakteen (-), Ben Laughlin (120), Stuart Binny (338), Dushmantha Chameera (332), Anureet Singh (805), Aryaman Vikram Birla (-), Midhun S (-), Shreyas Gopal (1,458), Prashant Chopra (-), Jatin Saxena (-), Ankit Sharma (880), Mahipal Lomror (-)
Top 10s: 0
Top 100s: 3
Highest rank: Ben Stokes (26)
Average: 693.87
Virat Kohli (15), AB de Villiers (7), Sarfaraz Khan (843), Chris Woakes (155), Yuzvendra Singh Chahal (46), Umesh Yadav (140), Brendon McCullum (41), Washington Sundar (186), Navdeep Saini (-), Quinton de Kock (177), Mohammed Siraj (348), Nathan Coulter-Nile (60), Colin de Grandhomme (78), M Ashwin (781), Parthiv Patel (128), Moeen Ali (351), Mandeep Singh (309), Manan Vohra (239), Pawan Negi (117), Tim Southee (65), Kulwant Khejroliya (-), Aniket Choudhary (630), Pavan Deshpande (-), Anirudha Ashok Joshi (-)
Top 10s: 1
Top 100s: 7
Highest rank: AB de Villiers (7)
Average: 446.66
Alex Hales (80), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (20), Manish Pandey (66), Rashid Khan (9), Shikhar Dhawan (34), Wriddhiman Saha (146), Siddarth Kaul (318), Deepak Hooda (314), Syed Khaleel Ahmed (-), Sandeep Sharma (1,490), Kane Williamson (63), Carlos Brathwaite (23), Shakib al Hasan (18), Yusuf Pathan (202), Shreevats Goswami (-), Mohammed Nabi (11), Chris Jordan (54), Basil Thampi (409), T Natarajan (799), Sachin Baby (658), Bipul Sharma (470), Syed Mehdi Hasan (598), Ricky Bhui (-), Tanmay Agarwal (-)
Top 10s: 1
Top 100s: 10
Highest rank: Rashid Khan (9)
Average: 471.44
HAVE A LOOK AT THE TOP 500 IN THE PLAYER PERFORMANCE INDEX BY CLICKING HERE
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