Thread by @ErikaMorris79

With excitement for the #IPL2022 building I’ve been looking into the data and what it tells us. If you don’t like IPL & data I suggest you look away now, for those that do buckle up as it’s a long ride.
The first half of this shows overall stats then a deep dive on each team.

We start with looking at makeup of each franchise. There is a growing focus on all-rounder’s, 45% of the MI and PBKS squad are ALR. SRH however have 43 % of their squad as bowlers, are they going with the ‘batters win you games, bowlers win you tournaments’ approach? #IPL2022

Is the #IPL2022 a young man’s game or will the old man’s army win out again? Actually it’s GT rather than CSK who have the oldest overall squad at 28.73yrs, MI have the youngest team with an average of 24.76. Will the experience of GT see them have a successful first IPL?

Age is a factor but what value in knowing the pressures of an #IPL2022? CSK and LSG have an average of 45 and 43 games per player, just how much will this help a new franchise like LSG? On the other end of the scale SRH only have an average of 23 games per player in their team.

Which type of players have the most IPL experience? Well batters are on average the most with 55 previous IPL games under their belt, closely followed by wicketkeepers. Despite teams picking a high % of ALR they are actually the least experienced with an average of 25 games each.

Does T20i experience translate into the IPL? Well CSK, RCB, RR will be hoping so with an average of 22-23 T20i caps across their players. PBKS players have an average of just 8 T20i caps per player. Have we finally found a flaw with their aggressive auction strategy? #IPL2022

Can we draw something from the T20i caps by specialisms? It is the wicket keepers who have the highest average caps at 25 and the bowlers with the lowest at just 11 caps on average. Will this translate into high scores through bowling inexperience? Only time will tell. #IPL2022

Let’s focus on batting stats for a few of tweets. So much emphasis is put on left/right hand batting combinations, are there enough lefties to go around? RCB certainly have their fair share with 45% of their players being lefties. GT and MI have the lowest at just 20%. #IPL2022

Still on the batting hand, does being a left hander mean you are more successful? Based on the T20 batting average and strike rates of all the players it appears not. There is less than 2 points difference between the two batting styles. #IPL2022

What of the batting average and strike rates of teams. Finally RCB win something with a huge 130.27 strike rate & the 2nd highest average at 22.01 can we see some big scores from them this year? RR on the other hand have the lowest SR with 113.86 and the lowest average at 19.93.

Let’s look at bowling for a few minutes and the average and economy rates by teams. RCB also have the lowest bowling average with 23.30 whereas MI have the highest at 28.45. The economy rates are super close across all teams between 7.50 and 7.96! #IPL2022

Are spinners the best bowlers to have in an IPL team? Right arm leg spinners have the lowest economy and 2nd lowest average at 24.04 and 7.12 respectively whereas left arm unorthodox actually have the highest average at 30.22. Have teams could the right combinations? #IPL2022

Are spinners the best bowlers to have in an IPL team? Right arm leg spinners have the lowest economy and 2nd lowest average at 24.04 and 7.12 respectively whereas left arm unorthodox actually have the highest average at 30.22. Have teams could the right combinations? #IPL2022

So what of CSKs bowling? In Theekshanka they have the lowest bowling economy of the #IPL2022 at 6.04. On the flip side though they do have a few bowlers who average 30+ so they will need to watch the runs they give away. Overall a well-balanced team for CSK.

Now let’s look at DC and their batting. In terms of SR there are the likes of Warner, Shaw and Pant who average 145+ but the averages scores are on the low side, the highest being Warner with 37. A lot of players are going to need to up their averages for DC to score big #IPL2022

How does their bowling fare? Well it is a mixed bag to be honest, Nortje is the star with an average of 20 and economy of 7 but they too have a few bowlers averaging 30+. If Nortje isn’t fully fit then this could see Dehli struggling in the bowling arena. #IPL2022

Onto the 1st new teams and GT. In terms of batting they’ve actually assembled a good hitting squad with 7 batters with a +130 SR but like DC the averages scores are quite low. I can see a big reliance on Gill at the top of the order to set the tone for the rest to follow #IPL2022

What of GT’s bowling? Well in Rashid Khan they have the bowler with the lowest average of the #IPL2022 at 17.39 and the 2nd lowest economy at 6.35. The bad news is they have the most bowlers with an average of 30+ so we could see them going the distance in a lot of games

Has KKR’s batting being affected by Hales pulling out? Honestly it hasn’t, they have the 2nd highest average strike rate of all clubs & with Russell striking at 169 they sure have the power. In Billings they have the 2nd highest average at 42.08, will he get into the team though?

Does their bowling match their batting powers? In a word No. They have the 2nd highest bowling avg of all teams with 6 players going at over 28. The economy rates aren’t too much better either with only 4 players under 7. With Cummins missing some games too will this prove costly

How about LSG and their batting? As a team they have the 2nd lowest strike rate despite having the big hitters of Stoinis, DeKock, Rahul and Evin Lewis in their ranks. On the flip side their avg are one of the best with 7 players at 30+. This might just be their saviour.

Looking at LSG and the bowlers, they're fairly similar other than the sky scrapper of Deepak Hoodas bowling avg. I actually checked this 3 times but it really is 55.11, without this it actually looks a very balanced bowling line up. How much will they miss Wood though? #IPL2022

Remember MI have the lowest batting avg of all the teams in #IPL2022, well that is clear when you look at some of the low scores. Only 4 have +30 averages and not even Tim Davids huge 159.36 SR can help bring the overall average up. The experience of Rohit Sharma could be key.

On top of the lowest batting average, MI also have the highest bowling average of all teams in #IPL2022. Add to this they will be without Jofra Archer this season on paper it is looking like a really tough year for Mumbai Indians #IPL2022

PBKS had a great auction strategy of picking power hitters and big scorers and you can see this clearly. More than 6 players who average 30+ with the bat and 8 players with a strike rate of 130+. I have a feeling it really could be fireworks watching PBKS bat this #IPL2022

Will their bowlers be able to win them games though? On the surface it looks like it, they have the 2nd lowest average of all teams in #IPL2022 and a fairly well distributed economy rate across the team. Overall I think PBKS have really set themselves well for success this year.

What RCB.. Well as the team with the highest SR it is looking pretty good. In Finn Allen they have the highest SR in the whole of #IPL2022 at a huge 175.65 and 10 players at 130+. With experience from Virat, Faf and Karthik and the power of Maxi this looks superb batting line up

Will the bowlers be able to win them the games? As a team they have the lowest bowling average with 11 players below 25 including Hazelwood, Harshal, Hassaranga, Willey and Kaul. On paper this bowling attack should really strangle teams and prevent them from scoring #IPL2022

RR left it to the last minute at the auction so will this impact them? Despite having big hitters like Buttler, Samson, Hetmyer and Padikkal as a team their avg is the lowest in the #IPL2022. Some of these names will have to show staying power to really make a difference

Could bowling be what saves them? To be honest their all rounders really distort their avgs making it look worse than they are. In Ashwin they have one of the lowest economies in #IPL2022 and with the likes of Boult and Chahal, this should provide the core of a good bowling unit.

Onto our and last year’s bottom team SRH. Their batters have the 2nd lowest SR in #IPL2022 however a couple of low scorers like Samarth and Singh drag that down. In Markram, Pooran and Shepherd they have players capable of 140+ and have the anchor of Williamson to hold them

SRH bowling is decent with avgs around 7-8 & economy figures in the late 20’s. The stand outs Sundar with an economy of 6.76 and Gopal with his avg of just 20.87. Will the relative inexperience of their team impact them or is this the year we see things turn around for them?

We all know that the West Indies have reputations as big hitters of the ball and this stat backs that up. Their players have the highest SR in #IPL2022 at 138.25 with ENG just behind at 134.51. In terms of the highest average scores that crown goes to SA with just under 26

What about the bowling figures by country? With Rashid Khan in their ranks its no surprise AFG have the best economy in #IPL2022 with 6.89. The lowest average bowling figures actually goes to Bangladesh at 19.83 and then ENG at 23.60. What will this look like after the tournament

Before I wrap up, I know the IPL isn’t for everyone and there will be debates on which league is the best. This thread isn’t about that, it is about looking for trends in cricket data and nothing more so please don’t turn it into something else 

Well for those of you who are still here and saw it through to the end – THANK YOU! I know there is a lot there but hopefully it gives you a bit of insight into each team, their chances and might help with those last minute fantasy team picks. Now lets go #IPL2022