Tracking T20 batting’s shift into the express lane

Kolkata: In the context of T20 batting strike rates, 200 isn’t just another number, it’s a milestone. Once or twice could have been an aberration, but when it happens so frequently that bowlers visibly go on the defensive very early, you know this isn’t uncharted territory anymore.

Twenty-three matches into this IPL, and we have already had 15 scores of fifty and above with strike rates of over 200. These are telling numbers considering the data for entire 2021 and 2022 seasons stands at 13 fifty plus scores apiece.

Between then and now IPL batting has witnessed a massive shift, the 2023 season producing 36 fifties with 200 plus strike rates and 2024 yielding 52 such innings. And given how this season is shaping up, there is reason to believe 2025 may better previous records.

More compelling is how more of these fifties are being converted into bigger scores without allowing any dip in intensity. For scores of 75 or more with 200 plus strike rates, 2025 has already logged a 40% conversion of fifties, better than 30% for 2024 and almost on the heels of the 2023 season that witnessed 41%.

Why not 100 instead of 75? This being a game of high risk and reward where ten wickets are available to be spent in 120 balls, the individual scoring benchmarks need to be reset accordingly so that Nicholas Pooran’s blitz at the Eden on Tuesday doesn’t end up losing too much ground to the hundreds scored by Ishan Kishan and Priyansh Arya, nor does Nitish Rana’s 36-ball 81, Shreyas Iyer’s 42-ball 97* or Pooran’s 30-ball 75 against Delhi Capitals. It also adequately highlights how only few batters actually go all out in their pursuit of the ‘high-risk, high-reward’ mode of scoring.

For everyone else applies the dilemma of not knowing how to strike a balance between playing the waiting game and teeing off. At one end are the likes of Rinku Singh, who in hindsight could be regretting not taking a single in the 19th over against LSG. And at the other end, tower finishers like Ashutosh Sharma, who hammered a 31-ball 66 after being subbed in at No 7 in the chase against LSG.

You could always argue chasing is more difficult than setting a target. But batting first also comes with the rider of not knowing what a good score is. To push yourself despite not knowing that shows a rare commitment to batting without thinking about failure.

Teams are now trying to tap that bent of mind, more specifically at the start of the innings. Barring LSG, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma at Sunrisers Hyderabad, Quinton de Kock and Sunil Narine at KKR are showing the way. Among the uncapped players, Punjab Kings are making their mark with Prabhsimran Singh and Arya.

Arya isn’t new to this. Less than eight months ago he had hit six sixes in an over, scored hundred in 40 balls while adding 286 runs for the second wicket with Ayush Badoni, all in one innings for South Delhi Superstarz in the Delhi Premier League. Which explains the mad scramble for him at the IPL auction where he went for ₹3.8 crore.

A six-hitting machine who doesn’t waste balls upfront, Arya fits the increasingly popular prototype of top-order T20 batting that doesn’t mind going hard after every ball without worrying about losing his wicket.

In fact, 11 out of the 15 fifties scored at a strike rate of 200 or more this season have come from the top three batters. And teams have been going out of their way to orchestrate that. Like Rishabh Pant, who took a step back so that Pooran could bat one down at LSG as he does in other franchise leagues.

At Punjab Kings, Arya’s potential was never doubted but scores of 0 and 8 in the last two outings could have had a dampening effect. But Shreyas Iyer later said that Arya didn’t let it cramp his style. “Today when he went out to bat he was like, ‘I’m just backing my instincts. I saw the ball pitched in my area and I was just free-flowing.’ And that’s the mindset I want each and every individual playing in the team to have,” said Shreyas on Tuesday. “One odd day, you don’t have it your way, but today he kept on going, he was fearless, and it basically was one of the top knocks I’ve seen in the IPL so far.”

Such mandates however can only bear fruit when batters tick the boxes of intent and execution. Any one of them goes amiss and we usually see the next set of batters show more urgency. Only now, however, are teams slowly warming up to the idea of retiring batters in high scoring chases.

Within five days we have had two instances of teams retiring batters who they felt weren’t clicking. Asking Tilak Varma to walk off was understandable considering his strike rate (23 off 25 balls) was abysmal for an Impact Player. But doing the same with Devon Conway who had a far better strike rate (69 off 49), shows how quickly the stakes have risen. In this game of strike rates, not even good enough works anymore.