An Oddsworth Opinion
How dominant are Abhishek Sharma and Marco Jansen at the top of the rankings?
Abhishek Sharma is back on top of the ICC's T20I batting list, and the mood around him has swung with a speed only Indian cricket can manage. His 113 from 38 balls against New Zealand, with 11 sixes, turned talk about his place into a coronation, even as a former India player reminded everyone that some people had wanted him dropped. The ranking has a lot behind it. Over the last two years in men's T20 cricket, Abhishek has a strike rate of 202.4, against 132.8 for top-seven batters.
Is Abhishek Sharma the best T20 batter in the world?
Our ratings say very nearly. They put him second of 205 T20 batters across every side, worth about nine runs a match more than an average player. His last ten innings for India include two that lasted fewer than five balls, against Sri Lanka and West Indies, but they sit beside 61 from 28 balls against Pakistan and the hundred in New Zealand. Over the same two years his batting average is 35.97, against 24.01 for top-seven batters, so all that speed has not cost him runs. Dropping him for consistency would be like sending back a dishwasher because it is loud.
Career average 31.3
Is Marco Jansen the best cricketer in the world?
That claim is doing the rounds now that Jansen tops the ICC's Test bowling and Test all-rounder rankings. It comes just after South Africa crushed Australia in the second Test with him among the stars. That is a red-ball case, and it should be argued as one. In T20 cricket over the same two years, his bowling average is 28.58 against 24.61 for all bowlers. Our ratings place him 54th of 146 T20 bowlers, about a run a match better than average. His summer with Welsh Fire produced useful spells, and also 0/42 and 0/36 within a few days of each other.
1.1 a match in his career
Do the T20 numbers back both No. 1s?
Jansen's two new rankings belong to Test cricket, where a 6ft 8in left-armer who can bat is the player England have been warned about. His T20 record has nothing to say about them either way. In the shortest format the same man is a decent franchise seamer who bats a bit, and our ratings put his batting about half a run a match above an average T20 batter.
Abhishek's No. 1 is a fair reading of his batting, and our ratings have only one T20 batter anywhere ahead of him. Jansen's case for being the best cricketer in the world has to be made in Tests, because his T20 figures describe a useful seamer a little better than the average bowler, and nothing more.