India “The leading run-scorer in One Day Internationals”

One doesn’t need statistics to prove the fact that India have relied on their batsmen in One-Day Internationals (ODIs). In its 43-year history in the format, Indian team are the top run scoring team just above Australia.

 But, how much of the burden of these runs has rested on a few shoulders? Let us have a look at how the Indian batsmen have fared without the services of their top five run-scorers in ODIs — Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Mohammad Azharuddin and Yuvraj Singh.

 Since Australia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and West Indies have the highest run aggregates in ODIs, let us compare these figures with the ones of the other four teams and assess the contribution of the players apart from their respective top five run getters.

 

Here is the list of the highest run-getters for the following teams:

 

 Australia – Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Mark Waugh, Michael Clarke and Steve Waugh

 Pakistan – Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Saeed Anwar, Shahid Afridi and Javed Miandad

 Sri Lanka – Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Aravinda De Silva and Marvan Atapattu

 West Indies – Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle, Desmond Haynes and Viv Richards

 

Comparision between the top 5 runs-scorer teams in ODI cricket:

Team	Total Runs	Runs scored by Top-5	Runs per over	Average runs per every wicket
India	1,85,546	58,030	4.95	32.44
Australia	1,84,172	46,936	4.90	33.88
Pakistan	1,74,482	45,042	4.74	30.05
Sri Lanka	1,49,373	54,586	4.81	29.44
West Indies	1,46,949	43,183	4.69	30.21

The above table clearly indicates how much India has relied on the services of a few, unlike the other top teams. Only Sri Lanka have been more reliant on a group of individuals than India.

Here is an analysis of the performance of the batsmen of the top five teams in overseas conditions:

 

Team	Total Runs	Runs per over	Average runs per every wicket
Pakistan	1,36,069	4.65	28.79
India	1,17,017	4.79	30.38
Sri Lanka	1,07,277	4.78	28.39
West Indies	1,00,586	4.60	29.34
Australia	98,522	5.05	35.77

 

Here is an analysis of the performance of the batsmen of the top five teams in home conditions:

  

Team	Total Runs	Runs per over	Average runs per every wicket
Australia	85,650	4.75	32.44
India	68,529	5.27	33.88
England	53,787	4.79	30.05
New Zealand	51,857	4.86	29.44
South Africa	49,017	5.14	30.21

Apart from India’s top five ODI run-scorers, MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Ajay Jadeja are the other Indian batsmen to score more than 5,000 runs in ODIs. Thus, if those figures are added, there isn’t much to speak about the rest.

So how strong is the Indian batting, if their contribution has been kept aside?