Stats: Ambati Rayudu and his "intelligent batting" in ODI cricket

“Happy that someone intelligent is batting at number four.” This is what Virat Kohli said about Ambati Rayudu after India’s biggest ODI win at home. Rayudu scored a brilliant 81-ball 100 on Monday batting along with Rohit Sharma at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. The duo added a double-century partnership for the third wicket to ensure India posted a huge total of 377. Rayudu’s recent success has already impressed skipper Kohli who is considering the 33-year-old as India’s No.4 for the World Cup.

As Kohli pointed, Rayudu is, in fact, an “intelligent” batsman. He knows his targets, strengths and is well aware of the game situation. He is capable of building the innings, rotating the strike and smacking a few out of the park. But the biggest question is will he be able to replicate the same while facing better oppositions?

The Hyderabad batsman has played 40 innings in his ODI career scoring 1447 runs at an average of 51.67. Out of those, 30 have been against Windies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and Hong Kong.

Against the likes of Australia, New Zealand, England and Pakistan, Rayudu played only ten innings but has fared well. Given the way pitches behaved in Australia and England recently, the teams will be relying on their spinners in the middle overs when the right-handed batsman arrives at the crease after a regular decent start by the top-order. Rayudu is one of the best players of spin and has the ability to find boundaries at will. His counter-attack to Rashid Khan this year, the best spinner going around, is an example of the same.

Another issue to be addressed around Rayudu’s batting is his strike-rate. In terms of average, Rayudu is well ahead of others as his average of 70.4 since the 2015 CWC is bettered by only Virat Kohli (83.22). However, the 33-year-old has a career strike-rate of 79.72 in ODIs which is quite low for someone batting at No.4 who is required to accelerate when needed. His S/R increases to 84.72 considering the matches since the 2015 World Cup but it doesn’t say the whole story.

Rayudu got a couple of games where he walked into bat when India were needing around five an over or even less than four RPO on a few occasions. In such games, he ensured that he didn’t throw his wicket away and his place from the team. In fact, most of the matches Rayudu played didn’t produce big scores. In the 17 ODIs Rayudu played since the CWC15, the average S/R of an Indian batsman in those games has been 89.3.

India recorded a lower aggregate strike-rate than this only in the ODIs that involved Suresh Raina (86.8) and Dinesh Karthik (86.4). In the ODIs Rayudu played since the 2015 CWC, an average batsman scores at a strike-rate of 81.1; which is lower than his S/R. In those, the opposition has collectively managed to score runs at a strike-rate of only 74.38 which is the lowest S/R involving any Indian player in this span. This also indicates Rayudu’s strike-rate has hardly made harm to the results.

(Stats as on October 29, 2018)