India played at five different venues in the 2024 T20 World Cup, in varied conditions that ranged from spin-friendly with low bounce to pace-friendly with awkward bounce. Their batters were challenged and bowlers tested, but how good really were they? Conventional numbers in cricket won't answer this question convincingly.
India averaged 25.55 with the bat and 15.87 with the ball. The difference of 9.67 between their batting and bowling averages ranked only third best among the 20 teams that played in this World Cup. India's batters scored runs at a strike rate of 133.14, which was only the fifth best. There were teams that were more economical than India with the ball. Their economy of 6.65 ranked only 9th in this World Cup.
That's why we turn to ESPNcricinfo's Smart Stats, which gives meaning to the runs scored and wickets taken by players by contextualising performances. Smart Stats' Batting and Bowling Impact consider match situations, match scoring rates and the quality of opposition, among other things, to award points to each run scored, wicket taken and dot bowled.
Smart Stats rated India's performances in this World Cup as the best: they earned the highest average Total Impact points (a sum of Batting Impact and Bowling Impact) among all teams. It would seem a no-brainer that they topped this list given they won the tournament, but India are at the top because they didn't give in any quarter to their opponents. For instance, South Africa, who were the only other unbeaten team going into the finals, aren't at No. 2 on this list. This was largely because South Africa weren't at their best, nearly lost to Nepal and just managed to scrape home in a couple of other matches.
Among teams that made to the Super Eight, West Indies were the second-placed side by average Total Impact points earned. But these performances came largely in the league stage where they were unbeaten. Two of their four wins in the league stage were by over 100 runs. India, who weren't as convincing as they would've liked to be against Pakistan and USA, ranked just sixth out of the eight teams that made the Super Eight after the league stage. England, who lost to Australia and won convincingly against Oman and Namibia, were the eighth-placed team. But batting and bowling performances against weaker teams earn lesser points than they do against stronger oppositions.
The Super Eight stage is when India started to look convincing: their closest win was by 24 runs, which in itself is a convincing margin in T20s. With 348.53 Impact points, they were the second-placed team after South Africa in that stage. South Africa topped that stage in spite of lower margins of wins because they played against tougher opponents than India did.
A match-wise account of Impact contribution from India's batters and bowlers shows who between the two won them their matches. Clearly, while the bowlers' contribution was a lot higher at more than 60% in each of their three league matches, their batters did more work in the Super Eight and the semi-finals against England. India's bowlers clearly won them the final even if their batters had posted a sizeable total on the board.
A similar comparison of South Africa's matches confirms what was apparent through this World Cup: their bowlers pulled a lot more weight than their batters. Their match against USA was the only win where their batters had a higher influence on the outcome than their bowlers.
Hardik Pandya, who contributed with both bat and ball, topped the Impact list for India with average Total Impact points of 55.58. Jasprit Bumrah's incredible bowling performances earned him 49.80 Impact points which were the second best for India. Axar Patel, Rohit Sharma, Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav were the other India players who averaged over 40 Impact points in this T20 World Cup.
And this is where India stood out from the other teams. They had six players who averaged 40-plus Impact points in the tournament. No other team had more than three such players.
Rohit Sharma played some pivotal knocks and averaged 45.81 Impact points for his batting. He was the only batter to average 30 Impact points per innings for India. Suryakumar Yadav came in next with 29.28 points, followed by Pandya at 23.98. Rishabh Pant and Axar Patel also managed average of 20-plus Batting Impact points per innings. In comparison, no other team had five batters averaging 20-plus Batting Impact points from four or more innings in this World Cup.
Player-of-the-tournament Jasprit Bumrah was clearly the best bowler on display. His average of 49.94 Bowling Impact points was higher than any bowler to have played five or matches. Apart from him, four other bowlers averaged 20-plus Impact points with the ball. South Africa had six such bowlers - though their overall average was lower than India's. Australia and West Indies were the other teams that had five bowlers average 20-plus Bowling Points from four or more matches in this World Cup.
Smart Stats show that India's batters and bowlers did a lot better than what the conventional numbers suggest.