Uncapped Indians shine, overseas fast bowlers trump Indians

New highs for uncapped players

Uncapped players feature at the top of various lists this IPL. For instance, three uncapped batsmen appear in the top-10 run-scorers in IPL 2020 - Ishan Kishan (516 runs), Suryakumar Yadav (480) and Devdutt Padikkal (473). Kishan has also hit the most sixes (30) this time. IPL 2020 is the first edition where more than one uncapped batsman aggregated 400-plus runs.

Kishan's 516 runs are also the most by an uncapped batsman in an IPL season. Two uncapped bowlers feature in the top-10 wicket-takers of the season - Varun Chakravarthy (17) and T Natarajan (16). Chakravarthy is the only bowler to take a five-wicket haul this season.

Among other uncapped players, Ruturaj Gaikwad got three Man-of-the-Match awards, the joint-most among all players. Out of the 60 matches, in 11 matches the award went to uncapped players, which is the second-most in an IPL season. Only in 2011 were there more Man-of-the-Match awards to uncapped players - 14 in 73 matches.

Of all the runs scored by batsmen in the top seven positions, the contribution of Indian batsmen was 60.62%, the second-highest ever in an IPL season. Only once have Indian batsmen contributed a higher share of the total runs: 62.01% in 2018.

There were 21 80-plus scores in the 2020 edition. Of those, 15 were by Indian batsmen, which is 71.43%. It is also the highest percentage of 80-plus scores by Indian batsmen in an IPL season ever.

The foreign fast bowlers bettered Indian pacers by a distance this time. The overseas quicks picked up 240 wickets compared to 185 by Indian pacers. The 43.79% of wickets taken by Indian fast bowlers in IPL 2020 is the second-lowest in an IPL season. The only previous year when the Indian pacers had a lower share of wickets was in 2015 (43.74%).

Overseas fast bowlers took 25 three-wicket hauls while Indian quicks took only 12 such hauls. Eight of those three-fors by Indians were by Jasprit Bumrah (five) and Mohammed Shami (three), while Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj and Sandeep Sharma took one each. Rashid Khan was the only overseas spinner to take three-fors (three) while Indian spinners took nine three-wicket hauls.

The scoring rate in the death overs (overs 17th to 20th) by teams batting first this IPL was 11.23, which is the highest in any season. The previous highest was 11.06 last year and the average run rate in the death overs in the first 12 seasons was 10.33.

However, those highs were not replicated in the other two phases. In the powerplays, the average run rate for teams batting first this season was 7.68 - sixth among all IPLs - while in the middle overs it was 7.84 (seventh among all seasons). Mumbai Indians' run rate in the death overs when batting first was 13.66 - the highest for any team in an IPL season.

In the first 30 matches, teams batting first won 21 matches and lost seven (excluding two tied matches). However, there was a change in this trend in the second half. In the last 30 matches, teams batting first won only six matches while chasing teams won 22 (excluding two tied matches).

In the first 30 matches, there were 11 totals of 200 or more, seven of those in Sharjah. However, in the last 30 matches, there were only two such totals, both in Dubai. The average first innings total in the first 30 matches was 180 but it dropped to 158 in the second half.

The average run rate in the death overs for teams batting first in the first half was 12.17 while in the second half it reduced to 10.29.