Eoin Morgan Is A Better White Ball Bat Than Ganguly Ever Was
When top players struggle for form, a certain stripe of cricket observer begins to stir the pot with renewed vigor. This has happened recently with Ajinkya Rahane. It is also happening with Eoin Morgan. Morgan’s in a slump in the IPL. Given the IPL’s design, little blips, like Morgan’s 4 innings of 7(8), 8(14), 0(2) and 2(2) mean that many of the very same set of fans who think today’s India are not that great because “the quality of teams around the world has declined”, think Morgan is some kind of jumped up provincial player promoted above his station in both the England, and more importantly (for some rather dubiously jingoistic reasons), the IPL franchise jobs.
It is worth remembering then, that if you consider everything that is claimed about Sourav Ganguly and his fantastical reign as Indian captain in which he was Indian cricket’s Bessemer, Napoleon and Bismarck all rolled into one, then Eoin Morgan actually did all those things with England’s ODI side after the 2015 World Cup. What’s more, he did it by leading with the example of his batting. Ganguly, of course, did none of those things. Ganguly was a liability with the bat during his ODI captaincy. Worse, Ganguly was a minnow-basher during his ODI captaincy. Morgan has been neither.
Morgan led England 19 times until the end of the 2015 World Cup. In these games he managed 640 runs at 43/83 (average/scoring rate). After the 2015 World Cup, he led England 101 times, and managed 3763 runs at 45/99. England invented a new way of playing ODI cricket, and Morgan was at the forefront of that shift. He worked out a way to go from being a middle order player who scored his runs at 4.5 an over, to becoming one who scored at a run a ball. And he managed this alchemy without sacrificing consistency.
I could stop here, because this, by itself, is an extraordinary achievement. But there’s a record which ought to be presented properly.
Here are the ODI batting records for Morgan and Ganguly as captains.
Here’s how the record stacks up against Test playing opposition with an ELO rating (see link for method of estimating an ODI XIs ELO rating) better than 0.5 (i.e. against opposition which is expected to to win more than it loses).
Here’s the residual record, against any opposition with an ELO rating worse than 0.5:
Here is their respective record against teams other than the 10 Test playing full members (Ireland and Afghanistan are recent full members)
When one considers that Morgan’s 38/92 against strong opposition as captain, improves to 39/97 in the period after the 2015 World Cup, it further underlines the point that Morgan actually changed.
Before 2000, Ganguly’s batting returns were not as dire as his returns during his captaincy. But the minnow-bashing tendencies were amply evident. Before he became captain, Ganguly produced 2638 runs at 38/69 against opposition with an ELO rating better than 0.5, and 2279 runs at 52/77 against opposition with an ELO rating worse than 0.5. For comparison, Sachin Tendulkar produced 4602 runs at 45/84 against opposition with an ELO rating better than 0.5, and 3038 runs at 43/93 against opposition with an ELO rating worse than 0.5 before Ganguly became captain. And this, in Tendulkar’s case, includes his first 73 ODIs in the middle order. As opener, Tendulkar’s returns against strong opposition before Ganguly became captain are 3430 runs at 52/91, while against weak opposition 49/95.
The proposition that Ganguly’s run production was even remotely in Tendulkar’s class was always a non-starter (and yet, widely believed to be true).
These were all the openers India tried under Ganguly’s captaincy against strong opposition (ELO > 0.5):
These were all the openers India tried under Ganguly’s captaincy against weak opposition (ELO < 0.5):
There was, some of you will remember, a raging debate about who should open the batting for India in ODIs. It should never have been a debate. Yet, Tendulkar batted down the order 16 times in 99 ODI innings under Ganguly. He still made a couple of centuries in those 16 innings. Ganguly batted down the order 48 times, and made 3 centuries (all against weak opposition - one against Namibia, and two against Kenya).
The record shows that Morgan successfully changed his ODI game after 2015 World Cup. Given the theory of ODI cricket England embraced after that tournament, it was essential for Morgan to demonstrate that it was a plausible theory. And he did in style through his batting.
Here is the record of England’s line up beyond the openers (where Roy, Bairstow and Hales established themselves with aplomb) after the 2015 World Cup against strong opposition (ELO > 0.5):
Here is their record against weak opposition (ELO < 0.5):
Root, Morgan, Stokes and Buttler are arguably the most formidable ODI middle order in the history of the format to date. And Eoin Morgan more than held his own in that quartet. He ranks among the very greatest players in the fifty over format.
The thing with any sport is that its records are complete and exhaustive. The thing with cricket is that these records are easily available. The record stubbornly exists regardless of what people choose believe. It is true whether or not people believe it. Form fluctuates in any one season (and its a stretch to suggest that Morgan’s has, based on 4 T20 innings). It does not fluctuate over five years. Ganguly was a liability in the Indian ODI line up during his captaincy. Eoin Morgan has been an asset in England’s during his captaincy. Given that England under Morgan is arguably the finest ODI side in the history of the format, that’s saying a lot.