What Is Consistency In T20 Batting?

If a batter is prepared to score slow enough, it is possible to be consistent in T20. Consistent in the sense that we imagine consistency in Cricket. In Cricket (Tests and even ODIs) dismissal is precious. The batting average, given by runs per dismissal, is a good measure of batting consistency in Tests and ODIs. It measures how consistently the batter does the thing which bowling sides don’t want batters to do - accumulate large numbers of runs.

What is consistency in a format in which dismissal is not precious, but balls are?

The speed of run scoring in T20 is measured well by the scoring rate (typically given in runs per 100 balls faced for batters). The consistency of run scoring, however, is not measured well simply by estimating the average volume of runs. Consistency has to measure how consistently the batter does the thing which bowling sides don’t want batters to do. In T20, that means scoring boundaries.

The frequency of boundaries is simply the number of boundaries per ball faced in an innings. If a batter hits three boundaries in a 10 ball innings, the boundary frequency is 0.3 (3/10). If a batter hits three boundaries in a 30 ball innings, the boundary frequency is 0.1 (3/10). If a batter plays 2 innings with 3 boundaries in 10 balls in the first, and the 3 boundaries in 30 balls in the second, the player’s average boundary frequency for those two innings is 0.2 (0.3+0.1)/2.

An inconsistent T20 batter, then, is one who is inconsistent at scoring boundaries. The table below gives the Average Boundary Frequency (ABF) and the Median Boundary Frequency (MBF) in the IPL (>=2000 runs in the league). The players at the top of the list are the most consistent T20 batters in the IPL, while the players at the bottom of the list are the least consistent.

In other words, the players at the top of the list are to T20, what Kohli, Smith, Root, Williamson, Dravid, Babar, Inzamam, Richards etc. are to Test cricket.