What is Strike Rate in Cricket – Explained In Detail

Did you see the strike rate in players stats and want to know what is strike rate in cricket. You are at the right place, In this article you will get all required information about strike rate in cricket. The meaning of strike rate is different for bowling and batting.

I have tried my best to cover the details of strike rate in cricket. In this article we will discuss what is strike rate in cricket, how strike rate in cricket is calculated, and difference between bowling strike rate and batting strike rate. 

Keep reading till the end, to know all details about strike rate, and the players with best strike rates in the world.

To understand the importance of batsman and bowler in a team, their career performance is determined with the help of their strike rate. Player with the highest strike rate is considered the best in the team.

Batting and bowling both strike rates were invented in cricket after the start of ODI cricket. Strike rate was invented almost 5 decades ago.

What is the Batting strike rate in cricket

Batting strike rate is how quickly the batsman score runs, The highest batting strike means the batsman is more aggressive, while the lower batting strike means the batsman score runs very slowly.

Formula To calculate batting strike rate in cricket

Strike rate is an average of runs that a batsman scores for every 100 balls that he faces. For calculating batting strike rate, the total runs should be divided with the total ball faced by the batsman. Then multiply it with 100, the result will be the strike rate of the batsman.

The strike in ODI T20 and Test is different. In tests the strike rate of the batsman is low, while in ODI the strike rate is normal and the batsman has the highest strike rate in T20.

Strike rate carries great significance in T20 cricket, because the main focus in t20 cricket is to score more runs in limited overs, so the batsman with the highest strike rate is selected in the team. Teams get indicators of a player by watching his strike rate in format, to know how he will play in future matches.

Understand strike rate with Example

To understand the strike in detail, let’s understand it with the help of an example. We will discuss 2 examples of calculating batting strike rate.

Let’s suppose a t20 match is played between Pakistan and India, King kohli scored 110 of 60 balls. To calculate the batting strike rate of King kohli for that match, divide 110 by 60 to get 1.83. Now multiply this with 100. 

By this calculation we find that King kohli has a strike rate of 183 in that t20 match. That means, kohli will score 183 runs every 100 balls.

Now lets calculate the career batting strike rate of King Babar Azam. Babar Azam scored a total 3485 runs by facing 2714 throughout his T20I career. To calculate his t20 career batting strike let’s divide 3485 by 2714  to get 1.28. Multiply the answer with 100.

This calculation shows that Babar Azam has a strike rate of 128.40 in his T20I career. Babar will score 128 runs every 100 balls in a T20 match.

Difference Between Batting Average and Batting Strike Rate

If you are thinking that batting strike rate and average are the same, you are wrong. The batting strike rate and batting average both are different statistics. We have already discussed what a batting strike is in the above paragraphs.

The Batting Average is, how many runs a batsman scores on average of each innings that they play. For example, if virat kohli scores 50 runs in first innings, 42 runs in 2nd innings, and 2 runs in the third innings, then he has batting average of 33.331 for those 3 innings.

Top 5 batsman with highest strike rate

There are many batsmans in the world that have the highest batting strike rates. We have discussed the top 5 batsmans in each format.

Highest ODI Batting strike rates

  1. Andrew Russell: He is the former player of West Indies, he has a batting strike rate of 130.22 throughout his career. He scored 1034 runs in ODI by facing 784 balls.
  2. Glenn Maxwell: Maxwell is the Australian cricketer, who has the batting strike rate of 124.82 in his ODI career. The total 3,490 runs scored by Glenn for the Australian team on 2,796.
  3. Jos Buttler: A true cricket fan already knows who Jos Buttler is . He is a very talented and skillful batsman in the England cricket team. Butler has a batting strike rate of 118.00. He scored 4,823 runs in his ODI career by facing 4,087.
  4. Lionel Cann: Cann belongs to the Bermuda national cricket team. He has the batting strike rate of 117.06 in ODI.
  5. Shahid Afridi: Boom boom Afridi is known for his sixers. Afridi is the former captain and player of Pakistan cricket team. He is a very aggressive batsman which helps his strike rate to be in top 5. Shahid Afridi has a strike rate of 117.00 in his ODI career. Afridi scored 8,064 runs on 6,892 in his career,

Highest T20 Batting Strike Rates

  1. Suryakumar Yadav: He is also known as SKY. Suryakumar Yadav has a batting strike rate of 172.70 in his T20I career. SKy scored 1,841 runs in 1,066.
  2. Taranjeet Singh: This player belongs to Romania national cricket team. Taranjeet has a batting strike rate of 171.21 in his T20 career.
  3. Saber Zakhil: Saber is the player from Belgium national cricket team. He has a strike rate of 170.04 in his T20 career.
  4. Zeeshan Kukikhel: He is the Hungary national cricket stadium player, he has a strike rate of 165.18 in his T20 career.
  5. Heinrich Gericke: Heinrich is the player from Malta national cricket stadium. Gericke has the strike rate of 163.93 in his T20 career.

What is The Bowling Strike Rate

Do you understand what batting strike rate is in cricket? Now let’s discuss the bowling strike rate in cricket. Bowling strike rate is also a very important statistic, which helps us to measure the importance of any bowler.

Bowling strike rate is slightly different from batting sr. Players with the highest batting strike rate are considered as good players, on the other hand players with lower bowling strike rate are considered as good bowlers.

How to calculate bowling strike rate?

To calculate the bowling strike rate, divide the total number of balls bowled by the bowler in an inning with the number of wickets they have taken. 

Bowling strike rate is mostly important in red ball/test cricket. On the other hand batting strike rate is important in limited over/ white ball cricket.

Example of Bowling strike Rate

Suppose, an ODI is played between Pakistan and India, Shaheen Afridi took 5 wickets in 10 overs. To calculate the bowling strike rate of shaheen afridi for that innings, Divide 60 by 5 t0 get 30. So Shaheen’s strike rate for that innings is 30.

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Conclusion

To summarise this discussion, I can say that strike rate is important for cricket. We have discussed all details about strike rate, if you have any suggestions to add in content, comment on this post. 

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