Is strike rate everything in T20Is? A case study on Smriti Mandhana and the opening anchor role
It’s a World Cup year and understandably every batter in T20s will think obsessively about two facets of their game – runs amassed and the rate they’re scored in.
Smriti Mandhana has been the top run-getter for India so far in 2024. The 27-year-old has accumulated 222 runs from eight innings at an average of 31.71. Smriti also features in the world top 10 run-getters in the format.
Smriti is the crucial half of an opening pair also featuring the trigger-happy Shafali Verma. With Shafali growing in confidence to take on bowling attacks early in an innings, Smriti is happy to sit back and drop anchor at the other end.
While Smriti’s average has improved from 27.25 at the start of 2024 to 31.71 after the five-match Bangladesh T20I series, one cannot overlook a marked drop in the rate at which Smriti has gone about her run-scoring.
Dip in tempo
Before the year began, Smriti played 121 T20I innings scoring 2998 runs at a strike rate of 122.46. However, in the eight innings that she has played in 2024, the Indian vice-captain has managed to strike the ball at a significantly lower rate of 107.24.
Three of those eight innings were played at home, at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai against Australia. Smriti was the highest run-getter in that series, but with a strike rate of 100, the second-lowest among the series’ top five run-getters and the third-lowest among the Indian batters who batted in at least two innings.
Before landing in Bangladesh, Smriti led Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to their maiden Women’s Premier League (WPL) title in March 2024. She finished with 300 runs in 10 innings. Compare that to Shafali’s total of 309 runs from nine innings. While Smriti scored at SR of 133.92, Shafali registered a much higher 156.85. UP Warriorz’s Deepti Sharma scored 295 runs from eight innings at 136.57, Mumbai Indians’ Harmanpreet Kaur amassed 268 runs from seven innings at 141.05, RCB teammate Richa Ghosh hit 257 runs in 10 innings at 141.98 while Jemimah Rodrigues struck at an impressive 153.59 as she stacked up 235 runs from nine innings. Smriti scored at a slower pace than all the other Indian batters on the list.
In Bangladesh, she once again topped the scoring chart with the same asterix attached, striking at 114.85. This was the second-lowest among the top five run-getters of the series and the third-lowest among the Indian batters who batted in at least two innings. All this at the very same venue India is scheduled to play its four league stage games and a semifinal (if it qualifies) in the upcoming ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024.
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Smriti vs the world
In a game increasingly heading towards higher scores with each passing series, Smriti could find comfort in the template she helped her India teammate Jemimah adopt. Strike rotation, patient placement and timing and playing to her strengths – these worked for Jemimah, particularly during the recently concluded second chapter of the WPL where she showed the field the way to thrive with the bat on a low and slow Kotla turf. Jemimah’s 153.59 strike rate stands in stark contrast to her overall scoring rate of 111.85 in the format and 107.14 in 2023.
Smriti isn’t in a spot of bother in the larger pool of talent though. She is the fifth highest runscorer in T20 internationals with 3220 from 129 innings. She has the highest strike rate among the top five.
Given the role she assumes in the top order, one of the steadier and safer of the two openers, Smriti’s role is akin to Beth Mooney’s for Australia. She partners Alyssa Healy who has the best strike rate among the players in the top 10, a far superior 129.97. Mooney usually stays in the 120s, a bracket Smriti slots into.
Smriti does have a higher gear. She has struck in the 130s in four seasons of her international career. Maintaining it is where the challenge has been.
The spin kryptonite
Smriti’s spin weakness, particularly off-spin, is well documented. In 2024, tweakers had her number five times in eight innings, while pacers were able to do so twice.
Right arm off-spinners have particularly posed tough questions to Smriti with six dismissals of the 18 T20Is she played in 2023. At the same time, this year has seen Smriti step out and take on right arm spin with more purpose. While representing India, her average vs right-arm spin was 21.03 until last year and has gone up to 35.00 in 2024.
However, Smriti’s overall strike rate remains at around 106.18 in 2024. She scored more fluently against the tweakers from Bangladesh (124.48) than she did against those from Australia earlier this year (87.50). Although, this does come with the caveat of Australia’s spinners being far more experienced than their Bangladeshi counterparts. During India’s five-match T20I series against the latter, the spinners often missed their line and lengths, making it far easier for batters to face them.
Smriti’s long standing matchup against Australia right-arm off spinner Ashleigh Gardner presents an interesting case study. Before 31 December 2023, she was dismissed by Ash Gardner four times in 12 innings, managing to score at a rate of 108 against the imperious allrounder. This year, Smriti faced Gardner in three innings without being dismissed in international cricket. The caution adopted in seeing Gardner through saw her strike rate drop to 86.11.
Against pacers, Smriti has averaged around 16.00 this year compared to 24.00 until December 2023. Against left-arm spin, she averaged 22.12 till the end of last year, but this year, she has found a way to amp up her average to 40.00. The similar trends were seen during Smriti’s WPL stint.
Smriti allows herself the luxury of time with her backfoot play, enabling shots square of the wicket. She stays deep in the crease against spinners. Her elegant leg-side game has been a quintessential aspect of her style of batting, enabling her to pull good length deliveries through the ropes. This was on display in the WPL and against Bangladesh’s spin arsenal. While she is a traditionally adept driver of the ball, Smriti has also been stepping out lately against spin. However, scoreboard pressure sometimes forces her to turn up the tempo drastically which more often than not results in a dismissal.
However, the strike rate conversation often is a fairly one dimensional way of looking at batting utility. Case in point, the WPL 2024 final. Delhi Capitals made a 114-run chase difficult for RCB. DC’s bowlers did not allow RCB any freebies. Smriti anchored the chase against one of the greatest captains the game has seen across gender verticals – Meg Lanning – allowing batters Sophie Devine, Ellyse Perry and Richa Ghosh to play their natural attacking style of cricket.
Her 39-ball 31 featured just three boundaries but she helped the team see out some difficult passages of play. The chase, much like Smriti’s approach, was about the win rather than hastily striking at a fast pace and combusting prematurely.
With the Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup coming up over the next few months, it will be up to Smriti to find a balance between her scoring rate and the team’s need to have her in the middle for as long as possible.
India’s reliance on its middle order has often been a pain point against stronger opponents like England and Australia in the shorter formats and the format demands a cocktail of caution and confidence from one of the game’s most technically gifted batters.
The multi-format series against South Africa next month is a good opportunity to test herself against a fresh opposition.