Batsmen with the most ODI hundreds since 2013
Cricket is a batsmen's game. You may have heard this cliche time and again, and no other time frame (2013- present) has proved the aforementioned fact with such disdain.
While long bats, flat pitches, and short boundaries have been the major reasons in a surge of high scores, playing conditions have also changed dramatically in this decade.
The use of two new balls is the elephant in the room no one is talking out. Pre-2011, there was widespread criticism of ODI matches getting mundane in the middle-overs. In a bid to address the issue, the International Cricket Council in 2011 introduced a rule that called for the usage of two new balls from either end.
The Kookaburra ball does not swing much and with the use of two new balls has taken the reverse swing and traditional off-spin out of the equation, resulting in batsmen scoring hundreds and the teams' notching up 300 plus scores at a faster rate than ever before.
The surge of high scores can be fathomed from the fact that until 2010, there was only one double-hundred in ODI cricket- by the great Sachin Tendulkar at Gwalior.
This decade has seen as many as seven double hundreds- three of which have been scored by one batsman- Rohit Sharma.
Today, in this article we will have a look at the Batsmen who have made use of such conditions and have scored the most ODI hundreds since the start of 2013.
#5 Ross Taylor - 13 centuries
His unbeaten 181 on virtually one leg to help the Kiwis overhaul England's 338 earlier this year was a testimony to the form that Ross Taylor has been displaying since 2013.
We talk about Brendon McCullum's flair or Martin Guptill's aggression or Kane Williamson's monk-like calmness as the bedrock of New Zealand's success; Ross Taylor is a farrago of all the aforementioned traits that serve as the backbone of the Kiwis middle-order.
Having made his debut in 2006, Taylor's first seven years in ODI cricket were marked with flashes of brilliance followed by an extended phase of a lean patch. In his first 116 matches, Taylor scored 3408 runs at a middling average of 37.86 and only six hundreds.
He didn't have a particularly good time while leading the Blackcaps both as a leader as well as a batsman. It all changes after Brendon McCullum established himself as the leader of the team, giving Taylor space to figure out his own game, and the numbers in itself tell a story.
Since the start of 2013, Taylor's average has shot up to 57.59- 13 100s being the underlining factor, making him the bedrock of the New Zealand middle-order.
Other batsmen with 13 ODI hundreds - Joe Root & Quinton de Kock