Statistical analysis: Top 10 ODI bowlers since inaugural edition of World T20 in 2007

It was widely anticipated that the advent of T20 cricket or the World T20 in 2007, to be more specific, would lead to the death of bowlers, figuratively speaking, with the nature of the shortest format inherently consigning the bowlers to the role of being carted around the park.But to the contrary, bowlers have constantly come up with new deliveries and tactics and managed to be effective in T20 cricket, which has subsequently translated itself to ODI cricket as well, much to the betterment of the limited-overs game.Here are the top 10 ODI bowlers, purely from a statistical point of view, since the inaugural 2007 World T20 in South Africa:Note – Understanding how the selection was made:1. I considered only those bowlers who have taken a minimum of 100 wickets over the last 7 years. What this ensured was consistency of performance, as bowlers who have had just one or two peaks before fading away were overlooked.2. Then I considered the mean of the bowling average of these players, which turned out to be 28.39 per match. I also took into account the average of these bowlers’ economy, which was 4.94 per over per match.3. The averages and strike rates of all these bowlers were, subsequently, put to a relative measure by dividing by the means respectively, and Relative (REL) (average) and REL (economy) were obtained. I also obtained REL (wickets) on the basis of number of wickets taken in the concerned period.4. Considering that saving runs remains the top most priority in ODI cricket, I multiplied the REL (average) with that of economy and gave a rating out of 6 for the two combined. Meanwhile, I gave a rating of 4 for REL (wickets). Finally, I added the Average and Economy rating with the wickets rating to come up with the final rating.Here are the 24 bowlers who had taken a minimum of 100 wickets in the last 7 years, who were then consolidated to 10 on the basis of their final rating.

#10 Stuart Broad

Rating: 6.66

England’s Stuart Broad, with a rating of 6.66, manages to feature at 10th position in the list of top 10 ODI bowlers of the T20 era. Although his economy rate of 5.24 from 92 ODIs, despite bowling in largely pace friendly pitches in England, is a bit on the expensive side, the fact that he has taken 149 wickets from those 92 games indicates that his best use is as an attacking weapon in the England one-day side.