Who will score the most runs? Who will take the most wickets? Who are the top 5 all-rounders to enter the tournament? The World Cꦆup listicles and talking heads are on every detail of this tournament. But what about which players had simply gotten better?
Inspired by the NBA’s Most Improved Player award, the idea was to focus on which player has risen the mo🔯st since the previous 50 o🧸ver World Cup in 2019.
Adam Zampa
A significant number of players have upped their game considerably over the course of the last four years, and one of the first names that comes to mind is that of Adam Zampa.
Up until the end of the 2019 World Cup, Australia’s blond-haired leggie had struck 65 times in 48 innings, averaging over 36 with a ball in hand – figures which are quite pedestrian, if we’re being kind. Since then, however, Zampa has accumulated 77 wickets in 37 innings at under 23 apiece, which are the best returns for any bowler, pacer or spinner, in the last 4-year cycle. The Melbourne Star has gone from a mediocre Shane Warne imposter to an out-and-out wrist-spinning behemoth, even if he isn’t marketed as such.
Considering how Zampa has improved his bowling average by nearly 14 runs, he will be hard to top, but there are a few players who can give those statistics a run for their money. He’s also on our list of top spinners playing at the 2023 Cricket 💟Worl﷽d Cup.
David Miller
South African middle-order batter David Miller comes into this World Cup with a career average of 42.60, and a strike rate in excess of 103, which is a phenomenal record. By the end of the 2019 World Cup, Miller had played ODI cricket for 9 long years and averaged 38.70 at run-a-ball. In the four years since, he is averaging 60.70, striking at over 114. Yup, you read that correctly. That is an average bump of 22 runs, scored at a noticeably faster rate. Killer Miller isn’t messing around, in what might just bꦅe his final 50 over World Cup, and his improvement is herculean.
Mehidy Hasan Miraz
We have looked at both a batter and a bowler, so it only makes sense to examine an all-rounder next. Bangladesh’s off-break bowling all-rounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz is a fine case study for this purpose, who since the end of the 2019 World Cup has averaged 6 more runs with the bat, iꦆncluding two hundreds in 34 innings, and 8 runs less with the ball. If all-round improvement is the yardstick for judgment h🃏ere, Mehidy takes the cake.
Taskin Ahmed
If we shift our focus towards the fast bowling department, there is yet another Bangladesh player who is yearning for attention. Not known for being a haven for pacers, Bangladesh has fared decently in the department since the last World Cup, and Taskin Ahmed is leading the way in terms of improvement. He has added a few clicks to his pace, and is now categorized as ‘Right Arm Fast’, without a smidgen of doubt. In the last four years, Taskin has averaged almost 4 runs less with the ball than what he was averaging in 2019 and has shredded his economy by one full run, from nearly 6 to just under 5. Considering he plays the bulk of his cricket in Asian conditions, that 🥂improvement is more than noteworthy.
Kuldeep Yadav
So now we have a spinner, a pacer, an all-rounder, and a batter to decide amongst, regarding who has improved the most since the end of the last 50 over the World Cup. My pick is neither of these names, rather someone who had impressed early on in his car꧑eer, then went on to suffer a dip of enormous proportions and is now set to enter the World Cup as one of the most lethal bowlers across all teams. That man is left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav.
He featured for India in the 2𒅌019 World Cup, cleaned up Babar Azam with a worldie at 🧸Old Trafford, and ended the tournament on a low, having been taken apart by England in India’s only group-stage loss. In 7 innings at that World Cup, Kuldeep ended with just 6 scalps, averaging north of 56.
Notable Improvements
Up until the start of that campaign, Kuldeep had amassed 87 wickets in 42 innings, averaging just 21.74 with the ball, and was therefore touted as a wrist spin bowling prodigy. The 2019 World Cup alone added 2 runs to his average, 🃏and in the years 2020 and 2021, Kuldeep’s average read 53.83 and an astronomical 127.50, respectively🦋.
He managed just 8 wickets in 9 innings in these two calendar years, and his career trajectory had pretty much fallen offꦛ the Grand Canyon. Even the most astute of experts had writtenꦑ him off.
This isn’t that surprising, left-arm wrist spinners quite often do well and then are worked out and we don’t see much of them again. Once their novelty wears off, it’s hard for them even to 🔯stick around. That🎃 is what looked like was happening with Kuldeep.
But he refined his action, and did something few wrist-spinners ever do, he put on considerable pace. When he came back, he didn’t need novelty anymore, he was a beast.🐈
Since the start of 2022 to the present day, Kuldeep Yadav has sent 45 batters back to the hut, averaging just a touch over 19 with the ball. 33 o🐼f those have come i🐼n 2023 alone, at an outrageous average of 16.
The best spin bowler of the tournament?
Every single player mentioned in this piece has shown a vast amount of improvemꦺent in the last 50 or so months, but none of them has gone from averaging ov😼er three figures with the ball to 16. Kuldeep Yadav will start India’s home World Cup as arguably the best spin bowler across all 10 nations. A couple of years ago his career looked over, now the only ends he sees are of the batters he ruins.
Read more from Jarrod Kimber:
Remember to gamble responsibly
A responsible gambler is someone who:
- Establishes time and monetary limits before playing
- Only gambles with money they can afford to lose
- Never chase their losses
- Doesn’t gamble if they’re upset, angry, or depressed
Read our detailed guide on responsible gambling practices.
Commercial content notice: Taking one of the bookmaker offers featured in this article may result in a payment to Cricket Times. 18+. T&Cs apply.
