Shreyas Iyer: consistently quick

Shreyas Iyer's call-up to India's T20 side in the three-match series against New Zealand has no doubt come as a reward for his consistent performances in the domestic circuit. Iyer has made 3863 runs at an average of 55.98 in 43 matches in first-class cricket. Among Indian batsman in first-class cricket, only Cheteshwar Pujara has managed more runs than Iyer since latter's debut. Out of the 28 Indian batsmen to have made at least 2000 first-class runs since Iyer's debut, the Mumbai batsman's average ranks fifth highest.

However, what puts him ahead of other batsmen - and it does so convincingly - is his strike-rate. His 124-ball 138 against Tamil Nadu might seem an innings played to help Mumbai to force a result in the match, but it is merely a blueprint of how Iyer paces most of his innings. Out of his 11 first-class centuries, only two have come at a strike-rate of less than 75 and as many as six of them - including his double-hundred against the visiting Australians at Brabourne - have come at a strike rate of over 90. That is twice as many centuries as any other Indian batsman has managed at that strike-rate. In fact, since Iyer's debut no other batsman from any country has managed as many centuries at a strike-rate of 90-plus in first-class cricket. Five other batsmen, including David Warner, have had five such centuries.

Iyer's career strike-rate of 80.73 is the highest among 37 batsmen with at least 3000 first-class runs since his debut. The only other batsman with a strike-rate of 80-plus among them is Warner. Apart from Iyer, only three other Indian batsmen - Cheteshwar Pujara, Karun Nair, Priyank Panchal - have made 3000-plus first-class runs since his debut, and none of them come close to Iyer in terms of strike-rate. Nair, whose strike-rate is the next highest in this list, scores at a rate of 55.52, which is just at 69% of the rate at which Iyer scores. Even among 28 Indian batsmen with 2000 runs or more, Iyer's strike-rate is comfortably the highest. Himachal Pradesh's Prashant Chopra has made 2024 runs at a strike-rate of 73.31, and is the only other batsman who scores at 70-plus.

While Iyer's career strike-rate in itself is remarkable, it is his ability to consistently make runs faster than other batsmen, given more or less the same batting conditions, that stands out. In as many as 26 of his 30 fifty-plus scores, Iyer has made runs at a rate 1.5 times faster than the other batsmen in the match. No other batsman since his debut has had as many such innings. The next-best batsman in this list is Sri Lanka's Niroshan Dickwella, 16 of whose 21 fifty-plus scores have come at 1.5 times the strike-rate of other batsmen in the match. Warner, whose overall strike-rate since Iyer's debut is more or less on par with Iyer's, has had only 14 fifty-plus scores when he has made runs at least 1.5 times faster than the other batsmen in the match.

In fact, in the last ten years in first-class cricket, no batsman has managed to score more runs than Iyer while averaging 50-plus and striking at 80-plus.