INR 9 crore was the price at which Rashid Khan was sold to Kings XI Punjab, even before Richard Madley could ask Sunrisers Hyderabad if they would like to use the Right To Match (RTM) card for Rashid, the card was already up. For SRH, this was a bargain, 9 crore INR, a bargain. It is understandable why he was highly valued by other franchises and one could argue that Rashid would have earned more had sides valued bowling more than batting but that is a story for another day.

In a 20 over game, you need a bowler who does not concede many runs and who is a constant threat. Rashid Khan is both of those and he is good at doing them both. As Cricinfo analyst, Gaurav Sundaraman put it in his tweet “Rashid Khan makes a 20 over game, a 16 over game with his economical bowling”. Opposition batsmen rather play out Rashid then look to score runs off him in an effort to score runs of other bowlers, they rather conserve their wickets instead of risk attacking him and more likely losing their wickets in the process. In the risk-reward tradeoff, the risks attached to an attacking shot against Rashid Khan is more than the benefits.

This season Rashid sent down 408 deliveries, that’s his full quota of overs in every game. The skipper ensured that he was used in every game, no wastage of resources — it would be criminal if Kane didn’t bowl him his full quota — and Rashid delivered in all the games bar two (vs CSK & KXIP). When you take into account that every side has 11 players and they are required to step up for their side to win, Rashid stepped up in practically all the games.

It would be fair to compare Rashid Khan versus the rest of the SRH bowlers given that he played all the games and it would be easier to understand his impact. First, we look at the traditional numbers.

RPO: Sunrisers Hyderabad bowlers conceded runs at 8.39 RPO, Rashid would concede his runs at 6.74 RPO. Over 4 overs this would mean a difference of 6.6 runs. But this does not take into account Rashid’s impact on wins. In wins SRH bowlers would concede 7.4 RPO, Rashid would concede 5.9 RPO. Over 4 overs this is a difference of 6 runs. Rashid concedes at less than a run a ball when he bowls in wins which is valuable in a format where the going rate of runs per over is closer to 8.8 RPO.

Runs Per Over (IPL 2018)

Balls Per Wicket: There is not much difference in the number of balls taken by Rashid (19.43 balls) and the rest of SRH (19.74 balls) to pick a wicket, in wins these numbers change as SRH bowlers pick wickets 15.31 balls compared to 17.14 balls taken by Rashid Khan, an explanation for this could be in how economical Rashid is, batsmen are like to play him out in the hope to attack the other bowlers.

Now let’s dig deeper into how Rashid has done in comparison to the other SRH bowlers this season.

Activity Rating (ACR)

ACR can be defined as the number of non-boundary runs scored per non-boundary ball, in simple terms it’s what the batsman does when they can’t score boundaries, SRH bowlers concede 0.69 runs per non-boundary ball which is below the league average of 0.72 runs per non-boundary ball, Rashid Khan comes in at elite levels with 0.58 runs per non-boundary ball which is far below both the league average and the other SRH bowlers.

In wins, the numbers fall down for both the SRH bowlers (0.66) and Rashid (0.56). Given that Rashid does not get hit for many boundaries in his 4 overs, conceding 3.18 boundaries overall and 2.6 boundaries in a win — league average is 4.5 boundaries in 24 balls — it becomes more important to see how many runs Rashid concedes in the balls he does not go for boundaries and compared to he the league average he does not go for many runs which makes his bowling more impressive.

Activity Rate (IPL 2018) (Average 0.72 non boundary runs per non boundary balls)

What a low ACR signifies is that when Rashid does not concede boundaries, he is able to keep the batsman on strike better than the average bowlers which give him more time to size up the batsmen and pick their wickets — or the batsmen are more willing to see him off and take minimum risks against Rashid Khan — but the major takeaway is that Rashid concedes so few runs in these balls that it’s practically shortening the game by every ball he delivers.

Boundary Index (BiX)

Boundary Index is the number of boundary runs conceded per 100 balls, while boundary % tells us how many balls have been hit for a boundary it does not take into account if a said boundary is a 4 or a 6. For instance batsman A scores three 4s in 10 balls and batsman B scores 3 6s in 10 balls, the boundary % for them will be identical at 30% but Batsman B has scored 6 more runs. Boundary Index takes into account of the 4s and 6s, in this case, the boundary index for batsman A would be 120 and for batsman B it would be 180 runs, for batsman the higher the number the better but for the bowler the opposite holds true. Since a bowler bowls 4 overs, it would be fair to calculate Boundary Index numbers over 4 overs.

The boundary index this year has been 85.8 boundary runs per 100 balls, over 4 overs this means that the league average bowler concedes 20.59 runs in boundaries but Rashid Khan (14.94) being the wizard he is with the ball does one better and saves 5.74 ~ 6 runs in boundaries every time he bowls his 4 overs. Compared to his SRH teammates who conceded 19.90 boundary runs in their 4 overs, Rashid saves his side 4.96 ~ 5 runs in 4 overs.

In wins Rashid shows again why he is a class above his teammates, while the remaining SRH bowlers concede 16.08 runs in boundaries every 4 overs which are elite numbers, Rashid does better conceding 11.59 ~ 12 runs in boundaries over his 4 overs. The league average in wins is 18.94 boundary runs in 4 overs, these numbers from Rashid put him in a level where every over from his is a win for Sunrisers Hyderabad and that’s how they have used him in this IPL.

How Does Rashid concede his boundaries?

Boundary %

This season the boundaries have come fast and quick in the IPL with the boundary percentage being highest in this season at 18.3% which is a boundary every 5.46 balls, this is where Rashid shows he is far better than the average, bowling 7.56 balls per boundary conceded (42% better than the average). Winning sides concede a boundary every 5.9 ~ 6 balls in the 2018 season, Rashid’s overall figures are even better than these numbers.

The average bowler concedes 2.9 fours in his 4 overs, SRH bowlers concede 2.75 in their four overs but these are overall numbers. Non-Rashid bowlers conceded 2.93 fours in their 4 overs which are slightly above the average, it’s all down to Rashid who concedes just 2.05 fours in his spell that Sunrisers Hyderabad is below the average line when it comes to conceding fours.

6s are more valuable than 4s, a batsman who can muscle the ball for a 6 is a valuable commodity for his side and thus demand a high price at the auction (See: Chris Lynn, Andre Russell), so it’s paramount for bowlers to ensure that they do not get hit for that many 6s.

So it is refreshing to see how Rashid does not concede sixes like crazy, the average bowler in the league concedes 1.52 6s in their 4 overs, Rashid concedes just 1.12 6s in his 4 overs — over 20 overs League average concedes 7.6 6s and Rashid concedes 5.6 6s, that’s a difference of 12 runs — and these numbers drop to 0.6 6s in wins which in all honesty is mind-blowing in 20 overs that converts to just 3 maximums.

In this dept, Rashid slightly improves SRH who compared to other sides are already below average but with Rashid Khan’s bowling, the side does a better job overall as well.

So what does this all tell us?

When it comes to traditional stats, Rashid Khan saved runs and picked wickets at a rate equal to the other SRH bowlers. Which is very impressive.

But when it comes to traditional stats we can see how Rashid Khan improved SRH in every aspect be it conceding fewer boundaries or fewer runs of the balls he does not go for boundaries. Not only was Rashid better than the average bowler in the IPL this season, he improved an SRH side — which is already a good bowling unit — to the point that they were a nightmare. Which is why it makes sense to say Rashid Khan makes a 20 over game a 16 over one for he doesn’t concede too many boundaries and neither does he concede too many runs either way and the pressure added by him the wickets helps the remaining SRH bowlers.