About Twenty20 Ratings
The Twenty20 Rankings work in a similar way to the established rankings for Test and ODI players. They are a weighted average, taking into account the strength of the opposition and putting greater emphasis on a player’s more recent performances. However there are several important differences in the way these rankings work compared to the ODI rankings, because T20 cricket is more about run scoring than taking wickets, and it is unusual for a team to lose all its wickets in this form of the game:
Batsmen
- Fast scoring is at a premium in T20 cricket. In a typical game, the T20 rankings will give more credit to a batsman who scores 20 runs off 10 balls than, for example, to a batsman who scores 50 runs off 60 balls (the latter’s slow scoring could easily lose his team the match).
- Batsmen at the top of the batting order are the most important in T20 cricket. It is common for middle order batsman not to be needed. An opening batsman who scores a duck will lose points, but so will a middle order batsman who doesn’t bat at all.
- Very little extra credit is given to a batsman for being not out.
Bowlers
- While taking wickets is still important in T20 cricket (a wicket is a dot ball, and disrupts the batting team’s rhythm) the T20 rankings give more credit to a bowler for economy. A bowler who takes 0 for 15 off 4 overs gets more credit than one who takes 2 for 35.
In addition to the above, all players who miss a match for their country lose 2% of their ranking points (compared with only 0.5% in ODIs). The reason for this is that T20s are so sporadic, often played in series of one or two, that any player missing a match could find himself waiting months for his next game.
A player will get a ranking as soon as he plays an international match, but players do not get a full rating until they have scored 600 runs or bowled 400 deliveries.
The Official Rankings for International Cricket!