From the last two years of Test cricket, all seven of India’s highest impact seven batsmen are in the current squad, and all of them may well feature in the playing XI of the first Test match. Conversely, only three of England’s highest impact seven batsmen of the last two years are in the current squad. In fact, out of the 10 highest impact players for England during India's last tour of England in 2012, five are not a part of the squad this time around. All those months of chopping and changing may finally be taking its toll on the English team. More here.

Kane Williamson became only the second Kiwi batsman to produce a series-defining performance for New Zealand in their last nine years in Test cricket. Williamson scored 43 and 161 in the third and deciding Test match against West Indies at Barbados and also produced the highest impact performance of his Test career. The only other Kiwi batsman to have produced a series-defining performance in this time frame is Brendon McCullum against India in 2014.

Even though Stuart Binny recorded the best bowling figures (6/4) by an Indian in an ODI match, Ashish Nehra's 6/23 against England at Durban remains the highest impact bowling performance by an Indian in a match context. Out of Binny's six wickets, two were lower-order batsmen whereas Nehra had only one such dismissal to his name. Nehra also had a superior Pressure-Building Impact (taking wickets in quick succession) than Binny. In a career context, Binny's numbers would be restricted as his performance came against Bangladesh (Grade B opposition).

Glenn Maxwell doesn’t find a mention on the list of the ten highest impact batsmen of IPL 7 because he tapered off towards the end of the tournament- in the last eight matches, he crossed 1 on the Batting Impact scale only once. He had four knocks in the tournament where he crossed 5 on the Batting Impact scale but ended up with a 50% failure rate and no performance of note in the playoffs. More here.

Kolkata Knight Riders have the third-highest bowling impact unit amongst all the teams and emerge as the second-highest impact team of the tournament. Their batting is not their strongest suit and hence a lot will depend on their old warhorses Jacques Kallis and Gautam Gambhir. Even when it comes to Form Impact (last 16 months’ impact), they emerge as the third-highest team in the tournament.More here.

It is not surprising to see Pakistan top the Impact charts for the T20 World Cup – their T20 national side is far stronger than their ODI side. Given the amount of T20 cricket that goes on domestically there, it is a format Pakistanis find natural expression in. Despite the constant refrains about ‘mercurial’ Pakistan, this is the most consistent T20 side in this tournament, with the highest impact bowling and the second-highest impact batting. More here.

If we take 50 Tests as the minimum, Graeme Smith is the highest impact South African batsman of all time, ahead of Amla, de Villiers, Kallis, Cullinan, Cronje and G Kirsten (in this order). More here.

The highest impact players in the Asia cup match between India and Pakistan were Mohammad Hafeez, Ravichandran Ashwin, Saeed Ajmal, Amit Mishra and Ambati Rayudu. Even though Saeed Ajmal (10-0-40-3) had better bowling figures than Amit Mishra (10-0-28-2), the latter emerged as the highest impact bowler of the match because of his superior Economy Impact.

The highest impact players of the Asia Cup so far (at the end of the India vs Pakistan match) are Kumar Sangakkara, Samiullah Shenwari, Asghar Stanikzai, Ravichandran Ashwin and Umar Akmal. Sangakkara emerges as the highest impact batsman whereas Sachithra Senanayake emerges as the highest impact bowler.

KKR have the second-highest impact squad in this year's IPL and it is mainly because they have been able to attain a balanced looking line-up which is evident from the fact that they are the second-highest impact team in each and every department - Form Impact, Uncapped Players' Impact, Overseas Players' Impact and Indian Players' Impact. More here.

Even though Ben Dunk was named the BBL Player of the Tournament, he was actually the third-highest impact player at the end of the group stage. The players who had a higher impact than him were Aaron Finch (second-highest) and Glenn Maxwell (highest). Both Dunk and Finch had an identical Batting Impact but the latter emerged as the higher impact player due to his Captaincy Impact whereas Maxwell topped the list due to his all-round efforts in the 5 matches that he played in.(Qualification criteria:5 matches)

The highest impact players in the 3rd NZ-IND ODI were Jadeja (7.71), Ashwin (6.04), Anderson (5.91) and Guptill (4.63), in this order. It was odd to hear the television commentators underestimate Jadeja till he began to explode. Might be worth looking at our piece from July 2013 that has him one of the great ODI players ever (however small his sample size of matches may be still - though it is not insignificant yet) - clearly those qualities that make him so high impact are still very much alive in him.

Along with him being the highest impact Indian ODI batsman of all-time, Virat Kohli also has the highest Runs Tally (proportion of runs scored in a match), Pressure and Chasing Impact by an Indian batsman in ODI cricket. When it comes to consistency, he has the second-lowest failure rate by an Indian batsman in ODI cricket (after MS Dhoni).

Azhar Ali, Misbah-ul-Haq and Mohammad Talha were the players who got a series-defining (SD) performance for Pakistan in the Test series against Sri Lanka. It was Mohammad Talha's first such performance in his Test career whereas Azhar Ali and Misbah-ul-Haq had done it previously against England (2012) and New Zealand (2011) respectively.

Johnson got 37 wickets out of which 15 of them were lower-order batsmen (nos. 8-11). That’s 41%. Meanwhile, Ryan Harris got 22, out of which 7 were lower-order players (31%). Siddle got 16, out of which 3 were lower-order (18%). No doubt, Johnson’s magnificent bursts intimidated the English batting line-up early-on, but the role his two pace partners played should not be downplayed. More here.

Amongst all the things that put this series on notice, the most significant was England's dependence on Jonathan Trott. Trott has been England's highest-impact and most consistent (lowest failure rate) batsman in the last 2 years prior to the start of this Ashes series. His abilities to absorb pressure (Pressure Impact) and occupy the crease for a long time (Partnership-Building Impact) have been his most notable traits – classic qualities of a successful number 3 batsman. These were sorely missed by his team in the series. More here.

As a Test batsman, consistency has been Kallis’ hallmark. He is the most consistent batsman in South Africa’s Test history and the 11th most consistent ever in Test cricket’s 136 year-old history. Moreover, he has the highest Partnership-building impact amongst all South Africans in Tests (and 5th highest overall, after Bradman, Sutcliff, Amla and Hutton).After Jonty Rhodes, Kallis also absorbed the most pressure by a South African batsman. More here.

Jacques Kallis is the 8th highest impact all-rounder in Test history, after Sobers, Hadlee, Imran, Miller, Botham, Benaud and Greig. More here.

The highest impact player in the 1st Test match between India and South Africa was Vernon Philander. Philander picked up 7 wickets in the match, including the 4 wicket haul in the first innings which restricted India's total substantially. Philander's biggest contribution in the match though was his crucial counter-attacking knock of 59 runs which was also the highest Pressure Impact (South Africa were 146-6) innings of the match. Philander's 59 in the first innings actually had a 52% higher impact than Kohli's 96 in India's 2nd innings. More here.

Even though the Man of the match award for the 3rd Ashes Test was given to Steven Smith (111 & 15), Ben Stokes emerged as the highest impact player of the match for his all-round performances of 18 & 120 and 1-63 & 2-82.For Australia, there were 4 players who had a higher impact than Steven Smith in the game (Johnson, Warner, Watson and Harris). This was also the 3rd consecutive game where Mitchell Johnson emerged as the highest impact performer for Australia.

Amongst the current Indian batsmen, MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and Rohit Sharma have their lowest Batting Impact in ODIs in South African conditions. The highest impact Indian batsmen in ODIs in South Africa (all-time) are Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly.

The highest impact batsmen in the last 3 years of Test cricket are: Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Cheteshwar Pujara. The bowling list is headed by Vernon Philander followed by Abdur Rehman and Saeed Ajmal (Ashwin is the highest impact Indian bowler at 5th place).

Jonathan Trott is the highest impact English Test batsman in the last 5 years, he is followed by Ian Bell, Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen. Trott also has the highest Pressure Impact and the lowest failure rate (most consistent) amongst all English batsmen during this time period.

Between October 2008 to January 2012, Sachin Tendulkar was not only the highest impact Indian Test batsman but also the highest impact Test batsman in the world. His amazing second wind saw him produce 4 series-defining performances in this time frame (he had 6 in his whole career) and he had a failure rate (registering an impact below 1 in a match) of only 33%. More here.

Sachin Tendulkar is the most consistent Mumbai Indians batsman in the history of IPL. He had a failure rate of only 32% (registering an impact below 1 in a match) which is the 4th lowest failure rate amongst all IPL batsman ever. An astonishing achievement for a batsman for whom this format was not meant to be a natural habitat. More here.

Amongst the players during Sachin Tendulkar's generation only Michael Bevan, Matthew Hayden and Virat Kohli have a higher Batting Impact than him in ODIs. None of them crossed 200 batting innings. Tendulkar has 435.

Sachin Tendulkar has produced the most 5+ impact (highest impact possible on our scale) performances by any player in the history of ODI cricket. Sanath Jayasuriya and Jacques Kallis follow him – who are both all-rounders, so this is an even bigger achievement for Tendulkar. More here.

Sachin Tendulkar has the joint-highest number of series/tournament-defining performances by any batsman in the history of ODI cricket. He is tied with Viv Richards with 9. Following him on the list are Ponting with 8 and Jayasuriya with 7. The next highest Indian is Mohammed Azharuddin with 5. More here.

Sachin Tendulkar is not the highest impact Indian batsman in any of the three formats. India's highest impact Test batsman is Rahul Dravid, highest impact ODI batsman is Virat Kohli, highest impact T20 batsman is Suresh Raina. Yet, Sachin Tendulkar is close to the top in all three formats– the only such player – in the world. More here.

In his 95 match ODI career, Saeed Ajmal has already established himself as the highest impact bowler in the history of Pakistani ODI cricket.He is marginally ahead of the likes of Abdul Qadir, Mushtaq Ahmed, Wasim Akram, Saqlain Mushtaq and Waqar Younis. Interestingly, Ajmal still doesn't have a single series-defining performance (SD) in his ODI career.

Rubel Hossain's 6-26 off his 5.5 overs against New Zealand in the 1st ODI at Mirpur was the highest Bowling Impact performance by any Bangladeshi bowler in their history of ODI cricket. The previous best bowling performance was by Aftab Ahmed who took 5-31 against New Zealand at Dhaka in 2004. The most striking part about Rubel's performance was that all his 6 wickets were of either top or middle-order batsmen.

In the first three years of their T20 careers (2008-11), Tendulkar had a 20% better Batting Impact than Dravid which symbolises Tendulkar's brilliant start in this format and Dravid's initial phase of struggle. However, in the last two years, Dravid's adaptability and Tendulkar's lack of form resulted in the former having a Batting Impact almost 17% better than the latter's. (Part 2/2)

When it comes to T20s, Sachin Tendulkar has a slightly higher Batting Impact (about 7% more) than Rahul Dravid. Interestingly, Tendulkar leads in all the batting parameters except for Strike Rate Impact.  Even when it comes to consistency (lower failure rate), Tendulkar is marginally ahead of Dravid. Interestingly, none of them have produced even a single tournament-defining performance in T20s  even though Dravid has a big-match performance (high impact performance in a knockout game) under his belt. (Part 1/2)

Pravin Tambe, the winner of the 'Golden Wicket' award for the most number of wickets was indeed the highest impact bowler of the tournament and was exemplary in all fronts. He had the highest Wickets Tally Impact, second-highest Economy Impact, highest Pressure-Building Impact and was the most consistent bowler in the tournament.

The loss of Brad Hodge should come as a huge blow for the Rajasthan Royals camp, not only is he a proven finisher for them but he is also a proven big-match player in T20s (he is their best big-match player). In the absence of him, only Shane Watson and Kevon Cooper have previously delivered a tournament-defining performance in the T20 format.

For Mumbai Indians to qualify, they will need to beat Perth Scorchers by a huge margin. The only positive part for Mumbai Indians is the fact that they have the highest Strike Rate Impact batting unit in the tournament and that they would be facing the lowest impact team (Perth Scorchers) of this competition in their next encounter.

Lions have the 2nd-highest Batting Impact unit in this tournament and have a decent bowling attack to support them. They have two decent spinners in Aaron Phangiso and Imran Tahir and they could be much more effective on Indian surfaces compared to back home. The form of Quinton de Kock (who is their highest impact batsman) is very crucial for them as he has struggled in sub-continent conditions in the recent past. Chris Morris deciding to play for Chennai Super Kings doesn’t help their cause either.

Interesting that the first Sunday of this year's Champions League had the sides with the highest bowling and batting impact respectively demonstrating their strengths to full effect. First, T&T defended a paltry 135 very convincingly (by 26 runs). Then, CSK, set 186 to win, won with 11 balls to spare. More here.

The highest impact players in the recently concluded ODI series between England and Australia were Shane Watson, Michael Clarke, Jos Buttler, James Faulkner and George Bailey. The highest impact bowler of the series was James Faulkner whereas the highest impact batsman was Michael Clarke. Watson and Clarke went past Buttler as the highest impact players of the series because of their series-defining performances in the 5th and final ODI at Southampton.

The highest impact players in the recently concluded Zimbabwe-Pakistan Test series were Misbah-ul-Haq, Tendai Chatara and Younis Khan even though the Man of the Series was awarded to Younis Khan (who was only the 3rd-highest impact player). Misbah was the highest impact batsman whereas Chatara was the highest impact bowler. Even though the series was drawn 1-1, it is interesting to note that there are as many as 8 Pakistanis amongst the 10 highest impact players of the series and only 2 Zimbabweans (Chatara and Tinashe Panyangara).

In the last one year of ODI cricket, George Bailey and Adam Voges have been Australia's highest and second-highest impact batsman respectively. Bailey, during this time period also emerges as the seventh-highest impact batsman in the world closely followed by Voges (8th highest). Interestingly, Voges has the highest Pressure Impact (absorbed the most amount of pressure) amongst all the batsmen.

Even though Alex Hales went on top of the ICC T20I batting rankings after his knock of 94 against Australia, he is only the 8th-highest impact batsman in T20Is in the last one year (Min. qualification: 10 innings). The top 7 are: Shane Watson, Mahela Jayawardene, Virat Kohli, Mohammad Hafeez, David Warner, Faf du Plessis and Brendon McCullum. Hales is by far the highest impact English batsman in this particular time frame, the next highest impact English batsman is Luke Wright who is at 17th place.

Even though Aaron Finch blasted the highest individual score in T20Is in the first T20I against England (156 off 63 balls), it was still only the fourth-highest impact innings in the history of T20I cricket (against the top 8 Test playing nations).On top of the list is Marlon Samuels' 78 off 56 balls against Sri Lanka in the final of World T20, 2012 followed by Dilshan's 96 off 57 balls against West Indies in the semi-final of World T20, 2009 followed by Richard Levi's whirlwind knock of 117 off 51 balls against New Zealand. Levi's innings was the only one which came while chasing.

The highest impact players at the end of the Caribbean Premier League were Chris Gayle, Shoaib Malik, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels and Chadwick Walton. The highest impact batsman of the tournament was Shoaib Malik followed by Andre Russell whereas the highest impact bowler was Marlon Samuels followed by Krishmar Santokie. The players who provided tournament-defining performances for Jamaica Tallawahs were Chris Gayle, Andre Russell, Chadwick Walton and Kumar Sangakkara.

The highest impact players in the ongoing Caribbean Premier League (so far) are Marlon Samuels, Shoaib Malik and Andre Fletcher. In terms of individual disciplines, Shoaib Malik is the highest impact batsman followed by Andre Fletcher whereas Krishmar Santokie heads the bowling list followed by Marlon Samuels (interestingly).

Kyle Jarvis, the Zimbabwean pace bowler who recently announced his retirement from international cricket at the age of 24 was actually the highest impact bowler for Zimbabwe in ODI cricket in the last 20 months (Qual: 10 matches). In the mentioned time frame, he was also the highest Wickets Tally Impact bowler for Zimbabwe. His highest impact bowling performance came against India in the recently held ODI series between the two countries, where he took 2-18 off his 8 overs in the 5th ODI.

The highest impact players in the recently held T20I series between South Africa and Sri Lanka were- Kumar Sangakkara, JP Duminy, Sachithra Senanayake, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Faf du Plessis (Qualification: 2 matches). The highest impact batsman of the series was Kumar Sangakkara followed by JP Duminy and David Miller whereas Sachithra Senanayake was the highest impact bowler followed by Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Nuwan Kulasekara (Duminy misses out on this count because he bowled in only one innings).

The highest impact players in the recently held bilateral series between Zimbabwe and India were- Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja, Shikhar Dhawan, Elton Chigumbura and Jaydev Unadkat. Shikhar Dhawan was the highest impact batsman followed by Virat Kohli whereas Amit Mishra was the highest impact bowler followed by Jaydev Unadkat. Both Mishra and Unadkat had a 0% failure rate in the series (they performed consistently throughout the series).

Even though Zulfiqar Babar was awarded the man of the series in the recently held T20I series between Pakistan and West Indies, both Kieron Pollard and Mohammad Hafeez had a higher overall impact than him in the series. Pollard and Hafeez were also the the highest impact batsman and the highest impact bowler of the series respectively.

In the recently held bilateral series between Pakistan and West Indies, Misbah-ul-Haq emerged as the highest impact player of the series and got his 2nd series-defining performance (first was against New Zealand in 2010/11) in his ODI career. Following him on the list are Umar Akmal and Junaid Khan at 2nd and 3rd spot respectively. The highest impact West Indian players in the series were Marlon Samuels (5th) followed by Dwayne Bravo (6th).

In his 88 match ODI career, Saeed Ajmal has already established himself as the second-highest impact bowler in the history of Pakistani ODI cricket (after Abdul Qadir).He is marginally ahead of the likes of Mushtaq Ahmed, Wasim Akram, Saqlain Mushtaq and Waqar Younis. Interestingly, Ajmal still doesn't have a single series-defining performance (SD) in his ODI career.

Ravindra Jadeja has been the 5th most consistent player (lowest failure rate) in the last one year in ODI cricket, after Dhoni, Hafeez, Clarke and Trott – company to die for in this context. In his last 20 ODI games, he has failed only thrice, and given 8 maximum impact performances (of Impact 5 or above).

The highest Pressure Impact (ability to absorb pressure) batsmen in the last one year of ODI cricket are AB de Villiers, Misbah-ul-Haq and Kumar Sangakkara.

The highest impact performance by an Indian in the history of ODI cricket was delivered by Yuvraj Singh against England at Indore in 2008. He came into bat with India struggling at 29/3 and blasted 118 runs off 122 balls to propel India to a score of 292 runs before coming back with the ball to destroy the English top-order (Prior, Owais Shah, Pietersen and Flintoff) and eventually finished with figures of 4-28 off his 10 overs. 

Ravindra Jadeja is the 7th-highest impact bowler for India in their ODI history ahead of names like Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan and Kapil Dev.Notably, he has the 5th highest Economy Impact in Indian cricket history, ahead of the likes of Ashwin, Srinath, Shastri, Zaheer Khan and Prasad. In the last one year he has been, bar none, the highest impact bowler in ODI cricket

Shahid Afridi's superhuman display against West Indies in the first ODI was not only the highest impact performance (all-round) of his career but it was interestingly also the highest impact batting and bowling performance (individually) of his career. He came in with Pakistan struggling at 47/5 after 20.1 overs and had a huge Pressure and Strike Rate Impact (76 off 55 balls) before returning with the ball (7-12 off 9 overs) to dismantle the West Indian middle-order. Interestingly, his Batting Impact was higher than his Bowling Impact.

Ravindra Jadeja is the highest Pressure Impact batsman in the history of ODI cricket for India (followed by Virat Kohli, Md Azharuddin, Rahul Dravid, Mohinder Amarnath and Yuvraj Singh) – this means he has absorbed more pressure (of falling wickets) than any Indian batsman in ODI history.In fact, he is right at the top of a list of batsmen who have absorbed the most pressure for any country in ODI cricket history – along with Jeremy Coney and Roger Twose from New Zealand and Michael Bevan from Australia. For more such observations, click here.

Since making his debut, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been India's second-highest impact bowler in ODIs (after Ravindra Jadeja). He also has the highest Economy and Pressure-Building Impact (taking wickets in quick succession) amongst all the Indian bowlers in the same time frame.

In the match between West Indies and Sri Lanka at Trinidad, Angelo Mathews (30 off 27 balls, 4-29 off 8 overs) was the highest impact player of the match even though the Man of the Match award was given to Kumar Sangakkara (90 off 95 balls, 1 catch). Sangakkara's innings had a considerable amount of Pressure Impact (Sri Lanka were 29-3)  but Mathews edges past him due to his high Pressure-Building (taking wickets in quick succession), Economy and Captaincy Impact.

The highest impact bowlers in the ongoing tri-nation series in West Indies are Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Tino Best. Interestingly, Marlon Samuels has the highest Economy Impact amongst all the bowlers.

Interestingly, Amit Mishra is the highest impact Indian player when it comes to ODIs in West Indian conditions. Lasith Malinga and Sunil Narine top the list for Sri Lanka and West Indies respectively. (Min. qualification: 5 matches)

After his unbeaten knock of 174 runs off 159 balls against India at Jamaica, Upul Tharanga went past Asanka Gurusinha as the eighth-highest impact batsman in Sri Lankan ODI history. He is also the fourth-highest impact Sri Lankan opener after Marvan Atapattu, Sanath Jayasuriya and Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Ravindra Jadeja has 3 series/tournament-defining performances in ODIs – that’s one every 23 matches, which is astounding. Dhoni has one in every 27 matches, Tendulkar every 45 matches, Kohli 34. The biggest joke now will be if the jokes on him persist.

Interestingly, Amit Mishra is the highest impact Indian player when it comes to ODIs in West Indian conditions. Lasith Malinga and Sunil Narine top the list for Sri Lanka ans West Indies respectively. (Min. qualification: 5 matches)

Despite some experts rating Pakistan high ostensibly because of their bowling, Pakistan were always likely to struggle as per our impact charts…and they did, as the first team to bow out. As expected, it was primarily their sluggish batting (Low Strike Rate Impact) that let them down. They were pretty much the lowest impact side on every count, and it is not true that they did not play to expectation. They were quite simply a low impact team.

For all those who are comparing the 2011 World Cup winning squad with this one - it is interesting to note that there are 5 players from this 2013 squad who feature on a list of India’s 10 highest impact ODI players of all time (minimum 50 matches). The 2011 team had 3. This, in itself, is very revealing. 2015 will be interesting.

Even without taking big-match performances into account, Ravindra Jadeja and Shikhar Dhawan are the highest impact players in the tournament. Jadeja, in fact just inches past Dhawan as the highest impact player of the tournament and perhaps was the rightful Man-of-the-Tournament.

The player with the highest series-defining performances (SD) for India is MS Dhoni (8 SDs) whereas for Sri Lanka it is Kumar Sangakarra (5 SDs).

When it comes to big match performances, England (7) have more big-match players in their squad compared to that of South Africa's (3). The player(s) with the highest series-defining performances for England is Graeme Swann whereas for South Africa they are Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers.

The three highest Economy Impact bowlers in the Champions Trophy so far are all interestingly from India. Bhuvneshwar Kumar tops the list with Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin occupying the second and the third spot respectively.

In the match between West Indies and South Africa at Cardiff, Marlon Samuels (48 off 38 balls, 1-14 off 2 overs) was the highest impact player of the match even though the Man of the Match award was given to Colin Ingram (73 off 63 balls).

Robin Peterson, Hashim Amla and Dale Steyn are the highest impact South African players in English conditions. Interestingly, AB de Villiers (who is a very high impact player) is the third-lowest impact player in English conditions in this present South African squad (amongst those who have played a minimum of atleast 3 matches in England).

After Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja is the second-highest impact Indian player in English conditions. Following both of them on the charts is Irfan Pathan.

In the match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at Cardiff, Kumar Sangakkara (68 off 87 balls, 1 catch) emerged as the highest impact player of the match even though the Man of the Match award was given to Nathan McCullum (32 off 42 balls, 2-23 off 8 overs). On a pitch that was hard to score on, Sangakkara made almost 50% of Sri Lanka's total and had a substantial Pressure Impact in his innings. His overall Match Impact was almost 30% higher than that of McCullum's.

New Zealand are not as strong as their 2011 World Cup team. Despite the ability to absorb pressure as a group (Pressure Impact) and score at a fair clip (Strike Rate Impact), their huge problem is quite simply their inability to score adequate runs as a unit (Runs Tally Impact).

Australia have the highest impact squad – along with excellent big match experience. They are, by a distance, the highest impact batting team (notwithstanding their practice matches), and very nearly the highest impact bowling team too (with the right attack for these conditions).

Pakistan are not anywhere near as good an ODI side as they are a T20 team, despite some big names in the squad. There is a lot of new talent that is still finding its feet which is why they do not show up high on the Impact scales. Their batting is particularly shaky, and their bowling has not been very impressive in this format as well. Of course, being Pakistan, they will probably be very comfortable with being written off, so that they can confound everyone around them in style. As dark as dark horses can get, this is the perfect tournament format for them.

India are the second highest impact side – they have the best chasing team and also have the most big match experience. Curiously, they have a strong bowling side this time (amongst the strongest in their history for a tournament in England) – which could be their biggest strength. Their impact in English conditions is not amongst the best. Still, purely on cricketing impact, they can be seen as prospective semi-finalists. For more such observations, see here.

According to Impact Index, given how the tournament panned out right till the end, Dinesh Karthik was the player of the tournament. Dwayne Smith – the batsman of the tournament and Harbhajan Singh the bowler of the tournament. They were the main reasons why MI won the title. Both, for consistency and big match performances. For more such observations, see here.

The highest impact players (in descending order) for Rajasthan Royals in this year's IPL (before the start of the 2nd qualifier) are: Shane Watson, Rahul Dravid, James Faulkner, Ajinkya Rahane and Stuart Binny. For Mumbai Indians they are: Dinesh Karthik, Mitchell Johnson, Rohit Sharma, Dwayne Smith and Harbhajan Singh.

The highest Pressure Impact batsmen in this year's tournament (at the end of the Eliminator) are: Biplab Samantray, Darren Sammy, David Hussey, Shaun Marsh and Shikhar Dhawan. It is interesting to note that three out of the five batsmen on this list are from Sunrisers Hyderabad.

In the match between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians at Delhi, Suresh Raina (82 off 42 balls) emerged as the highest impact player of the match even though the Man of the Match award was given to Michael Hussey (86 off 58 balls). Raina had a far superior Strike Rate Impact and had an overall impact almost 10% more than that of Hussey's.

The five highest Chasing Impact batsmen in this year's IPL (before the start of the playoffs) are Shane Watson, David Miller, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane and Sanju Samson. It is interesting to note that three of them are from Rajasthan Royals. Quite clearly, chasing has been their strength in this year's IPL.

The five highest Economy Impact bowlers in this year's IPL (before the start of the playoffs) are Sunil Narine, Shahbaz Nadeem, Dale Steyn, Ravi Rampaul and Mohit Sharma.

In the match between Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Daredevils at Dharamsala, Sandeep Sharma (3-23 off 4 overs) emerged as the highest impact player of the match even though the Man of the Match award was given to David Miller (44 off 24 balls). Miller was in fact the fourth highest impact player of the match after Sandeep Sharma, Adam Gilchrist and Ben Rohrer.

In the match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Pune Warriors at Ranchi, Yusuf Pathan (72 off 44 balls) emerged as the highest impact player of the match even though the Man of the Match award was given to Manish Pandey (66 off 47 balls).Pathan had a substantial Pressure Impact in his innings and had an impact almost 40% more than that of Pandey's.

Picking up wickets has been a huge problem for the Kings XI Punjab bowlers this season and even though he was off-color in some of the matches he played, Azhar Mahmood is actually KXIP's highest impact bowler in the tournament so far. Parvinder Awana follows him on the Wickets Tally Impact list but the rest of the Kings XI Punjab bowlers have been very mediocre in that regard and it has clearly hampered their progress this season.

David Miller from Kings XI Punjab has the highest Strike Rate Impact, Pressure Impact and Chasing Impact amongst all the batsmen in the tournament so far. He is also the highest impact batsman of the tournament followed by Michael Hussey.

Pune Warriors' position at the bottom of the table can be attributed to their poor bowling efforts so far in the tournament. Their death bowling has been horrendous and have leaked far too many runs. It is interesting to note that out of the three worst Economy Impact bowlers of the tournament so far, two are from Pune Warriors- Ashok Dinda and Mitchell Marsh (the other being Ashish Reddy from SRH).

The highest impact batsman of the tournament so far is Michael Hussey and not Chris Gayle. Hussey has been far more consistent than Gayle and most of his knocks have had a high Chasing Impact. In fact, Gayle is not even the highest impact batsman for Royal Challengers Bangalore, Virat Kohli having produced higher impact performances than him and at a better consistency (lower failure rate). More such insights here.

In the match between Pune Warriors and Chennai Super Kings, Aaron Finch emerged as the highest impact player (67 off 45 balls, 1 catch) even though the Man of the Match award was given to Steven Smith (39 not out off 16 balls, 3 catches). Finch had an impact almost 17% higher than that of Smith's and even though the latter played a crucial hand, it seems that the award was given more for the extravagance on display rather than the actual impact it had in the match.

In the match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals, Eoin Morgan was the highest impact player of the match for his knock of 51 runs off 38 balls, Brad Hodge and Kevon Cooper respectively were the second and the third highest impact players of the match. The actual Man of the Match award was however given to Siddharth Trivedi who was overall the fourth highest impact player of the match.

Even though the Man of the Match award was given to Amit Mishra for his figures of 3-19 off 4 overs against Pune Warriors, Thisara Perera was actually the highest impact player of the match for his all-round efforts (30 off 18 balls and 2-29 off 4 overs). Perera's Match Impact was almost 30% higher than that of Mishra's.

Taking into account all the seasons of the IPL so far, Shane Watson emerges as the highest impact performer followed by Suresh Raina. Both of them have one and two series-defining performances (SDs) for their teams respectively.

In the last 5 years of ODI cricket (Min. qualification: 25 innings), Ravindra Jadeja is actually India's highest Pressure Impact batsman ahead of Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh. Astonishingly, eight out of ten highest Batting Impact performances of his career has had a substantial amount of Pressure Impact. So,next time you discount Ravindra Jadeja, better do it at your own peril.

After the first T20I match between South Africa and Pakistan, Mohammad Hafeez displaced Shoaib Malik as the highest impact T20 player across all formats (both domestic and international) in the world. (Min. qualification: 50 matches)

In the IPL 6 Auction, from the highest impact 25 players, 8 were bought (with an average impact of 2.15) for $2.49 million. From the lowest impact 25 players, 9 were bought (with an average impact of 1.19) for $2.75 million. Something is seriously wrong. More here.

Kolkata Knight Riders made a smart decision in the IPL 6 auction to go after Sachithra Senanayake (tipped by Impact Index previously as an outstanding buy) but they did end up paying considerably more than what he is perhaps worth at this stage. However, Sunil Narine, Senanayake and Shakib Al Hasan could be quite a lethal trio on the slow and low tracks of Eden Gardens.

Glenn Maxwell’s eventual price of $1 million (Mumbai) was the most absurd deal in this year's auction. In cricketing circles, Maxwell is rated very highly and considered a bit of a prodigy – but his T20 numbers reveal that he is quite simply an average T20 batsman – not bad with strike rate and chasing, but with a very high failure rate (of 68% as per Impact Index). His good performances in ODI and first-class cricket camouflage his mediocrity in this format of the game.

The worst buys at the IPL 6 auction included Glenn Maxwell (Mumbai), Michael Clarke (Pune), Abhishek Nayar (Pune), Ricky Ponting (Mumbai) and Kane Richardson (Pune). The best included Moises Henriques (Bangalore), Darren Sammy (Hyderabad), Akila Dananjaya (Chennai) and Philip Hughes (Mumbai). More here.

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The semi-finalists at the World T20 were the four highest impact bowling sides (before the tournament started). Perhaps this is proof that bowling is more important than batting in the shortest format of the game. More here.

It is very interesting that the 6 highest impact bowlers in the tournament (min. 3 matches) were Ajantha Mendis, Sunil Narine, Dale Steyn, Steven Finn, Shane Watson and Mitchell Starc. Four fast men in the top 6 in Sri Lankan conditions where spin was the most preferred and lethal weapon till the end. Clearly, there is far more pace talent in the top levels of international cricket today than spin.

For a team considered to have an inadequate bowling attack in this World T20, it is revealing that the highest impact bowling performance (against a Super-8 team) came from an Indian (Harbhajan Singh’s 4-12 against England in the dead group match). And that too someone who just played 2 matches – one of the noticably strange decisions Dhoni took in this tournament. More here.

The 5 highest impact players in the T20 World Cup were (in this order; min. 3 matches) – Mohammad Hafeez, Marlon Samuels, Chris Gayle, Shane Watson and Mahela Jayawardene. Mohammad Hafeez, who performed consistently with bat and ball right through the tournament (including the losing semi against Sri Lanka), should have been Man-of-the-Tournament.Shockingly, Hafeez did not even make ICC’s World T20 XI announced after the tournament. More such insights here.

Yuvraj Singh was India's highest impact bowler in the World T20 that just concluded (min. 3 matches) ahead of Ashwin, Zaheer, Irfan and Balaji. Not a very rosy picture for India's bowling attack. Yuvraj was also the highest impact Indian player in the tournament - definitely a comeback for one of India's greatest limited-overs players. More interesting facts from the World T20 here.

Shane Watson was a very wrong choice for the Man-of-the-Tournament award. His performances came in the group and super-8 stages and he failed with both bat and ball in the first knockout game he played in. Conversely, Mohammad Hafeez performed outstandingly with both bat and ball right through the tournament - including the semi-final against Sri Lanka, and was the highest impact player in the tournament. After him, the highest impact players were Marlon Samuels and Chris Gayle. Watson's choice is a typical example of myopic romantic choices made by the establishment and the media whilst evaluating players. More here.

Marlon Samuels produced the highest impact performance in T20 International history in the World T20 final. His 78 off 56 had everything - he absorbed pressure (at 14 for 2), stabilized the innings, registered a huge strike rate impact near the end and eventually made 57% of his team's runs. It was one of the great T20 innings and it should liberate West Indian T20 cricket from the flawed notions many people have about its unhealthy dependence on Chris Gayle.

Marlon Samuels produced the highest impact performance in T20 International history in the World T20 final. His 78 off 56 had everything - he absorbed pressure (at 14 for 2), stabilized the innings, registered a huge strike rate impact near the end and eventually made 57% of his team's runs. It was one of the great T20 innings and it should liberate West Indian T20 cricket from the flawed notions many people have about its unhealthy dependence on Chris Gayle.

Sri Lanka has relied more on Jayawardene than West Indies has on Gayle. If both fail in the final, West Indies should still prevail as it is a higher impact side overall. And if both succeed, West Indies still has the advantage (because of what a well-set Gayle can do). Sir Lanka's only chance is for Gayle to fail and Jayawardene to succeed yet again - a tall order, given that the law of averages should have caught up with him 2 matches ago. West Indies would have to underachieve considerably to lose this.

Australia v West Indies will be a match about the team that cracks up less, as both have weak spots. But we pick West Indies, given the big match talent, the clear advantage they have in the spin department, and the overall firepower. Chris Gayle may not be as much of a factor as most people think. If he is, then West Indies are almost certain to prevail. More here.

The teams with the highest impact bowling units have seemed the strongest contenders so far in the World T20. Sri Lanka and West Indies have reached the semis primarily because of that, and if this reasoning holds, Australia and Pakistan should be the teams to go through today.

Pakistan, India, West Indies and New Zealand are the favourites to reach the semi-finals at the ongoing World T20 tournament, based on strengths of each team as per Impact Index calculations. Rain-hit matches/outstanding individual performances/ an eccentric pitch can cause upsets/ shocks, but a Pakistan-West Indies final would mean that at least these two teams played to potential. More here.

T20 World Cup: South Africa’s high number of big match players camouflage their underwhelming firepower in the T20 format (despite the likes of Steyn and Amla in their ranks). Strike rate is a big problem as is wicket-taking propensity in this format for this South African side.

T20 World Cup: England (also the number one ICC-ranked side) have the lowest impact squad amongst the main 8 teams.Kevin Pietersen’s debilitating absence is one thing; the complete absence of any big match T20 players (Kieswetter the sole series/tournament-defining player) unwittingly perhaps accounts for early pack-up too.

T20 World Cup: New Zealand have a strong batting line-up, characteristic depth and are the best chasing team in this tournament, which is very interesting.  Their bowling is poor especially in these conditions and although they form a cluster with Sri Lanka and South Africa on the Impact charts, they could be seen as dark horses, provided they don’t bat first too often.

T20 World Cup: Pakistan have the highest impact bowling and batting units, the most number of big match players by a huge margin, the most high impact players and the best bench strength amongst all the nations in the tournament. More here.

T20 World Cup: Contrary to widespread comments in the media that this is a very open tournament, Pakistan are strong favourites to win. They are as likely to win as West Indies were in the 1979 ODI World Cup (and in 1983 too, but we all know what happened there). More here. 

In his 90-match ODI career so far, Kohli has emerged as the second-highest impact batsman for India ever (after Tendulkar). In fact, Kohli’s Chasing IMPACT is the best in the world and is almost 40% better than the next batsman (Martin Crowe).

Hashim Amla is the highest impact batsman for South Africa in their history of ODI cricket (Minimum qualification:50 matches). His Batting IMPACT of 2.47 also makes him the 2nd-highest impact batsman (after Sachin Tendulkar) amongst all the players who are currently active in the international circuit. The feeling of him being an under-rated ODI batsman is definitely not wrong by any means.

Kevin Pietersen is the third-highest impact English batsman of all-time in the ODI format and leads two batting parameters for England, namely- Pressure IMPACT and Partnership Building IMPACT which coupled with his 2 SDs (series-defining performances) as a batsman shows his true value as a champion.

Allan Lamb emerges as the highest impact English batsman in the ODI format despite having just 1 SD (series-defining performance) to his credit. Lamb is phenomenal in almost each and every batting parameter and also has the second-lowest (alongwith Ian Bell) failure rate by an English batsman in its ODI history. To see the entire list, click here.

Andy Flower's importance and contribution to the Zimbabwean cricket scene can be understood from his 2 series-defining performances (SD) – a terrific achievement considering Zimbabwe as a whole has had only 4 SD performances in their ODI history. He also happens to be their highest impact player in the ODI format.

It is Michael Bevan who has absorbed the most pressure in Australian ODI cricket (in fact, the third-highest in ODI cricket history after New Zealanders Twose and Coney) and combined with his 6 series-defining performances – his impact reflects his true place in ODI cricket history, which conventional statistics have never been able to do.

Andrew Symonds’ conventional numbers do not seem quite as stratospheric; it is his 8 SDs that give him such a high impact eventually, which means that he was one of the biggest big match players in Australian ODI cricket history – something not quite attributed to him.

The highest Strike Rate IMPACT batsmen (highest strike rates relative to all the matches in their careers) in the history of New Zealand ODI cricket are Lance Cairns, Richard Hadlee and Brendan McCullum. (Lance Cairns is very significant here – his Strike Rate IMPACT is the 5th highest in the history of ODI cricket, ahead of the likes of Jayasuriya and Kapil Dev.)

Joel Garner and Michael Holding, unsurprisingly head the list of the highest impact West Indian bowlers and the failure rates for both (23 and 26 respectively) show the exceptional level of consistency in their performances. The West Indian dominance in that period can also be gauged by the fact that both of them used to bowl in tandem with the new ball.

Ramnaresh Sarwan being a higher impact batsman than Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul in the ODI format maybe a bit surprising but the same can be attributed to his remarkable consistency (2nd-lowest failure rate), ability to bat under pressure (2nd-highest Pressure IMPACT) and success in chases (2nd-highest Chasing IMPACT) for West Indies.

Tamim Iqbal's tendency to squander the starts he gets as an opener is well brought out by his failure rate of 51% as a batsman. However, he is still Bangladesh’s second highest impact batsman in their ODI history after Shakib Al Hasan.

When it comes to Top/Middle-order Wickets Tally IMPACT (wickets taken from nos. 1-7 in most cases), the highest impact bowlers from India are Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar and Javagal Srinath. Their propensity to take wickets at the top is what made them so effective in their career.

Shakib Al Hasan is the fourth highest impact performer amongst all the players who are currently active in the international circuit, even above the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Sangakkara.

It is interesting to note that Javed Miandad has only 1 series/ tournament-defining performance to his credit in his career – it is one of the most famous ODI moments in Pakistan’s history – and is a great example of how a stirring dramatic moment can form impressions of a player right through a career.

Chaminda Vaas’ popular image of being a highly consistent bowler is well brought out from the fact that he is actually the second most consistent bowler for Sri Lanka in the ODI format (after Muralitharan). His tally of 3 SDs as a bowler is also the highest by any Sri Lankan pacer and proves his legacy in the ODI format.

Even though Mahela Jayawardene has three SDs as a batsman in the ODI format, his failure rate of 54% is one of the worst amongst the high impact Sri Lankan batsmen which is a bit surprising given his image of being a reliable batsman for Sri Lanka in the middle-order.

Out of the 6 individual batting parameters, Marvan Atapattu tops 4 of them for Sri Lanka. Along with his 5 SDs and him being Sri Lanka’s most consistent batsman in their ODI history (lowest failure rate – remarkable for a batsman who began his ODI career with 69 runs in 9 innings), Atapattu can be considered as one of the legends of Sri Lankan ODI cricket.

Sanath Jayasuriya’s 12 SDs as a player confirms his billing of a game-changer in the Sri Lankan team and his tally is also the joint-highest (with Wasim Akram) for any player in the history of ODI cricket.

Besides his role as wicketkeeper and captain, Kumar Sangakkara is Sri Lanka’s fourth-highest impact batsman in their ODI history and his tally of 6 SDs is also the joint-highest (with Adam Gilchrist) in the world for any wicket-keeper batsman.

Although Anil Kumble wasn’t the same force to reckon with in the ODI format as compared to the longer format of the game, he still emerges as India’s highest impact ODI bowler. His 4 SDs as a bowler is also the highest by any Indian bowler and explains his billing as a big match player for India.

Vinod Kambli's batting prowess and his 3 SDs as a batsman (third-highest for an Indian) suggests a batsman of considerable potential but it was his inconsistency as a batsman (56% failure rate) which eventually (unfortunately) got the better of him.

MS Dhoni's tally of 5 SDs is the second highest for a wicket-keeper batsman in the world after Adam Gilchrist and Kumar Sangakarra (both have 6 each).

India’s only Achilles heel when it came to ODIs was their lack of a quality bowling unit, a problem to which they till date haven’t been able to find a solution to. Even though Anil Kumble tops the list as the highest impact Indian bowler, he ranks 30th on the world bowling charts.

Viv Richards is pretty much the Bradman of ODI cricket – unparalleled in his achievements.He is the highest impact batsman in the history of ODI cricket and his tally of 9 SDs (series or tournament-defining performances) is also the fifth highest in ODI cricket. Moreover, West Indies never lost a series under his captaincy and as a result he is also the second-highest impact captain for West Indies after Clive Lloyd.

Out of the 10 highest impact bowlers in the history of ODI cricket, 4 are Australian - it explains their dominance to a great extent. Full Australian list here.

Being under the shadow of Brian Lara camouflaged Carl Hooper’s remarkable impact – his all-round consistency (with a very low failure rate of 29%, given the span of 227 matches), those seemingly innocuous off-breaks, his sharp slip fielding (his Fielding IMPACT is the second-highest amongst West Indians) and reasonably decent Captaincy IMPACT – all adding up to a giant – unsung till now.

McGrath and Lee are the highest impact pace bowlers, Warne the highest impact spinner and Gilchrist the highest impact wicketkeeper-batsman in all of ODI cricket history – an apt reminder of what made Australia the force it has been in recent years. More here.

Richard Hadlee's 16% failure rate denotes the greatest consistency in the history of ODI cricket (for a non-wicketkeeper all-rounder; a wicket-keeper registers an impact for just keeping wickets but Hadlee’s failure rate is even lower than most wicket-keepers, which is awe-inspiring) and is the key reason why he is New Zealand's highest impact ODI player miles ahead of others. More here.

Brett Lee retires as the 2nd-highest impact ODI bowler of all time (after Glenn McGrath). If that is surprising, consider this - he is also the highest impact Australian ODI cricketer of all time. Besides his prodigious wicket-taking ability, both these have happened because of his 8 series/tournament-defining performances.

Martin Snedden, the New Zealand pace bowler, actually has the highest Partnership-breaking IMPACT in the history of ODI cricket ahead of greats like Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne

Mohammad Yousuf has faced pressure the most number of times (for a batsman) in the history of ODI cricket (165 times). He has successfully absorbed it 38% of the time – very good for a batsman who had to continuously guide an inexperienced and a misfiring Pakistani batting line-up throughout his career.

Out of the 10 highest impact batsmen in the history of ODI cricket, 6 are Australian - it explains their dominance to a great extent. Full Australian list here.

Brett Lee emerges as the highest impact Australian player in their ODI cricket history. His 8 series defining performances are primarily responsible. For the full list, see here.

In the last one year, Sachin Tendulkar's Batting IMPACT is 45% less than his Career Batting IMPACT. In the same period, just 4 Indian batsmen have registered a higher impact than him - Kohli, Gambhir, Dhoni and Sharma. Still, the case for him to retire from ODIs is not insubstantial.

The average Batting IMPACT that a batsman has in the first half of the game is 0.88 as compared to 0.74 in the second half. The average Batting IMPACT of specialist batsmen in Test Cricket history is 1.42.

The average Batting IMPACT of specialist batsmen in Test Cricket history is 1.42. Batting IMPACT of batsmen at various positions: No. 1 - 1.53, No. 2 - 1.42,  No. 3 - 1.61, No. 4 - 1.67, No. 5 - 1.50, No. 6 - 1.27 and No. 7 - 1.01.

At the end of IPL 2012, KKR ended up as the second-highest impact side amongst all 9 teams. For the 5th consecutive year, the 2nd-highest impact side became champions. For the 5th consecutive year - so it is perhaps not a coincidence.

Suresh Raina made 73 off 38 balls in the IPL 2012 final. Jacques Kallis made 69 off 49. And yet, both registered exactly the same impact with the bat (5.17). While Raina had a much higher impact for strike rate, Kallis more than made up by absorbing pressure (for coming in at 3-1) and helping significantly in chasing the target of 191 down. A good illustration of how Impact Index works.

CSK has a considerable edge over KKR before the IPL 2012 final, primarily because of the 9 tournament-defining players in their midst (in the likely XI), 6 have produced big performances in the last 2 matches. CSK has also looked a transformed team in the playoffs, which is exactly the same quality that has made it the most successful team in IPL history.

In the second qualifier between CSK and DD, 9 CSK players crossed an IMPACT of 1 in the match (registering an IMPACT of  below 1 qualifies as a failure in this system) - a stunning reminder of how much of a team performance this was despite Murali Vijay's century.

In the qualifier match between CSK and DD, CSK has the edge with a combined Team IMPACT of 1.94 to DD's 1.83. However, DD's Batting and Bowling IMPACT numbers are both higher than CSK's as they have more specialist talent. A big individual performance (esp from Sehwag or Warner) looks like the only thing that can get DD past the finish line in this match. The good news for them is that they're the most likely side in IPL 2012 to produce that.

Dhoni's most memorable performance after the World Cup final still did not make him the highest impact player of the MI vs CSK Eliminator match (after 51 off 20 balls). Not even after accounting for his wicketkeeping and captaincy impact. Dwayne Bravo, with 33 off 14 balls and 2-10 in 3 overs, registered a slightly higher impact than him. Given that MI were just 2 big overs from parity, it was perhaps wrong to deny him the MoM award. Perhaps, given their similar impact and their batting in tandem, it would have been apt to give them the award jointly.

In the first IPL qualifier, Yusuf Pathan made 40 off 21 balls and got the Man-of-the-Match award. However, Jacques Kallis registered considerably more impact than him in the match with 30 off 33 and 2 for 24 in 4 overs - neither of these two performances would have got him attention on its own. As it happens, even doing both together did not get him enough. A classic example of MoM oversight.

RCB v DC on Sunday. JP Duminy walked out to bat at 20-3, took the score to 122 with a 53-ball 74. Dale Steyn helped defend the target of 132 with a 4-over spell of 3-8. Both were outstanding performances - Steyn got the Man-of-the-Match. But Duminy's impact was actually 32% more. Nobody even blinked. Conventional romance had its way.

South African HD Ackerman, whom many of us may have seen giving commentary during the IPL, is actually one of the great T20 batsmen. In fact, he is the fourth highest impact batsman of all time in T20 domestic cricket. He played his last T20 match in 2009.

The batsman with the lowest failure rate in IPL 2012 so far for Rajasthan Royals is Rahul Dravid and the bowler with the lowest failure rate is Brad Hogg. For Mumbai Indians, it is Sachin Tendulkar amongst the batsmen and Lasith Malinga amongst the bowlers. Maybe the teams will play full-strength teams now at least. Even though it is pretty much a dead match.

Kolkata Knight Riders rely on Gambhir (19% of KKR's batting impact in IPL 2012 has come from Gambhir) even more than Royal Challengers Bangalore rely on Gayle (18%). Getting Gambhir out early will be the key for anyone playing against KKR.

While Deccan Chargers is the only team in IPL 2012 which has not had a single moment of Pressure Building IMPACT with the ball (taking successive wickets to put pressure on the opposition), whereas Rajasthan Royals has the most bowlers who have done that. The bowling, even more than the batting, may well be the difference in that match.

In IPL 2012, Chennai Super Kings has absorbed about 50% more pressure than Kings XI Punjab. That could be the key to today's must-win (and pretty much a knockout) match for both sides. CSK should win.

The highest impact player in all of T20 domestic cricket is Shoaib Malik. He has the maximum tournament-defining performances in T20 history - 4, for Sialkot Stallions - the team that will now play in the next Champions League.

Chris Gayle and Gautam Gambhir are the batsmen with the highest Chasing IMPACT (contribution in successful chases by their teams) in IPL history. Gambhir also has a very high Chasing IMPACT in ODIs.

The five highest impact batsmen in IPL history when it comes to Strike Rate IMPACT are Chris Gayle (currently playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore), Virender Sehwag (Delhi Daredevils), Shane Watson (Rajasthan Royals), Yousuf Pathan (Kolkata Knight Riders) and Jesse Ryder (Pune Warriors).

The 5 highest Economy IMPACT bowlers in IPL history are R Ashwin, M Muralitharan, SL Malinga, DL Vettori and DW Steyn.

The highest impact bowling performances in IPL history are by Doug Bollinger (4-13, Mumbai 2010) in a tournament context and Sohail Tanvir (6-14, Jaipur 2008) in a match context.

The highest impact batting performances in IPL history are by Adam Gilchrist (85 off 35, Centurion 2009) in a tournament context and Brendon McCullum (158 off 73, Bangalore 2008) in a match context. More here.

On the list of 10 highest impact batsmen in IPL history, Ambati Rayudu is the biggest suprise. More here.

On the list of 10 highest impact bowlers in IPL history, Harmeet Singh is the biggest suprise. More here.

The highest impact batsmen in T20 domestic matches across the world are Suresh Raina, Michael Hussey, Shoaib Malik, Hylton Ackerman and Daniel Harris. More here.

The highest impact batsmen in T20 Internationals are Kevin Pietersen, Jacques Kallis, Craig Kieswetter, Gautam Gambhir and Kumar Sangakkara. More here.

Chris Gayle and Gautam Gambhir are the batsmen with the highest Chasing IMPACT (contribution in successful chases by their teams) in IPL history. Gambhir also has a very high Chasing IMPACT in ODIs.

The highest impact T20 player (on a domestic T20 career level) in this year's IPL who has been given just one game by his franchise (where his impact was still over 1) - Daniel Harris of Deccan Chargers. He is not injured either; he fielded as a substitute in yesterday's match against Pune Warriors. Why would DC not languish at the bottom with such thinking?

The highest impact batting performance under pressure in the last 4 seasons of IPL came from Robin Uthappa against Mumbai Indians in IPL 2011 when he managed to take his team from 17-4 to 98-7 as Pune Warriors finally managed to reach 118. Mumbai Indians, however, won the game off the last ball of their innings.

The 5 highest impact batsmen in IPL history when it comes to Pressure IMPACT (ability to absorb pressure due to fall of wickets) are Angelo Mathews (currently playing for Pune Warriors), Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai Indians), Suresh Raina (Chennai Super Kings), S Badrinath (Chennai Super Kings) and Shane Watson (Rajasthan Royals).

The 5 highest impact batsmen in the last 4 seasons of IPL are Shaun Marsh (currently playing for Kings XI Punjab), Chris Gayle (Royal Challengers Bangalore), Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai Indians), Shane Watson (Rajasthan Royals) and Suresh Raina (Chennai Super Kings).

Kolkata Knight Riders is a curious IPL side - packed with all-round talent, but not enough high impact specialist bowlers and batsmen. The all-round talent makes them a high impact side but whether that will translate to desirable results without the specialist talent  is to be seen. It will be interesting.

The teams with the strongest batting units in IPL 2012 are Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils. While Chennai star a lot of match winners in their line-up, Delhi Daredevils have the highest Strike Rate IMPACT amongst all the teams. And they have KP - the Viv Richards of T20 cricket.

The most mercurial sides in the IPL 2012 are Chennai Super Kings and Pune Warriors (based on the combined failure rates of their players).

The team with the weakest batting unit (in a selected squad of 15) this IPL is Royal Challengers Bangalore (in a T20 context only), notwithstanding the presence of Chris Gayle, AB deVilliers and Virat Kohli (given their overall T20 batting numbers only). More here.

The most mercurial sides in the IPL 2012 are Chennai Super Kings and Pune Warriors (based on the combined failure rates of their players).

The team with the best bench strength in this IPL is Delhi Daredevils. The worst in this aspect is Kings XI Punjab. More here.

In the just-concluded SL-Eng Test series, despite scoring 128 runs less than Mahela Jayawardene (who was magnificent in both Tests), Kevin Pietersen ended up having up a marginally higher impact with the bat, which may seem inexplicable to those seeing this through conventional cricket statistics. More here.

The team with the best batsmen to chase in this IPL is Kolkata Knight Riders. More here.

The IPL team with the best overseas players is Rajasthan Royals (though they will miss a few of them in the early phase). And with the best Indian players, the team is Chennai Super Kings. More here.

In this IPL, the team unit with the ability to absorb the most pressure while batting is Pune Warriors. They also have the lowest impact amongst all teams before the tournament, so presumably this quality will be called upon a lot. More here.

Chennai Super Kings, as expected, start as favourites in this year's IPL again - they have the highest impact batting and bowling team. Only weakness - high failure rates, so a certain inconsistency is inevitable - catching them on a bad day might be more likely this time than the last 2 seasons. More here.

The 10 batsmen with the highest Strike Rate IMPACT in ODI cricket history are (in this order) Viv Richards, Shahid Afridi, Virender Sehwag, Adam Gilchrist, Lance Cairns, Kapil Dev, Clive Lloyd, Sanath Jayasuriya, Ian Botham and Ricardo Powell.

The Indian batsman to absorb the highest pressure in the 2011 World Cup was Virat Kohli (282 runs at an average of 35). He came under pressure thrice during the tournament and he had a 100% absorption rate – a very promising sign of things to come (which, of course did with great clarity this year). More here.

World Cup 2011 Man-of-the-tournament Yuvraj Singh actually had a higher impact as a bowler than a batsman in the tournament.

Glenn McGrath has registered a Bowling IMPACT of 5 or more in an ODI match 19 times – which is the highest in ODI history. Followed by Lee (18) and Muralitharan (15).

Out of the total number of times batsmen have come under pressure in all of ODI history, only 32% of the time have they managed to successfully absorb that pressure.

Andy Flower is 74th on a list of highest impact players in ODI history (minimum 75 matches) and easily Zimbabwe's highest impact player. And the 62nd highest impact ODI batsman. Interestingly, when it comes to pressure, Flower has absorbed pressure more than all batsmen in ODI cricket except three - Twose, Coney and Bevan.

Chris Cairns was one of the great all-rounders in the ODI game. Interestingly, his batting and bowling impact was almost identical. His most characteristic feature as a batsman was his ability to absorb pressure - he is amongst the top ten batsman in ODI history in terms of how much pressure he absorbed successfully.

A good example of how Impact Index works. We discovered that Mark Boucher's highest impact performance of his ODI career came in a match (Feb 2000 at Johannesburg against England) where he scored just 36 runs - South Africa made just 149 and yet won by 30 runs. Boucher also took 5 catches...and the fact that this was the final of a triangular tournament gave his performance the most weight.

Richard Hadlee is the highest impact bowling all-rounder (highest career Bowling IMPACT with Batting IMPACT of 1 or more) in ODI history while Viv Richards is the highest impact Batting all-rounder (highest career Batting IMPACT with Bowling IMPACT of 1 or more) Amongst current players, Jacques Kallis is the highest impact batting all-rounder while Shakib Al Hasan is the highest impact bowling all-rounder.

Joel Garner has the lowest failure rate amongst bowlers in ODI history, followed by Glen McGrath and Muralitharan.

Shakib Al Hasan is the fifth-highest impact current player playing ODI cricket - after Kallis, Dhoni, Watson and Tendulkar. Yes, he is that much of a giant. What is happening to Bangladesh cricket is not a fluke - they are destined for greater things - and Shakib,who is just 24, will have a lot to do with that.

Shakib Al Hasan is a giant of ODI cricket. Besides being Bangladesh's highest impact bowler AND batsman of all time, he is the 28th highest impact ODI player of all time - ahead of giants like Michael Bevan, Aravinda De Silva, Kumar Sangakkara, Chris Gayle, Shahid Afridi, Yuvraj Singh and Sourav Ganguly.

Md. Yousuf, R Dravid and RT Ponting have faced pressure the maximum number of times in the ODI history. Ponting has absorbed pressure successfully for the highest number of times amongst all ODI batsmen.

Australia's 10 highest impact ODI bowlers in its history (minimum 75 matches), in this order, are Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Geoff Lawson, Craig McDermott, Nathan Bracken, Damien Fleming, Mitchell Johnson, Brad Hogg and Paul Reiffel.

The top 5 batsmen in ODI cricket have 134 IMPACT 5 (highest IMPACT on a scale of 0 to 5) performances between them. The top 5 bowlers have 59. The top 5 batsmen have a failure rate of 42% (failure to even register an IMPACT of 1). The top 5 bowlers have a failure rate of 26%. Bringing out some fundamental differences between batsmen and bowlers.

Tendulkar's fourth highest impact ODI innings is surprisingly against Zimbabwe in 1998 - his glory year. This was perhaps the strongest Zimbabwe side of all time though - Tendulkar made 124 in 92 balls. More here.

Tendulkar's highest impact single Test innings is his celebrated 136 against Pakistan while chasing about double that, which his other 10 team-mates couldn't quite help him with. More here.

Dravid's highest impact T20 innings came in 2009, for RCB against (ironically) RR, when he came out to bat at 17-3 (and absorbed pressure), was 8th-out at 125, for 66 in 48 balls. RR was bowled out for even less than what Dravid made, for 58. So, even as a T20 player, his most special quality (so amply displayed in Test and ODI cricket) - of absorbing pressure successfully, has come to the fore in his most special performances in this format.

Rahul Dravid's highest impact T20 performance under pressure came against Punjab in the first season of IPL when he scored 66 runs in 51 balls to take his team from 15-3 to 124-9. Link to the scorecard here.

On a list of Rahul Dravid's highest impact Test performances under pressure, after the legendary 180 at Kolkata ranks his unbeaten 146 against England just last year. Great till the end.  More here.

Rahul Dravid's two highest impact ODI innings came against West Indies in Toronto in 1999 and against South Africa in Mumbai in 2005.
More here.

An interesting example of how IMPACT works is to look at Dravid's comprehensive match-winning effort in the famous Adelaide Test of 2003. He made 233 in the first innings and 72 not out in the second innings. The first came in a team total of 523 in reply to Australia's 556. The second came after Australia made 196 and India made 233-6 to win. His 72 not out actually registered slightly higher on the IMPACT scale than the 233. The fact that a player could do both in one match is what is awe-inspiring, of course.

No batsman in the history of international cricket has successfully absorbed the most pressure for his team in both Test cricket and ODI cricket. Except one - Rahul Dravid of India.
More here.

4 of Dravid's 5 highest impact Test match performances came abroad - all series-defining performances. At Rawalpindi, Adelaide, Jamaica and Leeds. No one in Test cricket history can claim that. More here.

Rahul Dravid has 8 series defining performances to his credit in his 164-match Test career - the highest for any batsman in the history of Test cricket. This is his greatest legacy.

Australia's 10 highest impact ODI bowlers in its history (minimum 75 matches), in this order, are Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Geoff Lawson, Craig McDermott, Nathan Bracken, Damien Fleming, Mitchell Johnson, Brad Hogg and Paul Reiffel.

Sri Lanka's 10 highest impact ODI bowlers in its history (minimum 75 matches), in this order, are Muttiah Muralitharan, Lasith Malinga, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Kulasekara, Kumar Dharamsena, Upul Chandana, Dilhara Fernando, Nuwan Zoysa, Farveez Maharoof and Ravi Ratnayake.

Sri Lanka's 10 highest impact ODI batsmen in its history (minimum 75 matches), in this order, are Sanath Jayasuriya, Aravinda de Silva, Marvan Atapattu, Kumar Sangakkara, Arjuna Ranatunga, Asanka Gurusinha, Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga and Russel Arnold.

Sri Lanka's 10 highest impact ODI batsmen in its history (minimum 75 matches), in this order, are Sanath Jayasuriya, Aravinda de Silva, Marvan Atapattu, Kumar Sangakkara, Arjuna Ranatunga, Asanka Gurusinha, Mahela Jayawardane, Tillakratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga and Russel Arnold.

Joel Garner has the lowest failure rate amongst bowlers in ODI history, followed by Glenn McGrath and Muttiah Muralitharan.

Glenn McGrath, Ewan Chatfield and Allan Donald are the only ones in ODI cricket history who have a 100% failure rate – in batting.

Phil Simmons is the 11th highest impact West Indian in ODI cricket history (minimum 50 matches) and only the fourth genuine all-rounder, after Viv Richards, Carl Hooper and Chris Gayle.

Michael Atherton is remembered today for being a very fine Test opening batsman. It is surprising therefore to see him on a list of highest impact ODI batsmen for England (he is number 6 - when minimum matches are 50), as he is not known for fireworks in that format, nor does his ODI batting average of 35 suggest that. His Batting IMPACT of 1.86 is very impressive though, notable for the tough runs he made and the partnerships he built in the middle.

Virat Kohli, Md Kaif and Azharuddin have had the highest fielding IMPACT for India in ODI cricket (min matches 50).

At the stage Kohli is in today (77 innings in completed ODIs), Tendulkar's Batting IMPACT was 1.67 (on a scale of 0 to 5). Kohli's is 2.20. Just after Tendulkar's legendary Desert Storm Sharjah innings of 143 (his 178th innings) which was his peak, his Batting IMPACT was 2.23. Kohli has taken far less time to reach what is possibly his peak.

The top 5 all-time ODI bowlers to have highest Economy IMPACT (economical bowling in the context of each match over their careers) are Joel Garner, Shaun Pollock, Curtly Ambrose, Glen McGrath and Michael Holding.

Virat Kohli is India's highest-impact batsman when it comes to chasing a target successfully. He has the lowest failure rate (failure to cross an IMPACT of even 1) amongst all Indian batsmen while chasing in ODIs. More here.

South African RE Levi became the new international cricket star when he scored the fastest century in T20 history, in an international series against New Zealand. Interestingly, he failed in the other two matches of the series - reflecting his overall failure rate of 58% in T20 cricket.

Praveen Kumar was India's best Test bowler in 2011. In 2008, when India won the CB Series, he was the best bowler. Last year, it was considered a big blow when he wasn't available for the World Cup in India (and his performance in England only confirmed that), but inexplicably he has not been played much in this CB series. Just two matches, one of which he failed in. Surely, not playing him, at least a bit more, is a huge waste?

In the recent 4-match ODI series against Pakistan, Cook got 323 runs at an average of 81. Finn got 13 wickets at an average of 10. Cook was the highest impact batsman in 2 matches. Finn was the highest impact bowler in 3 matches. Pietersen joined Cook as a high impact batsman in the series. No one came close to being high impact for England with the ball. Yet, Cook got the Man-of-the-Series award. The traditional cricket blind-spot (batsman, lovely batsman) again. More here.

Chris Cairns is New Zealand's second-highest Impact player in ODI history only behind Richard Hadlee. Both Hadlee and Cairns have been genuine all-rounders for New Zealand (both Batting and Bowling IMPACT of over 1).

Klusener has the highest Strike Rate IMPACT (ability to score fast within the match context) in South Africa's ODI history. He is also the second-highest Impact all-rounder (both Batting and Bowling IMPACT of over 1) in South Africa's ODI history only behind Jacques Kallis.

Ponting is 5th on a list of highest impact ODI batsmen from Australia. More here.

Inzamam-ul-Haq is Pakistan's 3rd highest Impact batsman in their ODI history. The batsmen ahead of him are Saeed Anwar and Javed Miandad, both of whom also have a lower failure rate than Inzamam while batting in ODIs.

Amongst all the players in the history of ODI cricket, Sir Richard Hadlee has the lowest failure rate as an all-rounder (both Batting and Bowling IMPACT over 1) followed by Ian Bothan and Kapil Dev.

The batsman with the lowest failure rate in the history of ODI is Gordon Greenidge of West Indies. He is followed by three Australians on this list - Dean Jones, Geoffrey Marsh and Mathew Hayden.

The top 3 batsmen in the ODI history to have absorbed maximum pressure while batting (Pressure IMPACT) are Roger Twose and Jeremy Coney of New Zealand followed by Michael Bevan of Australia.

Viv Richards has a strike rate of 90.2 in ODI cricket – which puts him 15th on a list of ODI batsmen arranged in descending order of highest strike rates. But, when you consider the context of all the matches he played in (which also factors in the standards of his time), he goes right to the top of the list. In other words, he has the highest Strike Rate IMPACT in the history of ODI cricket.

The all-time 5 highest-impact ODI batsmen who also play the role of wicket-keeper for their teams are Adam Gilchrist, MS Dhoni, Kumar Sangakkara, Alec Stewart and Andy Flower.

When it comes to chasing, Dhoni is indeed amongst the finest ODI Indian batsmen but there are a few others who have an even higher impact than him in that regard. Gambhir is India’s best batsman in a chase followed by (interestingly) Gavaskar (in a small sample size of matches). Dhoni comes 3rd in this regard, followed by Yuvraj, Tendulkar and Azharuddin.

David Hussey's career Bowling IMPACT of 0.98 shows his ability to bowl off-spinners during the middle overs. This, complemented with his career Batting IMPACT of 1.53, suggests a genuine all-rounder flowering at the international level. More here.

Azhar Ali and Saeed Ajmal managed to have an IMPACT of 5 or more twice as Pakistan whitewashed England in the 3-match Test Series. More here.

Angelo Mathews is the only genuine all-rounder (Batting and Bowling IMPACT above 1) in the Lankan lineup. His pressure impact of 0.15 (highest in the team) shows how crucial a cog he has become in the Sri Lankan middle order. His career failure rate of only 38% shows his importance as an all-rounder to his team. More here.

The consensus would go by the fact that Dilshan is a far superior player than Tharanga. However the latter has performed more regularly in his usual laid back attitude and has a batting impact of 1.80 compared to Dilshan’s 1.53 in the last one year. More here.

The highest impact Indian batting performance in a Test match in the last 5 years is by VVS Laxman – 38 and 96 vs South Africa, Durban 2010. Followed closely by 56 and 103 not out, again by Laxman vs Sri Lanka, Colombo 2010. More here.

Laxman’s 59 and 281 is the highest impact batting performance by an Indian in any Test match (vs Australia, Kolkata 2001). Followed by Dravid’s 270 (vs Pakistan, Rawalpindi 2004). More here.

Franchisees spent considerable amount of money to hire services of all-rounder Jadeja and wicketkeeper batsman Parthiv Patel. But high impact all-rounder Dean Elgar and wicketkeeper batsman Adam Crosthwaite (both with a reserve price of just $20,000) were omitted in the final auction list based on recommendations from the teams (read more)

Why the IPL Auctions are built on a flimsy foundation.
More here.

In IPL 2011, 45% of the Man-of-the-Match awards went to the wrong candidates.
More here.

Out of the 25 highest impact T20 players in the world, only 7 played in IPL 2011. Why?
More here.

The highest impact Test match batting performance by an Indian batsman in the 1990s was Azharuddin’s 5 and 163 not out vs South Africa, Kanpur 1996. Followed by S Ramesh who made 60 and 96 vs Pakistan, Delhi 1999. Sadly, the last everyone forgot about because Kumble got 10-74 in the second innings.  More here.

The highest impact Indian Test batsman under Dhoni’s captaincy has been Sachin Tendulkar followed by VVS Laxman. Under Ganguly’s captaincy it was Dravid followed by Tendulkar. More here.

Amongst batsmen who got a chance to affect the series score-line in a series-defining match, Dravid has a 35% record of affecting the series – a stunning record. Followed by Azharuddin (33%) – interesting for a player in an era where India did not win much, especially abroad. More here.

Failure rate (impact below 1 in a match) denotes consistency better than anything else. Gavaskar has the lowest failure rate amongst prominent Indian batsmen in Test cricket, followed by Tendulkar, Dravid and wonder-of-wonders, Sehwag. More here.

The most important legacy of a Test cricketer is how many times he impacts the series score-line directly. Dravid has 8 series-defining performances in his career – amongst the highest in Test history. Tendulkar has 6, Laxman 4, Sehwag 3, Azharuddin 3, Gavaskar 1, Ganguly 1. More here.

Rahul Dravid is India’s highest impact Test batsman of all-time. Followed by Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar. More here.

Adelaide Oval's history suggests that specialist batsmen have the highest Batting IMPACT in the 2nd innings as compared to the 1st, 3rd or 4th innings. Looks like the trend will be broken this time though.

While Ponting and Clarke came in the series with last 2 years' Batting IMPACT of 1.48 and 1.65, their Batting IMPACT in this series at the end of the 3rd Test is 2.84 and 2 respectively. Ponting has also absorbed the maximum pressure (Pressure IMPACT) amongst all batsmen in the series so far.

Sehwag has had a Batting IMPACT of 2.86 at Adelaide Oval in 2 matches, Dravid 2.07 in 3 matches, Laxman 1.96 in 3 and Tendulkar 1.74 in 4. Of all the performances amongst them, Dravid's 233 & 72 not out in 2003 had the highest Batting IMPACT of 7.81 (also a series momentum-changing effort).

Umesh Yadav has provided the highest impact Indian bowling performance in the India-Aus series and Virat Kohli the highest impact batting performance. Any clearer indication that is time for India to blood youth? More details here.

Virat Kohli scored 162 runs at an average of 27 in the first 3 Tests against Australia 2011-12 (when the series was still open). Tendulkar made 249 runs at an average of 42. Yet, Kohli’s Batting IMPACT was 1.45 and Tendulkar’s 1.37. Here’s why.

Ricky Ponting scored 263 runs at an average of 66 in the first 3 Tests against India 2011-12 (when the series was still open). Clarke made 379 runs at an average of 126. Hussey made 253 runs at an average of 84. And yet, their Batting IMPACT numbers in the series were 2.84, 2.00 and 1.84 respectively. Here’s why.

In the history of Test cricket, only 31% bowling performances have had a positive Efficiency IMPACT on the matches played. Efficiency IMPACT measures the efficiency of the bowler to take wickets while giving lesser runs than the match standards.

The average Batting IMPACT that a batsman has in the first half of the game is 0.88 as compared to 0.74 in the second half. The average Batting IMPACT of specialist batsmen in Test Cricket history is 1.42.

The average Batting IMPACT of specialist batsmen in Test Cricket history is 1.42. Batting IMPACT of batsmen at various positions: No. 1 - 1.53, No. 2 - 1.42,  No. 3 - 1.61, No. 4 - 1.67, No. 5 - 1.50, No. 6 - 1.27 and No. 7 - 1.01.

In the last 2 years, Tendulkar has had a batting IMPACT of 2.26, Laxman 2.32, Dravid 1.70 and Sehwag 2.15. All have played over 20 Tests in this period. Will they extend this run or are they batting for the last time together?

This is absolutely the last chance for a Golden Generation to make an impact together. Tendulkar has a Batting IMPACT of 2.64 (2 matches) at Perth, Laxman 2.05 (1) and Dravid 2.21 (1). Encouraging signs?

The average Batting IMPACT of all the wicketkeepers in the history of Test Cricket is 0.97.

The most impact made from a single batting position in the history of Test cricket is no. 4. All number 4s in the last 135 years of Test cricket have had an IMPACT of 1.67.

India's highest impact Test player of 2011 was Praveen Kumar (3.81). Though he just played 6 Tests, his impact has not been properly acknowledged yet.

India's highest impact Test player of the last two years is Zaheer Khan (3.05). More than Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman or Sehwag.

India's highest impact Test batsman of the last two years is VVS Laxman (2.32). Along with Sehwag, he is the only one who has two series-defining performances in this period.

Is the fourth innings of a match the most difficult time for batsmen to face pressure? History suggests so. In the 134 years of Test cricket, batsmen have absorbed pressure 13% of the time in each of the first 3 innings. In the fourth innings, it dramatically falls to 6%.